{"id":357,"date":"2021-03-29T03:37:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T03:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-655153-2137993.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2021-03-29T03:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T03:37:56","slug":"msfire18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/msfiremama.com\/msfire18\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a Property Lien, Post-Purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
We purchased our fifth property in the Oklahoma City market at the end of January. The process took longer than usual as the house had a quiet title <\/a> on it. It required that the owner resolve the issue and involved working through the process in a court.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few weeks ago, we received a notification of taxes owed on the property. This confused us: wasn\u2019t that supposed to be settled at closing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chad reached out to our real estate agent to see if he could help us understand where it might be coming from. It turned out it was some kind of nuisance violation that the previous owner had not resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The City had found the property \u201cunsecured\u201d and issued a notice for the owner to fix a broken window. It was sent out in November 2020. The owner had until Dec. 22, 2020 to remedy it, or a lien would be placed on the property. December 22 was the date that government officials met and decided whether to move forward with liens. For this property,\u00a0 it meant it was declared unsecured and notice of a pending lien was sent out on Dec. 31. The intent of the lien was on public record at this point. However, no dollar value had been assigned to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pending lien meant another deadline was sent to the owner that said if the window wasn\u2019t fixed, the City would hire a contractor to complete the work. The lien on the property would be for the cost, plus interest and fees for the time of government officials to remedy the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In mid-January, a contractor was hired by the City and the window was fixed. The owner was sent the bill\/lien on January 22. We closed on the property on January 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our title search did not bring up this lien. We purchased the property in cash. However, part of the cost for the title company did include title insurance<\/a>. Title insurance usually protects the homebuyer from common title risks that can include conflicting ownership claims, outstanding liens and lawsuits, flawed records or undisclosed easements or other agreements that may limit the usage or value of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Information gathering<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How did we learn about how everything unfolded? We called the number on the nuisance violation and I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with a very nice woman from Oklahoma County Code Enforcement who explained the entire process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n