I've got erroneous encumbrances on my house. Big deal or not?

To take advantage of the current low interest rates, Mrs. Spiff and I took out a home equity loan from our credit union and used the money to pay off the balance of our house mortgage.

The title search company found two “encumbrances” on our property, which are in error. They are two separate civil judgments, one in 2002 and the other in 2009, for about $1,200 and $2,500, respectively. These list me as the Defendant/Debtor. And, apparently, I lost both times – no doubt because I had pro se representation both times! :smack:

Mrs. Spiff, who is a librarian in a law office, did some digging and found online records with a few more details on these civil actions, but not much. But in each of the County’s records, there are errors, such as a misspelling of my last name(!) in one of them, and in the other, it says I live in an incorrect ZIP code. In neither document was a legal description of our property (Lot no., Block no.) or a street address.

The errors are either the result of the County Registrar or the title company (or a little of each, I dunno). And it seems to me that the only thing tying me to these civil judgments is my name, which falls somewhere in the middle of the rare/common continuum.

We told our lender that these encumbrances are a mystery to us, and he said it didn’t affect our loan. I have a stellar credit score (>810), so I don’t think these civil judgments have been tied to my credit rating.

But anyway, should I spend what I think would probably amount to a lot of time and trouble to set the records straight? And how big a deal is this in the long run?

If it matters, I’m 51 years old and don’t plan on buying another house (but maybe a condo in 20 years or so to retire in). Maybe I’ll have one or two more car purchases in my lifetime that will require loans. (Midlife crisis Ferraris ain’t cheap, you know!)

Yes. If something goes wrong and you have to move, you’ll have the added hassle of having to deal with or even pay the liens. Better to do it now then when things may not be a calm.

If you can get the name of the attorney who represented the Plaintiff, write them a letter telling them you believe it’s in error, and ask for all supporting documentation. Then review the documents and find the errors. Then write back and explain the errors and demand the liens be removed.

Do not go through a bank or other creditor who owns the liens - go through their counsel. Even if they refer you to the creditor, too bad - the lawyer had the duty to prosecute the claim property, and has the duty to correct any errors. A creditor will jut put you into the round file until you hire a lawyer of your own.

I wouldn’t let these liens slide - they’re kinda a big deal…

They will cause problems if you try to sell the house. They’ll have to be cleared up in order to clear the title for sale. It can delay or even cancel a closing and could cause a purchaser to back out completely with no fault.

What a pain. I hope you’re able to clear those up without too much headache.

Thanks for the advice. Seems like I’ve got a little work to do.

Sateryn76, both plaintiffs also worked pro se, so there are no opposing attorneys to contact. I don’t suppose it would be wise to call up these two people, would it?

I’d clean them up, too - better now when you can still get ahold of all the documentation than later when it’s all harder to get access to. Would it be worth it to hire a real estate lawyer and get him to clear this up? You can go up to $3700 on the legal fees and still come out even. :slight_smile:

Are you sure these are actually liens on the property?
When we refinanced I had to sign about 90 forms saying I was not the person (very common first and last name) listed in an assortment of judgments dug up by someone.
In those cases the addresses had nothing to do with any address I’d ever lived at (or state I’d ever been to in some cases) and some times the names weren’t even the same as mine.

If you don’t, then when you and your wife pass away (50+ years from now, of course! :slight_smile: ) your kids will be stuck dealing with the mess. By then, the records will have gotten that much more dusty and difficult to locate. The lawyer will be dead and the law firm probably won’t exist anymore. Your kids might get stuck paying them with no option to declaim them, potentially with interest.

Deal with it now, defo. It’s not just about you, it’s about your heirs. Unless, of course, you’re immortal and plan to live there forever. Someone will have to deal with the mess someday.

You definitely want these off. Your banker doesn’t give a rat’s ass because it does not impact him getting paid, and he knows you’re a solid credit borrower. The main issue, as others have noted, is the “what if” re you (or if you pass your wife) needing to sell your house in a timely manner with this BS clouding title.

Some of the time things like this are mechanics leins of various sorts for bills or services that never got paid. Sometimes it’s simply identify theft where someone used your name and address to incur debts.

Either way you should get this fixed. I’m not sure why you don’t think it’s wise to contact the people who sued you without you knowing about it. What’s the risk? You need to find out what’s going on and they should certainly be able to tell you. If they (as you indicate) did this personally, sans attys why would they not speak with the guy who they think might pay them? I don’t see the downside for you. You need information.

Do you have access to the civil case number and the name of the court that rendered the judgment? Civil cases are normally public record, so you should be able to walk right in to the courthouse, city hall, county records bureau, or whatever the custodian of the records is (call the court and ask), and walk out with a copy of the petition, response (if any), and judgement. Then, you can take those to an attorney and ask the attorney to explain what they mean and how to handle them (e.g. get them vacated)

Did you actually get sued twice and think that the matter was handled out of court, or are the cases coming from out of the blue?

Yuck - Only because pro se creditors are usually crazy and/or dumb. As stated above, you can go to the Court with the Cause number or other identifier (call to ask what they need if you don’t have the cause number), and get copies of the Complaint, Default Judgment and any exhibits they may have filed, like a copy of a bill or something to prove the debt.

Then, review it and contact the creditor. I’d start with regular mail, since a paper trail will be a must if things go awry. Maybe they’ll be great, and will acknowledge the error. Maybe they’ll be nuts, and you’ll have to contact an attorney of your own.

Good luck!

I thought that the problem was that someone with a similar name got sued, and lost, then the resulting judgments were registered against the OP’s property instead of the debtor’s property. The OP mentioned something about someone with a similar name.

My advice would be to definitely get this cleared up now while it’s fresh in your mind, unless you’d like to end up paying someone else’s debts, possibly from your estate (causing your kids/heirs to say, “why didn’t they tell me about this before?!”) The debts are not likely to just go away on their own, because those who are actually responsible are not being pursued for the debts while they are registered against you in error.

Thanks for the good luck wishes. I’ll need them. And thanks, all, for the advice.

Mrs. Spiff has the document numbers from her online search, and so she or I will get copies of the judgments from the County office soon.

I’m definitely not looking forward to possibly confronting the “nut” factor. :frowning:

Rest assured, this was completely out of the blue. We’ve done some remodeling about 10 years ago that involved some sub-contractors working under a general contractor we hired, but this seems unrelated. Both plaintiffs were private individuals (no “d.b.a.” even) and so I can’t fathom how these are in any way connected to any work we’ve done on the house.

And besides, nobody has ever notified me that I’ve got these bills to pay. Never been served with a court notice, etc. So, yeah, completely out of the blue.