Liens Not Mine

[Anonymous]

Spouse is set to close on a refinance this week. However, the loan officer called and said there were four liens found. One for unemployment, one for a loan company, one for state taxes, and I forgot what the last one was. Loan officer says all spouse would need to do was write a letter stating not mine and not responsible. I know they are not spouse's debts but we went through the trouble of calling every creditor.

My spouse has a way grown adult child from a previous marriage who has the same name except he is a Junior. In fact, this had happened before but this time there were even more liens to dispute. He wants this to stop and I want this to stop.

Is it possible the closing attorney is going wide and only doing a name search or is Junior using husbands SSN?

[RobertEG]

How were the liens "found"?

Were they found as a result of a public records' search, or by appearance in his CR?

The source of the incorrect information is where I would begin my search for reasons why.....

[Anonymous]

None of this is on his credit reports. Not on Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion. This was found during the title search or the final thing they do before closing. I think the loan officer said it was found during the title search though. This has happened before when we first got our home and it ended up being Junior's. So I was hoping it would not happen again but it did but only more this time.  But I just wondered how does stuff that is not his keep showing up. Do they not search by social security number? I guess we could call the closing attorney.

[Anonymous]

Well, we closed on refinance yesterday. Closing attorney said nothing to worry about since liens are attached to a name but not his social. They accepted the letter we wrote stating not mine and not responsible.

[RobertEG]

Lack of credit reporting may, in and of itself, be an indication that the party who is ostensibly holding a lien my not consider it to be legally binding, or may have reason to question accuracy.   To whom was it supposedly reported?

The rubber will hit the road if and when they report a to a CRA, at which time you will most likely have to file disputes over their accuracy.

I suggest that you get as much info as possible should that becomes necessary.  Did the records search provide you the name of the party that apparently posted the lien, and where it was posted?     You might want to preempt future woes by getting the facts together, even though you have dodged their impact for the present.  They are a sleeping hornet's nest......

[Anonymous]

We got a copy of the information from the attorney who did our closing. We called one of the places again and they say social does not match. They said attorney should have verified the information for accuracy rather than us. I hope there will be no problems in the future. Thanks for help!