Maybe you signed a contract to replace the windows in your house right before you got laid off from your job, or perhaps the check you sent for your furnace got delayed in the mail, leading a supplier to think you hadn’t paid them.
The professionals who provide skilled labor and the companies that provide materials for home building, repair and remodeling projects can face unpaid bills. Pennsylvania state law protects these businesses by letting them request a mechanics’ lien against the property where they did work.
A mechanics’ lien can help ensure that a company or professional gets paid because the owner of the property can not conduct any major transactions without first addressing the lien. A lien can also affect the owner’s ability to sell or refinance the property.
What happens when an old lien should have come off your title but didn’t?
The courts can help you remove title blemishes
Sometimes, the companies or professionals that obtain mechanics’ liens against properties go out of business after placing it. Other times, recording errors leave a lien in place even after a company releases it.
If you cannot reach the professional or business that obtained a mechanics’ lien against your property to ask that they remove the lien or if they do not respond to you, then you can go to the civil courts. A quiet title action can clear old blemishes and liens from your property record so that you can refinance your property or list it for sale.
Filing a quiet title action can help you move forward with a transaction by addressing the title issues holding you back.
