Judgment liens in Alaska

What to file, and where

Recording is the act, and a recording district is the place.

A judgment of an Alaska state court, or of a federal court of record, becomes a lien on the defendant's real property when a certified copy is recorded with the recorder of a recording district. AS 09.30.010¹ adds two conditions before it will do anything: execution may issue on the judgment, and its enforcement has not been stayed. A stayed judgment recorded today creates nothing today.

Note the word district. Alaska does not record by county. It records by recording district, which is the office this whole page turns on.

What it reaches

The defendant's non-exempt land in that district, present and future.

The lien catches the defendant's real property in the recording district that is not exempt from execution. AS 09.30.010 reaches two kinds of land: what the defendant owned when the judgment was recorded, and what the defendant acquires afterward, so long as the acquisition comes before the lien expires. Buy land during the lien's life and the lien is already waiting on it.

Exempt property drops out. The homestead below is the exemption most creditors run into.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

Ten years from entry, with a clock that can also stop sooner.

An Alaska judgment lien lasts while execution may issue on the judgment, but not more than 10 years from the date the judgment was entered. AS 09.30.010 runs that clock from entry, not from recording. So a creditor who records late has already spent some of the ten years waiting.

After the lien expires the court may grant leave for execution to issue again. Recording the judgment together with that order makes it a lien once more, running from the date of the second recording. AS 09.30.010 starts the renewed lien from that new recording. For the general rule across states, see how long a judgment lien lasts.

Land in another county

One recording covers one district and no more.

Under AS 09.30.010, the lien attaches only to the defendant's real property in the recording district where the certified copy was recorded. Record in one district and land in the next is untouched. A creditor who wants a lien on land in two districts records in both.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

A principal residence is exempt up to a stated value, and a sale under execution runs through the court.

An individual may claim a homestead exemption in the individual's interest in Alaska property used as the principal residence of the individual or the individual's dependents, and the value of that exemption may not exceed $54,000. AS 09.38.010(a)² sets both the right and the ceiling. Where property is owned by the entirety or in common and used as a principal residence, each owner claims an exemption in that owner's interest, the aggregate for a single living unit may not exceed $54,000, and each owner's share may not exceed that owner's pro rata portion of $54,000. AS 09.38.010(b) is where the co-owner math lives.

A sale under execution of property that includes a homestead does not bite until the court confirms it. Under AS 09.38.010(c) the court enters the order of confirmation unless, within 60 days after the sale, the individual repurchases the property or the court extends the time on a timely motion. Before confirmation the individual may repurchase by paying into court the costs of the sale plus the lesser of the difference between the highest bid and the exemption amount, or the creditor's claim.

And repurchase closes the door. After the individual repurchases under that subsection, the creditor or the creditor's assignee may not make another levy on the repurchased property to collect what is still unpaid on the judgment. The whole state picture sits in homestead protection, state by state.

Where the records live

The recorder of the recording district, which is the office that starts the lien.

The act that creates the lien is the recording of a certified copy with the recorder of a recording district, under AS 09.30.010. That is the office to ask about, and the recording date is the date to ask for. To place Alaska against the other states, see how a judgment becomes a lien, state by state.