I am over 60 years old, living in Los Angeles County . I try to sale my house, and noticed there is a judgment lien in my house, the lien has been over 10 years, and it was from my ex-husband loss a lawsuit, he had bankruptcy to give up all debts. The house is under my name only now. May I request to remove the lien without a lawyer? If yes, what I should to do? Which form need to fill out and where I should to submit the request? Submit to court? or county record? Please help me to understand what I should to do? Thank you so much for your help.
Even though your ex-husband filed for bankruptcy, the debt was discharged but the real property judgment lien does not go away. Therefore, you will need to pay off the lien by settling it in order to record an Acknowledgment of Satisfaction (Full) of Judgment.
In the unlikely event that there is no basis for the judgment lien to encumber your real property, the remedy is to file a lawsuit for quiet title to remove the lien. This is a procedure for which you would definitely need an attorney.
Curtis Lamar Harrington JrTax LawyerLong Beach, CA ·
Original attorney should have avoided the lien.
Filing a motion to avoid the lien is done by:
(1) reopening the bankruptcy case. (motion to re-open the case)
(2) once bankruptcy case reopened making a 522(f) motion
The motion may be opposed by laches.
The motion needs to have impaired an exemption and thus a knowledge of whether or not this is the case should be known by your records and the bankruptcy records.
If you persuade the judge he signs the order you prepared.
Then the case is closed.
The judges order is recorded in the property records.
Just about anything can be done without an attorney except for representation of corporations;
but I would not advise it.
You may have other complicating facts not stated in your description.
Good Luck...
Although there are procedures available in bankruptcy which may permit removal of liens, filing or even completion of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding does not automatically remove liens, and lien removal may or may not even have been available through bankruptcy, depending on additional facts.
However, your question raised another issue. You indicate the lien is over 10 years old. Unless satisfied, released or subject to procedures related to renewal of a judgment, a lien imposed by an abstract of judgment generally "continues until 10 years from the date of entry of the judgment" according to Code of Civil Procedure section 697.310(b).
It is not clear whether the judgment creditor renewed the judgment and followed the procedures to extend the judgment lien.
You should probably consult an attorney regarding this issue as the procedures to research the status of the judgment and remove the lien would go beyond what can be appropriately answered here.
