Know Your State’s Lien Laws

Know your state’s lien laws by Howard Ain

I teach a class about liens in Ohio and a new article in the Suburban Life newspaper helps underscore one of several problems with liens in Ohio.

The article explains that most liens in Ohio are filed against a name, not against a property, which makes it difficult or impossible to know if the lien affects your property.

In this article the lien is against one of the current owner's names. These can be easily fixed if debtor on the lien is not our owner. We simply have our owner sign an affidavit stating it is not them, and therefore, not attached to their property.

The tougher problem we run into occurs when the lien is against a prior owner, and we cannot track that person down, or we find them and they refuse, to sign this affidavit. We have to assume the lien is against our property and cannot proceed until the lien is dealt with.