How long a judgment lien lasts, and how to renew it

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The same material, read aloud and told more loosely than it is written. Nothing is said in it that this page does not also say.

Lien life against judgment life

Two clocks run here, and they are not the same clock. The judgment's life is how long it can be enforced. The lien's life is how long it holds land, and in several states the lien ends first.

Start with New York, because it shows the trap in miniature. A docketed judgment's priority against transfers of the debtor's real property runs from the time of docketing in the county until ten years after the judgment-roll was filed. CPLR 5203¹ ties the end date to the judgment-roll, not to the county docketing. When a transcript of the docket is filed with the clerk of any other county, that clerk dockets the judgment too, under CPLR 5018². How long the New York judgment itself may be enforced is a separate period this page does not state.

The two clocks pull apart hardest where the lien is the shorter one. Colorado's lien expires six years after entry unless the judgment is revived, while execution may issue for twenty. C.R.S. 13-52-102³ carries both numbers in one section. Indiana and Iowa each give the lien ten years and the judgment twenty. IC 34-55-9-2⁴ and IC 34-11-2-12⁵ set Indiana's pair; Iowa Code 624.23⁶ and Iowa Code 614.1⁷ set Iowa's. Alabama runs the same split, a ten-year lien under Ala. Code 6-9-211⁸ and a judgment that cannot be revived after twenty under Ala. Code 6-9-190⁹.

Elsewhere the lien keeps time by the judgment's own pulse. In Michigan the lien expires five years after recording, and sooner if the judgment expires first. MCL 600.2809¹⁰ says so in two subsections. The District of Columbia lien continues as long as the judgment is in force, and D.C. Code 15-101¹¹ makes a filed money judgment enforceable by execution for twelve years. A Hawaii lien cannot outlast the judgment, which HRS 657-5¹² presumes paid and discharged ten years after a Hawaii state court renders it unless extended. West Virginia's lien lives as long as the judgment is valid and enforceable, under W. Va. Code 38-3-6¹³.

And in a cluster of states the lien ends not on a fixed anniversary but when the judgment goes dormant. Ohio is the clearest: the judgment stops operating as a lien unless an execution, a filed certificate of judgment, a garnishment, or a proceeding in aid of execution occurs within five years. Ohio Rev. Code 2329.07¹⁴ lists them. Nebraska and Wyoming set a five-year dormancy of the same shape, under Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-1515¹⁵ and Wyo. Stat. 1-17-307¹⁶. Georgia's judgment goes dormant and may not be enforced when seven years pass without an execution issued and entered on the general execution docket, under O.C.G.A. 9-12-60¹⁷. Oklahoma's judgment becomes unenforceable after five years without a listed filing, under 12 O.S. 735¹⁸.

Two states sit outside the pattern, and the honest answer is to say so. New Mexico provides that a judgment may be enforced for not more than fourteen years, under NMSA 39-1-6¹⁹, but the statute does not state a separate term for the lien on real estate, and this page states none. For New Jersey the statutes give no term for a judgment's hold on real estate, so none is stated here either. A longer treatment of how each state's lien attaches is in how a judgment becomes a lien across the states.

Renewal by any other name

The filing that keeps a lien alive goes by a different word in almost every state. Renewal, extension, revival, rerecording, an action on the judgment. Group them by what is filed and where, and the map gets smaller.

Some renewals happen in the land records. Florida extends its real property lien ten years by rerecording a certified copy before it expires, with an affidavit of the lienholder's current address, under Fla. Stat. 55.10²⁰, and never past twenty years from entry under Fla. Stat. 55.081²¹. Michigan rerecords a second notice once, at least 120 days before expiry, good for five more years, under MCL 600.2809. Kentucky files a notice of renewal at least 120 days before expiry, once, for up to five years, under KRS 426.720²². Utah records a renewing document in each county where the lien is recorded, under Utah Code 78B-5-202²³.

Some renewals happen in the court file instead. California files an application for renewal under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 683.120²⁴, and records a certified copy to carry the lien under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 683.180²⁵. Maryland files a notice of renewal under Md. Rule 2-625²⁶; Mississippi files a Notice of Renewal of Judgment under Miss. Code 15-1-43²⁷; Oregon files a certificate of extension under ORS 18.182²⁸; Idaho moves for an order renewing judgment under Idaho Code 10-1111²⁹.

And some renewals are court proceedings that revive a judgment already gone dormant. The District of Columbia issues an order of revival under D.C. Code 15-103³⁰. Illinois revives and records a new memorandum under 735 ILCS 5/12-101³¹. Kansas moves for revivor under K.S.A. 60-2404³². Pennsylvania issues a writ of revival under Pa.R.C.P. 3025³³. Texas revives by scire facias or action of debt, not later than the second anniversary of dormancy, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 31.006. Georgia renews or revives within three years from dormancy, under O.C.G.A. 9-12-61³⁴.

New York deserves its own note, because its renewal is neither a rerecording nor a motion. An action on the money judgment may be begun in the year before ten years have passed since first docketing, and that action's judgment is docketed as a renewal judgment whose lien takes effect when the ten years expire, under CPLR 5014³⁵. There is a second New York device that reads like renewal and is not. On motion with notice, a court may keep the lien effective past ten years only for the time the creditor was stayed, or the time needed to finish a sheriff's sale under an execution delivered before the ten years ran, under CPLR 5203. It restores lost days. It does not hand back years nobody was stayed for.

Several of these routes may be used only once. Michigan, Kentucky, Oregon and Maine each allow one renewal, under MCL 600.2809, KRS 426.720, ORS 18.182 and 14 M.R.S. 4651-A³⁶. Virginia allows one additional extension under Va. Code 8.01-251³⁷. California allows one renewal for certain medical and personal-debt judgments under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 683.110³⁸, and a lien for a judgment in favor of the State of Texas or a state agency may be renewed once under Tex. Prop. Code 52.006³⁹. Where the statutes name no renewal route for a state, this page names none in its place.

What lapses silently

Two things catch people after the lien is already theirs: a deadline that falls before the obvious expiry, and a renewal that keeps the judgment alive without keeping the lien. This section lists both. It says nothing about whether anyone tells you when a lien ends.

The deadline often comes early. Michigan and Kentucky want the renewal on file at least 120 days before the lien expires, under MCL 600.2809 and KRS 426.720. North Dakota renews a judgment first docketed before August 1, 2021 within the ninety days before ten years run, under N.D.C.C. 28-20-21⁴⁰. New York's action must begin in the year before the tenth anniversary of first docketing, under CPLR 5014. A late Oregon certificate of extension simply has no effect, under ORS 18.182.

Worse is the renewal that does not reach the lien. In North Carolina an action on the judgment may be brought within ten years, but it does not continue the lien of the original judgment, under N.C. Gen. Stat. 1-47⁴¹. In Arkansas, what tolls or renews the judgment's limitation period does not revive or extend the lien, under Ark. Code 16-65-117⁴². In California a renewal does not extend the lien against a recorded transferee unless the application is served as Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 683.180 requires. Renewing the debt is not the same act as saving the security.

Each county is its own filing. Utah requires the renewing document in every county where the lien stands recorded, under Utah Code 78B-5-202. Oregon extends a lien in another county only by recording there first, under ORS 18.152⁴³. Colorado wants the revived transcript in the same county as the original transcript, under C.R.S. 13-52-102. And Ohio's lien in a second county ceases unless one of the listed acts occurs there, under Ohio Rev. Code 2329.07. A renewal filed in one courthouse does nothing for a lien in the county next door.

A few traps are narrower and worth knowing cold. A Michigan debtor's state or federal insolvency filing does not toll or suspend the lien's clock, under MCL 600.2809. And Florida's lien on personal property is a creature apart from its real property lien: it lapses five years after the certificate is filed, under Fla. Stat. 55.204⁴⁴. One second lien may be filed within six months either side of the lapse, but it is a new lien dated from its own filing. Not a continuation. No third may follow. When the second one lapses, the door is closed.

Time the creditor is stayed does not always count against these clocks, which is the one mercy in the picture. North Carolina, Nevada, Mississippi, Indiana, Kansas and the District of Columbia each exclude stayed time, under N.C. Gen. Stat. 1-234⁴⁵, NRS 17.150⁴⁶, Miss. Code 15-1-47⁴⁷, IC 34-55-9-2, K.S.A. 60-2403⁴⁸ and D.C. Code 15-101. North Carolina's exclusion is not absolute: it does not run against a purchaser, creditor or mortgagee in good faith. Which act starts a priority clock, as against which one ends a lien, is the subject of priority by recording date. Nobody writing this is a lawyer and none of it is advice. Whether to renew a lien, and by which filing, is a question for counsel with your file open. What a page can do is narrower: name the clock, name the filing, and leave the arithmetic to the person holding the judgment.