Sell Your House Fast During Judgment Lien

Yes, you can sell a house with a judgment lien in Florida. The lien does not stop a sale, but it has to be paid or released at closing, so a buyer who needs a mortgage often cannot close until it is. A cash sale handles it directly: the title company pays the creditor out of your proceeds and records the satisfaction, and you receive what is left.

How does a judgment become a lien on a house? Winning a lawsuit does not by itself put a lien on your property. Under Florida Statute 55.10, a judgment becomes a lien on real property in a county when the creditor records a certified copy of it there, with the creditor's address or an affidavit giving that address. So a judgment recorded in Broward County attaches to property you own in Broward, not to a house in Palm Beach until it is recorded there too. Your title company finds recorded judgments in the title search, usually under the name of the owner.

How long does it last? The lien runs for an initial 10 years from the date of recording. The creditor can extend it for another 10 years by re-recording a certified copy of the judgment before the first period ends, together with an affidavit giving its current address (55.10(2)). Extensions are capped by the time limits in section 55.081, and the lien ends if the debt is satisfied. If a judgment is old, ask the title company whether the lien was extended before it expired, because a lapsed lien no longer attaches.

Does it matter if the house is your homestead? It can. Florida protects a homestead from forced sale by most judgment creditors, and a judgment lien generally does not attach to property that qualifies. Title companies still ask questions, because a recorded judgment shows up in the search whether or not it can attach. Section 222.01(2) gives a homestead owner a tool for exactly that situation: when you have a contract to sell, you can record a sworn Notice of Homestead in the county. The clerk mails it to the judgment creditor, who then has 45 days to file a declaratory judgment or foreclosure action and record a lis pendens, or the buyer under that contract may take free of the lien. That is a legal step, so use a Florida attorney for it. If the house is not your homestead, the lien is real and gets paid.

How does a cash close pay the lien? Once we agree on a price, the title company orders payoff letters from every creditor with a recorded lien, including your mortgage, any association liens and the judgment creditor. At closing the money goes to the creditors in priority order, which generally follows the order in which the liens were recorded, and the title company records a satisfaction for each. You do not write a check to the creditor yourself. If the proceeds cover everything, you receive the remainder. If they do not, a shortfall has to be settled before the title company will insure, and we tell you that when we read the payoff figures, not at the closing table.

Three things speed it up. Send us the judgment or the case number so we can request the payoff early. Tell us about every other debt on the property, because a judgment is often not the only one. And if a lawsuit is still pending rather than decided, our pending lawsuit page covers selling while a case is open. Debts owed to the government follow different rules; see tax lien.