Need Pre-approval with tax lien error

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

I am about to go for a pre-approval, but I need some advice on the best way to handle the following.  There is a state tax lien on my report from 8/09 that is reporting as unpaid on all 3 bureaus.  This was an error, and I have the paperwork listing it as satisfied 10/09.  It did not appear on my credit report until a month ago, so I assumed it was vacated.  Long story short, I contacted the state tax authority and now they are correcting their error and vacating the warrant.  They faxed me a paper titled "Notice of Pending Warrant Vacate" which states the warrant is in the process of being vacated.   I was told it can take months for the county clerk to actually update their records.

My myFICO scores are 714 EQ /690 TU, and I am looking at 20% down conventional products, so the score increase from removing this warrant will save me a ton of money.  What is the recommended way to remove this quickly and correctly?  I wanted to fax the notice of vacate that I have to the CRAs, but now I am afraid if they take a long time to update, then that TL will be marked as disputed and therefore disqualify me for a preapproval.  Is this just paranoia by me or should I do something differently?

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Getting the status changed of a public record does not impact the score to my knowledge, only when it happened.  Probably will get better advice in the Understanding FICO® Scoring or General Credit Topics sections on how changing the status of a judgment will change things.

As far as qualifying for a mortgage, if the notice of pending warrant vacate is good enough for the title company you are using then it should be good enough for the lender.

[Anonymous]

Shane, that is true, but this is not a satisfaction of judgement, it is a Vacate, which means it never officially existed and is removed from the records.  Therefore the trade line should be deleted also. 

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Ah I see, I read the satisfied part and assumed you paid it.  I did some searching and found http://www.experian.com/ask-experian/20070905-vacated-judgment-should-be-removed-from-the-credit-rep... which says it should be removed.  As far as the quickest way to do it, I'd actually call up the CRA's and ask them if you sent what you have in would it help, or do they actually need the court records to show updated.  If they need the records to be updated, then I wouldn't bother sending it in.  You may have better luck finding others who have tried to vacate a judgment in the other forums.  In all of my years of reviewing credit reports I cannot recall seeing a dispute remark on a judgment though.