Lein on house

[Laceydos621]

Question for a friend of mine that is going through this right now and not tech savvy. I have never used a site like this before but here is the situation. Hoping someone can guide us in the right direction.
Husband and wife married almost 40 years. About 10 years ago the husbands son was arrested and had to post a $500,000 bond. It should be noted this is not a mutual child; only the husbands son.
In order to make bail for his son the husband, along with his ex wife and ex father in law all put their houses up to the government; knowing that if he skipped bail there would be a lien placed on their homes.
Sure enough, the son skipped bail. He was eventually arrested and served time but the lien went on each of their houses. The wife refused to sign paperwork to put their house up for his bail. Therefore there is only a lien on half the house. For years it has been on the husbands half only. The government seized property from the ex wife and ex father in law but there is still outstanding debt owed to the government. the property was only seized when they attempted to sell these homes.
It should also be noted the husband was retired and receiving a pension from the city and social security both of which I guess the government could not garnish any money from. So the husband and wife never made any payments. The mortgage on this house is paid off. Again to reiterate the wife never signed any paperwork e ear for her half of the house.
The husband recently passed away. The house was left in the wife's name only making her the only owner.
We really have no idea how to proceed. She needs to get an attorney to see if they can now garnish her wages (she is still employed not collecting any social security or pensions). She is unclear what will happen if she tries to sell - can the government take half of her house? Does she have to repay the government at all seeing as she never signed any documents for this lein and only her deceased husband? Will they send her a notice that she will now be required to make payments? Should she just leave it alone until someone reaches out to her? And most importantly, what kind of attorney should she hire to investigate this issue? Again, no idea how to proceed with any of his. Any answers, suggestions, tips, etc would be so greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Just Blue]

Question for a friend of mine that is going through this right now and not tech savvy. I have never used a site like this before but here is the situation. Hoping someone can guide us in the right direction.
Husband and wife married almost 40 years. About 10 years ago the husbands son was arrested and had to post a $500,000 bond. It should be noted this is not a mutual child; only the husbands son.
In order to make bail for his son the husband, along with his ex wife and ex father in law all put their houses up to the government; knowing that if he skipped bail there would be a lien placed on their homes.
Sure enough, the son skipped bail. He was eventually arrested and served time but the lien went on each of their houses. The wife refused to sign paperwork to put their house up for his bail. Therefore there is only a lien on half the house. For years it has been on the husbands half only. The government seized property from the ex wife and ex father in law but there is still outstanding debt owed to the government. the property was only seized when they attempted to sell these homes.
It should also be noted the husband was retired and receiving a pension from the city and social security both of which I guess the government could not garnish any money from. So the husband and wife never made any payments. The mortgage on this house is paid off. Again to reiterate the wife never signed any paperwork e ear for her half of the house.
The husband recently passed away. The house was left in the wife's name only making her the only owner.
We really have no idea how to proceed. She needs to get an attorney to see if they can now garnish her wages (she is still employed not collecting any social security or pensions). She is unclear what will happen if she tries to sell - can the government take half of her house? Does she have to repay the government at all seeing as she never signed any documents for this lein and only her deceased husband? Will they send her a notice that she will now be required to make payments? Should she just leave it alone until someone reaches out to her? And most importantly, what kind of attorney should she hire to investigate this issue? Again, no idea how to proceed with any of his. Any answers, suggestions, tips, etc would be so greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

Hummm...Didn't you have another thread that was responded to?

 

[Laceydos621]

I did and I accidentally deleted that post! Just had to rewrite everything. Again, really new to this whole "forum" thing and not quite sure how to respond, etc. any help would be greatly appreciated !

 

[Just Blue]

I did and I accidentally deleted that post! Just had to rewrite everything. Again, really new to this whole "forum" thing and not quite sure how to respond, etc. any help would be greatly appreciated !

Kinda hard to accidently delete.

 

[Laceydos621]

I also would like to thank that individual for responding. I was able to read the advice but unable to catch their user name to personally thank them!

 

[Just Blue]

I also would like to thank that individual for responding. I was able to read the advice but unable to catch their user name to personally thank them!

That would, I think, be LdIJ.

 

[Laceydos621]

Realized my first "thread" was actually blank so tried to make my second post the first one (which was blank) and ended up deleting the whole thing. Since you have a lot of comments, any advice for this situation?

 

[Just Blue]

Realized my first "thread" was actually blank so tried to make my second post the first one (which was blank) and ended up deleting the whole thing. Since you have a lot of comments, any advice for this situation?

Nope. I like my posts to stay put and not be accidently removed.

 

[Laceydos621]

To LTlJ - thank you for your orignal response of advising they cannot garnish her wages. That's reassuring and very helpful. I will try to see if I can post this to the real estate section of the forum for further advice on the house. Thanks again !

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The portion of the house must be sold to pay of the judgment unless she inherits it and pays the debt first.

 

[LdiJ]

The portion of the house must be sold to pay of the judgment unless she inherits it and pays the debt first.

What? She has already inherited it. That is not the question. The question is whether or not the lien went with it. She needs a consult with a real estate attorney.

 

[latigo]

Question for a friend of mine that is going through this right now and not tech savvy. I have never used a site like this before but here is the situation. Hoping someone can guide us in the right direction.
Husband and wife married almost 40 years. About 10 years ago the husbands son was arrested and had to post a $500,000 bond. It should be noted this is not a mutual child; only the husbands son.
In order to make bail for his son the husband, along with his ex wife and ex father in law all put their houses up to the government; knowing that if he skipped bail there would be a lien placed on their homes.
Sure enough, the son skipped bail. He was eventually arrested and served time but the lien went on each of their houses. The wife refused to sign paperwork to put their house up for his bail. Therefore there is only a lien on half the house. For years it has been on the husbands half only. The government seized property from the ex wife and ex father in law but there is still outstanding debt owed to the government. the property was only seized when they attempted to sell these homes.
It should also be noted the husband was retired and receiving a pension from the city and social security both of which I guess the government could not garnish any money from. So the husband and wife never made any payments. The mortgage on this house is paid off. Again to reiterate the wife never signed any paperwork e ear for her half of the house.
The husband recently passed away. The house was left in the wife's name only making her the only owner.
We really have no idea how to proceed. She needs to get an attorney to see if they can now garnish her wages (she is still employed not collecting any social security or pensions). She is unclear what will happen if she tries to sell - can the government take half of her house? Does she have to repay the government at all seeing as she never signed any documents for this lein and only her deceased husband? Will they send her a notice that she will now be required to make payments? Should she just leave it alone until someone reaches out to her? And most importantly, what kind of attorney should she hire to investigate this issue? Again, no idea how to proceed with any of his. Any answers, suggestions, tips, etc would be so greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

If you expect anyone that knows anything about bail bonds to believe this yarn, then tell me who came up with the $50,000 fee for the bond; i. e., 10% of its face amount! The now deceased husband, the widow's father or her? Was it all paid up front, or by deferred payments, negotiated below the standard ten percent, or what?

And that $50K fee in addition to the so called encumbered real property as collateral.

Also for your much needed edification if real estate was given as collateral for the bond, it did not await becoming a lien at the time bail was revoked. It would have immediately been recorded. Do you think that the people that run those surety companies are complete idiots and would take the risk of intervening encumbrances being placed against the collateral while they kept theirs in a filing cabinet?

You "story" has more holes in it than Donald Trump's political platform!

 

[Laceydos621]

If you expect anyone that knows anything about bail bonds to believe this yarn, then tell me who came up with the $50,000 fee for the bond; i. e., 10% of its face amount! The now deceased husband, the widow's father or her? Was it all paid up front, or by deferred payments, negotiated below the standard ten percent, or what?

And that $50K fee in addition to the so called encumbered real property as collateral.

Also for your much needed edification if real estate was given as collateral for the bond, it did not await becoming a lien at the time bail was revoked. It would have immediately been recorded. Do you think that the people that run those surety companies are complete idiots and would take the risk of intervening encumbrances being placed against the collateral while they kept theirs in a filing cabinet?

You "story" has more holes in it than Donald Trump's political platform!

As I mentioned earlier I was writing this post to help out a friend. The husband that is now deceased was in his 80S and my friend is older herself; she is simply looking for direction or maybe some guidance in this situation. With that being said, I do not know who posted the 10% of the bail nor do I see the relevance in this at this time. Clearly, someone paid it. Also, regardless of whether the lien was placed before or after his bail there is a lien on half the house as of today. The half that was owned by her husband has the lien. As he is now deceased she does not know how to proceed.

I'm not sure what kind of gain you think I would get by posting their story and seeking advice. Or why it is implied that there are "holes". Again, this is a brief overview of what happened. Nothing that you posted offered any guidance or help as the bottom line is there is a lien on half of the home now, today. Had I simplified the story by saying there is a lien on a house my friend is living in because of an agreement her now deceased husband made, would you have any suggestions on how to proceed or what her responsibility may be now that she is the sole owner?

 

[ShyCat]

I doubt the lien was extinguished by the death of the husband, so it's still there. If the surviving spouse wants to sell the house, the lien would be paid out of the proceeds and she'd get the remaining.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

I will repeat, the lien will stay with the property. Before his estate was settled, the title should have been cleared of the lien by paying it off. It was a debt of the estate. You cannot convey property with a lien on it without paying off the lien. If that meant her selling his half of the property to do so, that is what it required. I suspect the title was JT w/r of survivorship and she has done nothing with the title. Therefore the property still has the lien and continues to get any assigned interest added until the estate is properly settled.