Lien on property

[Sguard]

What is the name of your state? TX
My Parents have paid off their home in 1996. But falied to have a release of lien done when they made the last payment. Now that my parents are trying to get a equity loan they found out the lien is still on the property. Their are 2 people listed on the lien. After some searching I found one and called them. She told me that the other person on the lien is now dead (her step mom). And that as far as she knows she only had one sister which has also died. But the worst part is that she is saying that her step mom said before she died that my parents still need to pay $12,000. What are we to do? No one has ever tried to collect the money for the past 9 years and my mother says she paid it off. I guess I have two questions.
1) what do we do about her step mom which is dead?
2) What can we do about her saying they still owe $12,000 when my parents say they paid it off?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Sguard

What is the name of your state? TX
My Parents have paid off their home in 1996. But falied to have a release of lien done when they made the last payment. Now that my parents are trying to get a equity loan they found out the lien is still on the property. Their are 2 people listed on the lien. After some searching I found one and called them. She told me that the other person on the lien is now dead (her step mom). And that as far as she knows she only had one sister which has also died. But the worst part is that she is saying that her step mom said before she died that my parents still need to pay $12,000. What are we to do? No one has ever tried to collect the money for the past 9 years and my mother says she paid it off. I guess I have two questions.
1) what do we do about her step mom which is dead?

**A: let her rest in peace.
******
2) What can we do about her saying they still owe $12,000 when my parents say they paid it off?

**A: where is the proof of the $12K payoff?

[Sguard]

well thats why its a problem. All my parents have are some checks (very few) that they did not manage to throw away during the passing years. I love my parents but sometimes they supprise me. By the way to make matters worse the payments were split between the 2 lien holders. It was "owner financed". One would pick up the cash and the other my mother had to send her a check. We did manage to find a sheet that had the scheduled payments which ended in 1996.

[BradleyS]

If they wrote checks, the bank would still have records on microfiche. Expect a fee for each copy.

Hopefully, they wrote checks or have receipts for proof of payment or they are going to have to satisfy the holder on the lien.

I have a million questions, but your best bet is have your parents hire an attorney that is experienced in real estate, estate planning, wills, and probate.

This situation could go a number of different ways depending on contract clauses, proof of payments, recorded docs, wills, or probate.

First I would try to get proof of the payments, then if they won't sign a lien release, get ahold of the "experienced" attorney IMMEDIATELY.

[Sguard]

Thanks you we will go check with the Bank. Although I don't know what we will do about the parts where my mother paid cash. I do plan on getting a attorney but I wanted to make sure I did everything I could do before hand!