Question:

Hi Cameron, thanks for the quick response. If that is the preliminary step, what is the next one and do you offer it?

Sorry — my earlier question was a bit unclear. After reviewing terminology: I am asking if there are other sources of liens (voluntary, involuntary, judgments, mechanics liens, etc.) that are not covered by the Full Property Lien Report that I purchased. Is the Washington/Clark count auditor the sole recorder of these types of liens? It is necessary to review possible judgments against the owners of the property that have not been filed with the county auditor?

=douglas

Answer: 

Douglas,

Your question was referred to me for response.

Among other information, a property lien report reflects liens recorded against a given property. However, sometimes (depending on the county and the parties’ conduct) judgment(s) against an owner technically represent a lien on the property owned by the debtor, but for various reasons are not properly recorded by the parties (timely or at all) and/or properly indexed by the county. (Keep in mind that data is entered by people so an error in the way a document is indexed translates into an error in the county database). In other cases, liens are statutory. For example, an homeowners association assessment lien for delinquent assessments may exist whether or not a Notice of Lien is recorded by an association, property manager or attorney representing the association. For these reasons, sometimes certain liens (again, depending on the county and the parties involved) are not found until a title closing agent completes the final stages of the title search and issues a title commitment. More rarely, they are not discovered until after closing and in that event, the title insurance policy will generally cover such a defect.

The section in the property lien report entitled “personal liens” is intended to reflect judgment liens against the property owners, but we can cross-reference / double-check that information by also running searches under an owner’s name. The “Individual Profile Report” represents information compiled via searches using a person’s name as opposed to a property address. Since we added the profile by name searches to our services, some of our regular investor clients typically order a combination of property and name reports. We would be happy to run an individual profile report for you as a courtesy. I do not have a copy of the lien report you ordered, but if you want to give me the owner(s) name(s), I will run the search for you.

As you may already know, U.S. Title Records is a title research company . We provide records, information and consulting services to our clients quickly and conveniently. Many of our seasoned real estate investor clients choose to close their own transactions using a combination of our services and their own resources and expertise. However, we always recommend that every buyer choose a certified title company or authorized agent and purchase a title policy to close a transaction after they have made a decision to purchase a given property.

Please let me know if you have additional questions and/or if you would like a courtesy individual profile report on the property owner.

Thank you,

Jeannie B.
Client Services
www.UsTitleRecords.com