Judgment liens in New Hampshire

What to file, and where

New Hampshire runs the creditor's security through two documents left at one office, and the office is the county register of deeds.

Property liable to be taken in execution may be attached and held as security for the judgment the plaintiff may recover, and it may be attached after the entry of judgment as well as before. See RSA 511:1¹. So the first thing a creditor holds is an attachment, not a lien that sprang from the judgment itself.

Real estate is attached by leaving an attested copy of the writ and of the return of the attachment at the office or dwelling house of the register of deeds of the county where the land sits, under RSA 511:3². Physical and local: a copy, left, in the right county.

Taking the land itself is a levy, and the levy is a small procession. Three appraisers are appointed, one by the creditor, one by the debtor and one by the officer, disinterested and resident in the county, sworn to appraise what is shown to them as the debtor's, under RSA 529:2³. They set off to the creditor, by metes and bounds or other distinct description, enough of the appraised real estate to pay the execution and the costs of levying, under RSA 529:7⁴. Then the officer delivers seizin and makes a full return, and causes the execution and return to be recorded at length in the registry of deeds and returned to the clerk of the court, under RSA 529:12⁵.

What decides who else the levy binds is the recording date, and the rule is itself subject to RSA 529:29⁶. All the debtor's interest passes against every person if the levy is recorded on or before the return day of the execution; otherwise it passes only against the debtor and the debtor's heirs until the record is made, under RSA 529:13⁷. And where no attachment already stood in the action, a levy acquires no lien against later purchasers or attaching creditors without notice until the officer leaves an attested copy of the execution and the return at the register of deeds, or the completed levy is recorded, under RSA 529:29. Recorded late, the interest binds the debtor and little else.

What it reaches

Scope is stated once, broadly, then narrowed in one named place.

All property, real and personal, which is liable to be taken in execution may be attached and held as security for the judgment the plaintiff may recover, under RSA 511:1. That is the whole description of scope on the attachment side.

Co-owned land is reached only as far as the debtor owns it. If the real estate is held jointly or in common with others, the levy is made on the debtor's undivided interest or a part of it, under RSA 529:8⁸. A share is set off, not the house.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

The attachment runs on a clock. A levy opens a redemption window instead, and the two should not be confused.

Attachment is the clock here. Attached real or personal property is held until 6 years from the time judgment is rendered for the plaintiff on which execution can be taken, under RSA 511:55⁹. That is the life of the attachment as security.

A completed levy carries its own undoing. A levy that sets off real estate to the creditor is void if, within one year from the return day of the execution, the debtor pays or tenders the sum at which it was set off, plus the creditor's reasonable outlays for taxes, insurance, repairs and improvements with interest, less the rents and profits the creditor received or might have received, under RSA 529:14¹⁰. An execution sale works on a parallel track: attachable real estate may be taken on execution and sold as rights of redeeming mortgaged real estate are, with the same right of redemption, under RSA 529:27¹¹. That sale and the officer's deed are void if, within one year after the sale, the debtor pays or tenders the purchase money plus the purchaser's reasonable payments for taxes, insurance, repairs and the redemption of mortgages with interest, less the rents and profits, under RSA 529:26¹². For a year, the creditor holds something the debtor can buy back.

An action of debt upon a judgment may be brought within 20 years after the cause of action accrued, and not afterward, under RSA 508:5¹³. That is a limit on suing again on the judgment. Whether such an action carries an attachment past the 6 years of RSA 511:55 is not something these sections answer, and this page will not guess at it. A longer survey sits in how long a judgment lien lasts, alongside this one.

Land in another county

Filing follows the land, county by county.

An attachment of real estate is made at the office or dwelling house of the register of deeds of the county in which the real estate is situated, under RSA 511:3. Land in two counties is reached at two registers, each the one where that parcel lies. The statute ties the act to the county of the land and says nothing further about spreading a single attachment across several.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

A homestead right is carved out of what execution can take, and the carve-out grew on January 1, 2026.

All real estate except the homestead right may be taken on execution and set off to the creditor at its just value in satisfaction of the execution and the cost of levying, under RSA 529:1¹⁴. That exception is the hole in the sentence. Effective January 1, 2026, every person is entitled to $400,000 worth of a homestead or interest in it, under RSA 480:1¹⁵, paragraph one. Exemptions held or claimed under the section total not more than $550,000, or $400,000 for a single person, under RSA 480:1, paragraph three.

A homestead right reaches beyond a deeded house. It applies to an ownership interest in a mobile home, housing cooperative or condominium occupied as a dwelling, under RSA 480:1, paragraph one, and the beneficiary of a qualifying trust may claim it where the trust owns the property and the chapter's other terms are met, under RSA 480:1, paragraph five. To claim it, the residence must have been continuously used as a primary residence for the previous 12 months, under RSA 480:1, paragraph two. And one debt breaks the dollar cap entirely: where the debt behind the attachment or levy resulted from unpaid medical bills or other debts directly resulting from terminal or catastrophic injury or illness, the full market value may be claimed, under RSA 480:1, paragraph four. Compare the whole country in homestead protection, state by state.

Where the records live

Every document in this process lands in the same place, with a copy to the court.

Where the land lies is where the register of deeds is, and that register is the office. An attachment is perfected by leaving the attested copies there, under RSA 511:3, and a levy acquires nothing against later purchasers or attaching creditors without notice until an attested copy of the execution and the return is left with that register or the completed levy is recorded, under RSA 529:29.

When a levy is finished, the execution and return are recorded at length in the registry of deeds and returned to the clerk of the court to which the execution is returnable, under RSA 529:12. So the completed record sits in two places, and the registry is the one a searcher reads. New Hampshire's place on the national picture is set out in how a judgment becomes a lien, state by state.