Judgment liens in Nevada

What to file, and where

Recording makes a Nevada judgment a lien on land. Entry alone does not.

A certified transcript of the docket, or an abstract or copy of a judgment of a Nevada district court or the federal court for the District of Nevada, may be recorded with the county recorder under NRS 17.150¹, and once recorded it becomes a lien on the debtor's non-exempt real property in that county. The enforcement must not have been stayed on appeal.

There is a second document, and it rides with the first. Under NRS 17.150, a creditor who records a judgment to create a lien on the debtor's real property has to record an affidavit of judgment at the same time, stating the debtor's name and address.

What it reaches

The lien covers land the debtor has and land the debtor gets later.

Under NRS 17.150, a recorded Nevada judgment is a lien on the debtor's real property in that county that is not exempt from execution, owned at the time or acquired afterward, until the lien expires. The record sits on the county and waits. Property the debtor buys three years on walks into the lien already attached.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

Six years, with a few events that stop or extend the count.

Under NRS 17.150, a Nevada judgment lien continues for 6 years after the date the judgment was docketed, and is continued each time the judgment is renewed, except as NRS 484A.7047 provides and unless one of the events the section lists applies, the first being a stay of enforcement on appeal. Two of those events are worth knowing. One judgment for arrearages in child support runs until it is satisfied. And if enforcement is stayed on appeal by a sufficient undertaking, the lien ceases under NRS 17.150, together with any lien from an attachment levied in the action.

The clock does not run while a creditor is held back. Time during which execution is suspended by appeal, action of the court or the defendant is not counted in computing when the lien expires, under NRS 17.150. So a stay freezes the count rather than burning it.

Renewal is a court filing, and a tight one. Within 90 days before the judgment expires by limitation, a creditor or its successor may renew an unpaid judgment by filing an affidavit with the clerk of the court where the judgment is entered and docketed. NRS 17.214(1)(a)². Filing it renews the judgment to the extent of the amount shown due in the affidavit. NRS 17.214(2). Two deadlines of 3 days follow. The creditor has to send a copy of the affidavit to the debtor's last known address by certified mail, return receipt requested, within 3 days of filing. NRS 17.214(3). And if the judgment is recorded, the affidavit of renewal has to be recorded with the county recorder where the original judgment is filed within 3 days of the clerk filing. NRS 17.214(1)(b). Successive renewals follow the same 90-day window, each filed before the preceding renewal expires. NRS 17.214(4). For the six-year clock in other states, see how long a judgment lien lasts.

Land in another county

Each county is its own filing, and the cure is a second recording.

A certified transcript, abstract or copy of a Nevada judgment may be recorded with the county recorder in any county, and once recorded it becomes a lien on the debtor's non-exempt real property in that county, under NRS 17.150. One judgment recorded in Clark does nothing to a parcel in Washoe until it is recorded in Washoe too.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

Nevada protects a slice of equity by a figure, and a sale clears that figure to the debtor first.

When execution has issued against property claimed as a homestead and the creditor swears before the district judge that the claimant's equity exceeds $605,000, the judge, on notice to the debtor, appoints three appraisers to report the equity and, if it exceeds $605,000, to decide whether the property can be divided so as to leave the exempt part without material injury. NRS 115.050(1)³. If it cannot be divided and the equity exceeds the exemption, the judge orders the whole property sold, $605,000 of the proceeds paid to the defendant and the excess applied to the execution; no bid under $605,000 may be received. NRS 115.050(2).

Death does not undo the protection. When community property declared as a homestead passes on the death of a spouse, the homestead's exemption from execution continues, without further filing, as to any debt existing against the spouses or either of them until the survivor's death, and then as to any debt existing against the survivor at the survivor's death. NRS 115.060(1)(a)⁴. Whether that $605,000 figure is adjusted over time is not something these sections say, and this page will not guess. For the equivalent figure elsewhere, see homestead protection, state by state.

Where the records live

One office does the recording, and one document has to ride with the judgment.

The county recorder is the office. A certified transcript of the docket, or an abstract or copy of a qualifying Nevada or federal judgment, recorded there becomes a lien on the debtor's non-exempt real property in that county, under NRS 17.150. The affidavit of judgment, stating the debtor's name and address, is recorded at the same moment. Two records at one counter, and the lien stands on both.