Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>When a lien goes past the 120 days to foreclose and becomes unenforceable, it still remains as a cloud on the title. Becoming a red flag to future buyers or lenders. What can the owner do to force the lienholder to remove the lien ? What is the time frame requirement for removing a lien?

When a lien goes past the 120 days to foreclose and becomes unenforceable, it still remains as a cloud on the title. Becoming a red flag to future buyers or lenders. What can the owner do to force the lienholder to remove the lien ? What is the time frame requirement for removing a lien?

OregonLien Releases

I have a lien on a property. Owner paid the majority but not all. Still, balance doesn't justify costs of foreclosure so I wont be pursuing it. But lien is still on title although it will be unenforceable I need to know what the owner can do to me and timeframes involved.

1 reply

Dec 20, 2018

That's a great question. I see you've quoted one of our prior articles, but this one may also be helpful: Do you Have to Cancel a Mechanics Lien, or Will It Expire? In Oregon, a property owner can demand the release of a filed lien under § 87.076(4) of the Oregon lien statute. If such a demand is made and the lien is not released within 10 days and is not foreclosed prior to the deadline to foreclose, the lien claimant will be responsible for damages to the party who demanded the lien's release. While the damages in such a situation might not be perilous, where money is still owed on the lien, sending money back out is far less than ideal. Beyond that, potentially, a property owner could try and recover some other form of damages from a lien claimant - via a slander of title action or some other route. Such an action could likely be made at any time moving forward by a property owner. Note, though, that where the filed lien had a valid basis to begin with, a lien claimant might be able to merely release their expired lien without much issue. Regardless, when a lien claimant no longer intends to enforce their lien or leverage it for further payment, the safest way to proceed is typically to release the filed lien.

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