Liens: Voluntary vs Involuntary

• A lien is a right to keep possession of property belonging to another person until a debt is discharged

Involuntary Lien

• Imposed against property without the owner's consent.
• Examples include taxes and special assessments.

Voluntary Lien

• A contractual or consensual lien created by the debtor's action.
• Includes a mortgage loan to buy real estate.

Mortgage

• A written instrument that creates a lien on real estate.
• Secures the payment of a specified debt, usually in the form of a bond.

Title Report & Lien Recording

• Lists of liens are found in title reports.
• Liens are recorded in the public record and are available for anyone to view.

General Lien

• Attaches to all personal and real property of a person or firm.
• Examples include judgments, unpaid credit card debt, car loans, income tax liens, writs of attachment, and estate & inheritance tax.

Specific Lien

• Binds only to a specific asset or property.
• Examples: Mortgages, mechanic's liens, real property taxes, and lis pendens.

Lis Pendens

• A legal document filed in the county clerk's office.
• It gives notice of a pending action or proceeding in the courts affecting the title to the property.
• Lawsuit is in process

Mechanic's Lien

• A security interest in the title to property.
• Benefits those who have supplied labor or materials that improve the property.

Tax Lien

• Imposed by law upon a property.
• Secures the payment of taxes.

Judgement Liens

• A judgment is made against the property owner, while the lien is against the property.
• A court issues a judgment when one party owes money to another.
• The debtor is the judgment debtor and the recipient is the judgment creditor.
• Enforced against real property, personal property, or cash assets
• City marshals or sheriffs enforce judgments.
• Judgments must be recorded in the county clerk’s records to be effective.
• A lien takes effect when the judgment is entered into court records.
• Once paid, the lien holder provides a satisfaction of judgment, recorded publicly.
• In New York, judgment liens remain effective if renewed in the 9th year.
• A lien recovers a debt or money owed.

Lien Priority & Bankruptcy

• State and federal liens always take priority over other liens.
• Bankruptcy results in discharge of lien.

Encumbrance

• Any right to or interest in the land interfering with its use or transfer.
• Subjects it to an obligation, and all liens must be resolved before title transfer.

Subordination Agreement

• A legal document that makes one party's claim junior to another's.

Easement

• A right to cross or use someone else’s property for a specific purpose.
• The easement owner does not own the land, but has rights to use it.

Easement for Light and Air

• Negative easement preventing an adjoining landowner from obstructing light or air to the dominant land.

Easement in Gross

• Benefits an individual or legal entity, not a dominant estate.
• Usually covers a large area and can be for utilities, government roadways, or commercial use.

Easement Appurtenant

• Benefits the dominant estate and runs with the land.
• Transfers automatically when the dominant estate is transferred.
• Requires two landowners: one receives a benefit (dominant tenement), and the other bears a burden (servient tenement). Applies to Flag Lots.

Appurtenances

• Something outside the property itself but belongs to the land.
• Adds to its greater enjoyment, such as a right-of-way, barn, or dwelling.

Dominant Tenement

• A parcel of real property that has an easement over another property (servient estate).

Servient Tenement

• A parcel of real property encumbered by an easement of a dominant estate.

Easement by Necessity

• Arises when a parcel has no access to a public way and is landlocked.
• Requires crossing adjacent land and some original intent to provide access.
• Owner of the landlocked property may need to obtain a right of way through court and compensate the other property owner.

Easement by Prescription

• Implied easements granted after hostile, continuous, and open use of property for a statutorily prescribed number of years.
• Similar to adverse possession, without permission, for over 10 years.

Easement by Grant

• Created by expressly transferring the easement in writing, recorded at the property registration office.
• Examples include driveways, walkways, or use of public land for trails.

Easement by Implication

• Not created by express statements but implied by surrounding circumstances.

Easement by Condemnation

• Created by the government or agency exercising eminent domain.
• Compensation is provided to the property owner.

Party Wall

• A wall built along the line separating two properties, partly on each.
• Each owner has the right to use the wall, constituting an easement.

Easement Termination

• Reasons include a written release agreement, same property owner, abandonment, easement no longer relevant, or time limit.

Encroachment

• A building or obstruction that intrudes upon a highway, sidewalk, or another's property.
• Examples include fences, trees, roads, driveways, stoops, roof lines, antennas, bushes, or landscaping.

Property Survey

• A map of the property that discloses boundary lines, easements, encroachments, and improvements.

Appurtenance Rights

• Profit rights, license rights (hunting, coal mining, gas mining, planting, lease), air rights (flying vehicles, building up), subsurface rights (dig the property, bury items in the property, dig for geo-thermal power, dig for minerals), water rights (take water from the property, dig wells, use the source of water)

License

• Permission granted by one party to another as an element of an agreement.

ACRIS

• Automated City Register Information System, used to find easement agreements.

Possessory

• The intent and right to occupy and/or exercise control over a particular plot of land.

Non-Possessory

• A right held by one person to use land in the possession of another, such as an easement.
• Easement doesn't affect possession

Explore the differences between voluntary and involuntary liens. Liens can be imposed without the owner's consent or created through contractual agreement. Learn about mortgages, title reports, and the distinction between general and specific liens.