Before you list: how to find out whether there is a lien on your house

Most liens can be found before you ever list

You can find most liens on your house by searching the county clerk's official public records under your name and the names of prior owners, checking that every loan you have paid off has a recorded release, and confirming your property taxes and HOA dues are current. In Dallas County, the clerk offers a free, non-certified online search of official public records. A title company will run a complete search once a contract is signed, but sellers who look early turn a closing-week surprise into an ordinary payoff.

We at Capital Title see the same handful of liens again and again, and almost none of them are dramatic. They are old loans with missing paperwork, a contractor bill from years ago, a tax installment that slipped. This guide shows you where to look, what you may find and what happens next.

What counts as a lien on a Texas house

A lien is a recorded claim against the property that secures a debt. Until it is paid or released, it stays attached to the house, and a buyer's title policy will not insure over it without a plan to clear it. The Texas Department of Insurance lists the usual suspects in its title insurance FAQ: unpaid contractor or mechanic's liens, unpaid mortgages, judgments, taxes and association charges.

Not every recorded item is a lien. Easements, subdivision restrictions and mineral reservations also appear in the records and in the title commitment, but they are exceptions the buyer takes the property subject to, not debts to be paid off. When you search, focus on documents that secure money: deeds of trust, abstracts of judgment, lien affidavits filed by contractors and tax lien notices.

• Your current mortgage and any home equity loan or line of credit, recorded as deeds of trust
• Older loans that were paid off but never had a release of lien recorded
• Property taxes that are delinquent for any prior year
• HOA assessments the association has the right to secure with a lien
• Mechanic's and materialman's liens filed by contractors or suppliers who say they were not paid
• Abstracts of judgment and federal or state tax liens recorded against an owner's name

Signs your file may need extra work

Some histories make a lien far more likely. If any of these describe your time in the house, plan on looking harder and calling a title company sooner.

None of these means your sale is in trouble. They simply mean the search is more likely to turn something up, and that a phone call to a title company before you list will pay for itself. The sellers whose closings slip are rarely the ones with complicated histories; they are the ones who did not mention them.

• You refinanced one or more times, especially through lenders that later merged or closed
• You had a home equity line that you paid down to zero but never formally closed
• A contractor walked off a remodel or claimed a final payment you disputed
• You inherited the home, or ownership changed through a divorce
• Someone with a similar name to yours has had judgments entered against them
• You fell behind on HOA dues or property taxes at any point

How to search the records yourself

Start with the county clerk. The county clerk's Recording Division records deeds and the releases of lien filed when a mortgage is paid in full, and its website links to an online official public record search. The online copies are non-certified, which is fine for your purpose. Search by your name and any former names, and if you bought within the last several years, by the seller's name too. Look for every deed of trust that names you as borrower and check that each one has a matching release.

Know what you are looking at. A deed of trust names you as the borrower, the lender as beneficiary and a trustee, and it carries a recording number and date. A release of lien usually refers back to that deed of trust by its recording information. If you find a deed of trust from a loan you know you paid off and no document referring back to it, you have probably found one of the most common problems in residential title work.

Then check taxes and dues. Your county tax office can show whether any prior-year taxes are unpaid, and the standard TREC resale contract requires the seller to furnish tax statements or certificates at closing showing no delinquent taxes. Ask your HOA management company for a statement of your account before you list, not after a buyer orders a resale certificate.

Finally, gather your own paper: the closing documents from when you bought, payoff letters from any loan you retired, and the most recent statements on any open loan or line of credit. Those documents are often the fastest way to fix a missing release.

When a search at home is not enough

A homeowner's search is a good first pass, not a substitute for a title examination. Records can be indexed under misspelled names, liens against a prior owner can be easy to miss, and judgments against people with similar names have to be ruled out one by one. That is why a title company examines the full chain, and why the commitment we issue lists every requirement to be met before closing.

If your search turns up something you do not understand, or if you suspect a problem but cannot find it, call a title company before you list. Asking an escrow officer early costs you nothing and can save weeks later. If the issue is a legal dispute, such as a contractor claim you believe is invalid, talk to a real estate attorney; a title company can tell you what it needs to insure, but it cannot represent you.

The mortgage you paid off years ago that still shows up

One of the most common liens I see is not unpaid at all. The loan was paid, often through a refinance, but the release was never recorded with the county. On paper, the old lender still has a claim against your house.

Fixing it usually means contacting the lender, or whatever company acquired its loans, and requesting a recorded release. If you kept the payoff letter or the refinance closing statement, that proof speeds things up considerably. When the original lender no longer exists, the process can take longer, which is exactly why you want to discover it before a buyer's closing date is on the calendar.

The same applies to home equity lines. A line with a zero balance is still an open lien until it is closed and released, and under the standard contract the seller pays for releases of existing liens.

What a title company does with a lien it finds

Finding a lien is the beginning of a routine, not the end of a sale. For a current mortgage or home equity loan, we order a payoff statement and pay the lender directly from the sale proceeds at funding, then make sure the release is recorded. For an old loan with no release, we work with the lender to obtain one. For delinquent taxes or HOA dues, the amounts are paid from proceeds and shown on the settlement statement.

Contractor liens and judgments take more work. Some are paid and released; some turn out to belong to someone else with a similar name and are cleared with an affidavit; and some need a lawyer to resolve. Texas gives homesteads strong protection from most creditors, but a judgment recorded against an owner's name can still appear in the search and must be addressed before we can insure the buyer. If your file has one, your escrow officer will tell you what documentation is needed, and an attorney can advise you on your rights.

Timing is the reason to start early. A routine payoff takes a phone call and a few days. A missing release from a lender that was acquired twice can take weeks of letters. A disputed contractor lien can take longer still. None of these needs to cancel a sale, but each needs to be known before a closing date is set, not after.

Settle these questions before the sign goes in the yard

A clean title is part of pricing and marketing a house, even though it never appears in a listing. If you are working with an agent on your list price, a local listing agent's guide on pricing a home before listing in Preston Hollow or the Park Cities pairs well with this one: one sets the number, the other makes sure nothing in the records eats into it.

If the house came to you through a death in the family, read my guide on selling an inherited house in Texas before you list, because heirship and probate questions are the slowest problems to solve and the most important to start early.

Call before you list, not after the contract

If you plan to sell in Dallas or the Park Cities and want a second set of eyes on your title, call our office at Preston and Lovers and tell your escrow officer what you found or what worries you. Once a contract names Capital Title, we open the file, run the full examination and send you the commitment listing every requirement.

For a full picture of the month between contract and closing, my guide on what the title company is doing for the next 30 days explains the search, the commitment and the other problems that most often delay a sale.

Questions people ask me