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Remove A Lien

Remove A Lien

Are you behind on paying your home or car loan? Did a home contractor or an ex-spouse claim you did not pay your repair or child support bill? Does the IRS claim you haven’t paid your taxes? For these and many other reasons, banks or courts can place a lien on your property, meaning that, if you don’t fight back, the bank, court, or other claimant can seize your property and sell it as collateral for a claim against you. This may be scary, but we at DoNotPay can help you leverage both the law and the interests of the person claiming a lien against you to avoid having your property seized!

What Is a Lien, Anyway?

A lien is a claim against some or all of your property because of a debt that the claimant alleges that you did not pay. The purpose of the lien is to allow the claimant to take whatever property the court deems to be appropriate collateral and to sell it in order to recoup the unpaid claim.

Why Might Someone File a Lien on Your Property?

Liens can be filed for many different reasons, but there are a few very common cases that we’ll cover here:

  1. You’re Behind on Your Loan Payments (Mortgage, Car, etc.)

     If you’re behind on your loan payments, the bank wants to recoup its costs, and if you can’t or won’t make timely payments, that may mean repossessing the car and selling it to someone who will.

  2. You Owe Taxes to the IRS (or at Least the IRS Says You Do)

     If you owe taxes, the IRS may, as a last resort, place a lien on your property to get the taxes you owe. Unfortunately, this kind of lien can’t even be discharged in bankruptcy, and occasionally the IRS puts a lien on your property by mistake.

  3. You Owe Child Support or Alimony

     If you’re behind on your child support or alimony payments, a court may put a lien on your property to make sure that these payments are made. Like a tax lien, this kind of lien isn’t dischargeable if you file bankruptcy.

  4. You Owe Money to a Contractor

     If you had work done at your house or on your car and didn't pay the bill, your repairman or contractor may place a mechanic’s lien on whatever property was repaired in order to get paid.

How can you solve the problem on your own?

The Ways to Fight a Lien

Now that we’ve seen some examples of the kinds of liens you could face and the problems that a lien could cause you, let’s look at some of the ways you can resolve a lien and keep your property safe:

  1. Extended Repayment Period

     Whether you owe taxes to the IRS or are behind on your mortgage payments, one of the most popular options for resolving the debts that lead to a lien on your property is to negotiate a repayment plan that extends the period over which you need to pay back your debts. Since banks and the IRS alike incur significant costs in order to repossess your vehicle, home, or other physical property (and even some costs to take your financial assets), it’s in their interests to agree to a reasonable extension of the period over which you have to pay back your debts.

  2. Negotiate a Debt Reduction

     Negotiating a reduction in the amount you owe, like negotiating an extended repayment period, can be an attractive option to allow you to pay back the debts that resulted in your lien in the first place. Also like an extended time period, a negotiated debt reduction is often attractive to creditors, as it can be less expensive than repossession and resale.

  3. Contesting the Lien

     What happens if the lien is based on coercion, duress, fraud, or other conditions that make it invalid in the first place? In that case, you can contest the lien in court; this process is expensive and time consuming, but if you’re wrongly targeted by a lien, it may be the best option to save you an even more expensive lien resolution and to get justice.

How Can DoNotPay Help?

DoNotPay can amass relevant information to your lien situation and send a letter to the creditor that placed a lien on your property requesting a renegotiation of the terms of your debt based on your needs. In addition, we can fill out a Release of Lien form and send it to your creditor to sign, allowing you to get the lien off your record and out of mind once you renegotiate your debt. That way, you can move past your lien and secure your property!

It Just Takes 3 Easy Steps

  1. Search for remove my lien on DoNotPay.

2. Start our Remove My Lien product.

3. Answer some questions about your specific lien and let us help you craft a letter to your creditor to resolve the issue.

And that’s it!

DoNotPay will write a letter to the creditor who placed the lien on your property, and you should hear back from that creditor within two weeks!