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Maintaining Judgment Priority

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Bob Bernstein

Under Pennsylvania law, a judgment entered against a  debtor creates a judgment lien against any real property that your debtor owns in the county where the judgment was entered. This occurs by operation of law the moment the judgment is indexed.  This is a valuable tool for creditors because now the debtor cannot sell or refinance that piece of real property without addressing your judgment.

However, this does not mean that all a creditor must do is sit back and wait for a sale or refinance by the debtor.  As with all things collection related, it is important to be proactive.  As a judgment creditor in Pennsylvania, you should continue to monitor the judgment because it must be revived prior to the passage of five (5) years from the date it was entered in order to maintain it’s priority.  Additionally, you should keep an eye on any after acquired property by the debtor to which your lien will attach, as well as, any property acquired in other counties.  In order to place a judgment lien on property in a county outside that county where the judgment was entered, a judgment creditor must index the judgment in the other county.

Revival of a judgment is done by writ. Under applicable rules, the debtor is served with the writ and may respond in the same fashion as an answer and new matter. If another entity or person has obtained title to the real property without the judgment lien being resolved, the writ of revival can be served upon them.  Typically, if the writ is timely and procedurally correct there is no defense afforded the judgment debtor and you have maintained your judgment’s priority.

Maintaining judgment priority is a useful collection tip as it will prevent those creditors who arrive later in time to get ahead of you in line.

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One thought on “Maintaining Judgment Priority”

  1. Bob Bernstein says:
    March 18, 2012 at 8:17 am

    Shawn – agree completely. Great topic. This leads to some more thoughts about proactivity on judgments:

    -The revival of a lien against purchasers puts the judgment lien in their chain of title, making it show up when THEY refinance or sell;
    -You should talk about some of the times we’ve issued enforcement process against an asset that has little or “equity” but is still important to the debtor. That old story of “you can’t do anything to my (property) because you’ll have to pay off all the prior liens,” just isn’t true;
    A judgment just “sitting there” may hurt the debtor on sale or refi, but it is not producing any money NOW, so taking action may be what’s needed.

    Bet your other readers have some thoughts, to share. Maybe they will respond. 🙂

    Reply

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