Judgment liens in Arizona

What to file, and where

An Arizona judgment becomes a lien by recording, and the recording has a second part most people miss.

Recording in substantial compliance with section 33-961 and with the information statement requirements of section 33-967 makes a judgment a lien on the debtor's real property. A.R.S. 33-961¹ ties the two together. Fail to substantially comply with both, and the judgment does not become a lien at all.

Watch the information statement, because that is the part that catches creditors. Recorded on or after January 1, 1997, a money judgment, decree or renewal does not become a lien until a separate information statement is attached to the judgment being recorded. A.R.S. 33-967² is where that requirement lives. Record the judgment without it and the lien does not spring into being on the recording date.

There is a repair, and it dates from when it is used rather than from when the judgment went down. Recorded after that date without the statement, a money judgment does not become a lien until the creditor records a document titled "amendment to recorded judgment" carrying a compliant statement. A.R.S. 33-967 spells out the fix and its name. Arizona itself skips the whole step: a civil judgment in favor of the state needs no information statement and becomes a lien when it is recorded in the county recorder's office, under A.R.S. 33-961.

What it reaches

The debtor's land in the county of recording is what a recorded Arizona judgment reaches, now and later, with one estate that the legislature has moved twice.

Except for the two exceptions in A.R.S. 33-729 and 33-730, a recorded judgment is a lien on all real property of the debtor in the county where it is recorded, whether the debtor owns it then or acquires it later. A.R.S. 33-964³ states the reach. That after-acquired clause means a lien can wait for land the debtor does not yet own.

Homestead is where the date of the transaction decides everything. For a sale, transfer or refinance completed before January 1, 2022, a judgment lien did not attach to homestead property at all, under A.R.S. 33-964(G). For one completed on or after January 1, 2022, judgments recorded before that date and still valid attach to the homestead and stay enforceable, creating liens as A.R.S. 33-964 prescribes. The same lien that bounced off a 2021 sale can hold on a 2022 one.

When the homestead is sold or refinanced, the order of payment is fixed by statute. On a sale, the creditor is paid after the homestead exemption amount under A.R.S. 33-1101⁴ goes to the debtor and after any liens with priority over the judgment are paid, as A.R.S. 33-964 provides. On a refinance that produces cash to the debtor, A.R.S. 33-964 flips the order: the creditor is paid in full from those proceeds before the debtor or anyone else receives any, and money spent on the direct costs of the refinance or on higher-priority liens is not cash proceeds.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

An ordinary Arizona lien runs ten years, and the renewal that keeps a judgment alive is a filing with a narrow window, not an order a judge signs.

From the time of recording, and subject again to A.R.S. 33-729 and 33-730, a judgment becomes a lien for ten years after the date it is given. A.R.S. 33-964 sets the clock. Recording an amendment to recorded judgment does not move that computation, under A.R.S. 33-967, so the fix for a missing information statement buys a lien but not more time. Two liens never expire on that schedule: a civil judgment lien obtained by the state and a judgment lien for support as defined in A.R.S. 25-500 remain in effect until satisfied or lifted, under A.R.S. 33-964.

The judgment behind the lien is renewed by an affidavit, not a hearing. Within the 90 days preceding the expiration of ten years from the date the judgment was entered, a creditor, or a personal representative or assignee, may make and file a renewal affidavit, under A.R.S. 12-1612(B)⁵. Filing it in the clerk's office where the judgment is entered and docketed renews and revives the judgment to the balance shown due, and A.R.S. 12-1612(D) says in plain words that no court order or other judicial action is needed. Additional and successive renewals follow the same rhythm: each one may be filed within 90 days of the expiration of ten years from the prior affidavit, under A.R.S. 12-1612(E).

Check the affidavit cutoff first. Entered on or before August 2, 2013, a judgment may not be renewed by affidavit unless it was already renewed on or before August 2, 2018, under A.R.S. 12-1612(A). And enforcement has its own ten-year wall: no execution or other process may issue more than ten years after entry unless, within that decade, the judgment is renewed by affidavit or process under A.R.S. 12-1612 or an action is brought on it, under A.R.S. 12-1551(B)⁶. Like the judgment, a renewal that requires payment of money must carry an information statement under A.R.S. 33-961.

Land in another county

A judgment liens only the county where it is recorded, so land elsewhere needs its own filing.

A certified copy of the judgment may be recorded in the county recorder's office of each county where the creditor wants the judgment to become a lien on the debtor's real property, under A.R.S. 33-961. Across county lines the lien does not follow the debtor on its own. One recording per county, and the information statement rides along with each one.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

Arizona protects a chunk of the home from attachment, execution and forced sale, and the number written in the statute is no longer the number that applies.

Any person eighteen or older who resides in Arizona may hold as a homestead, exempt from attachment and from execution and forced sale, up to $400,000 in value of a home they live in: an interest in real property with a dwelling house, a condominium or cooperative, a mobile home, or a mobile home plus its land, under A.R.S. 33-1101. That figure is the base, not the current ceiling. Beginning January 1, 2024 and every January 1 after, a cost-of-living adjustment runs every year, under A.R.S. 33-1101, so the $400,000 printed in the section is not necessarily the number that applies now. For how the home fares against a lien elsewhere, see homestead protection state by state.

Where the records live

Arizona judgment liens are a county recorder matter, and the renewal that keeps them alive is a court clerk matter.

The lien is created at the county recorder's office, where the judgment is recorded in substantial compliance with both A.R.S. 33-961 and the information statement of A.R.S. 33-967. That is where a title search finds it. State judgments lien there too, without the statement, under A.R.S. 33-961.

Renewal of the underlying judgment is a different office. An affidavit is filed with the clerk of the court where the judgment is entered and docketed, under A.R.S. 12-1612(D). So a complete picture requires reading two files that do not sit together: the recorder's for the lien, the clerk's for the renewal. For how other states set the clock, see how long a judgment lien lasts, and for the fifty-state map, how a judgment becomes a lien.

What this page does not do is tell you whether a given Arizona lien is good, when a particular ten years runs out, or how the two exceptions in A.R.S. 33-729 and 33-730 bear on a file. Those are questions for counsel with the record open. What a page can do is narrower: it can tell you which office stamped which document, and which date to ask about.