What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado
In 2009 my grandfather passed away willing me his estate. After a long probate process the land and home became mine in March of 2011. At that time I was aware of 2 liens placed by the city for a total of $750. The lien was placed on the property by the "City and County of Denver Community and Development"
It is only now that the house is in the middle of closing that I find there is over $8,000 worth of liens against the property. In the spring of 2008 the city placed 4 liens each worth $999.00 After no response, the liens were sent over to "Machol & Johannes" law firm. To my knowledge no action has been taken from the lawyers to collect this amount. I was never notified of any liens when I took position of the property.
What I want to know is, can a law firm just sit on a case for so long that the statue of limitations runs out? Is there a statue of limitations on liens of this nature? Seeing as the lawyer never made any known attempt to find out the rightful owner and collect in a timely fashion, is there any action I have against the firm so they remove the interest and fees?
The paperwork that was sent to me by the city is unclear exactly what the liens were for. It just says that they are placing a lien on the property. They will be paid off soon as the house is up for sale and going through the actual closing at this time. My only hope would have been that the lawyers that have been sitting on it for so long could be penalized. My own thought process tells me that the lawyers were holding the liens only to rack up the bill. But I'm sure there could be another reason they did not seek legal action once they were handed the case. Thanks for the advice
You write that at the time the property was distributed to you in March 2011 you were aware of 2 liens placed by the “City and County of Denver Community and Development" totally $750.
Now that you have a buyer and are in the process of closing you suddenly discover that in early 2008 the “city” placed 4 liens of $999 each. And that current balance of all outstanding comes to $8000.
Since all of the liens mentioned predate your inheritance, I don’t suppose it is important to know why in March 2011 you were aware of only 2 of the 6 liens. Nor do I understand why you wrote:
I was never notified of any liens when I took position of the property.
But let’s talk about the last 4 of $999 each where you write:
In the spring of 2008 the city placed 4 liens each worth $999.00 After no response, the liens were sent over to "Machol & Johannes" law firm. To my knowledge no action has been taken from the lawyers to collect this amount.
Again I don’t see any significance to it, but what consequence do you place in,
"the liens were sent over to Machol & Johannes law firm”. For what purpose were the liens “sent over” and how do you know?
In other words, you are claiming that you have been damaged because the law firm failed to take timely action in collecting those lien balances. Apparently at a time when the principal and accrued would have been less than the present amount owed.
So my question to you is, assuming for the sake of discussion that you would have a legitimate cause of action against the law firm, what proof do you have that the attorneys were under continuing instructions to proceed to enforce those liens on behalf of the lien holders.
Also, have you given any consideration to the consequences that would have resulted had the lien holder(s) elected to foreclose those liens?
I’ll tell you what those consequences would have been.
The property would have been notice up for sale by the sheriff at a public auction. The only bidders showing up would be the vultures who scan those sheriff notices every day looking for property to steal. And it would have sold for dimes rather than dollars.
And it just might be that the City opted not to put your aging grandpa out on the street and was content to wait until you came along and decided to sell it.
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Now getting back to the underhanded lawyers. Remember that I specifically qualified my hypothetical by saying
if you did have a cause of action against the law firm.
But you do not have any grounds upon which to base a cause of action against them or their lien holding clients. In the first place there was no attorney client relationship.
Secondly, to say that you could sue the city’s attorney for not timely enforcing their client's claims is a ludicrous as saying you could sue the city for the same thing.
Or that a debtor would have a counterclaim against his or her creditor because the creditor sat on the account receivable allowing interest to accumulate.
Be thankful for lands’ sake. A free bird’s nest has dropped in your lap. But you only get to keep as much of it as grandpa actually owned.
