Judgment liens in Tennessee

What to file, and where

The lien starts with a registration act, in a named book, in a named office.

A judgment or decree of a court of record obtained on or after July 1, 1967, becomes a lien on the debtor's land from the time a certified copy is registered in the lien book in the register's office of the county where the land is located. A general sessions judgment over $500 obtained on or after July 1, 1969, does the same. Tenn. Code 25-5-101¹ names the act. Not entry, not signing. Registration, in that book, in that county.

Note the office: the register's office, not the court that entered the judgment. So the clerk who stamped the judgment is one place and the lien book is another. A judgment sitting in a court file does nothing to any acre until the certified copy reaches the register.

What it reaches

Which land the lien covers, and whether it steps around the homestead, is a question these sections do not settle.

The creation section names the act and the office. It does not say which estates in land the lien attaches to, or how it interacts with the homestead exemption. No section on this page settles that, and this page will not guess at it. What the homestead section states below is what the exemption does on its own terms, which is a different thing from saying how a lien is measured against it.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

There are two ten-year clocks here, and they are measured from different events.

Once the lien is created by registration under section 25-5-101(b), it lasts for the time remaining in a ten-year period from the date of final judgment entry in the court clerk's office. That is Tenn. Code 25-5-105². The clock does not start at registration. It starts at entry, which means a creditor who registers late inherits a clock already running against them.

Separately, an action on a judgment or decree of a court of record of Tennessee or any other state or government must be commenced within ten years after the cause of action accrued. See Tenn. Code 28-3-110(a)(2)³. That is a limit on the action, not a recipe for renewing the lien itself, and how a judgment is renewed by motion is a question the sections here do not reach. For the general shape of these clocks, see how long a judgment lien lasts.

Land in another county

A lien here is tied to the county of the land, not the county of the court.

The lien on a given piece of land runs from the time a certified copy of the judgment is registered in the lien book in the register's office of the county where that land is located. Tenn. Code 25-5-101. A judgment entered in one county reaches land in another only when a certified copy is registered where the land sits. Register in Davidson and the farm in Sevier is untouched until a copy reaches Sevier too.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

A principal residence is protected from forced sale, with a dollar cap and a short list of debts the protection does not reach.

During the life of the individual, the homestead exemption is not subject to execution, attachment, or sale under legal proceedings. See Tenn. Code 26-2-301(a)(1)⁴. The same subdivision caps it: an individual's exemption on a principal residence may not exceed $35,000 in aggregate value, and joint owners who use the residence share exemptions not exceeding $52,500 combined, divided equally if claimed in the same proceeding, with a lone joint owner in the proceeding holding $35,000. Beneath all of this the Tennessee Constitution sets a floor of five thousand dollars, or a greater amount the General Assembly establishes. Tenn. Const. art. XI, sec. 11⁵.

This protection has edges. It does not operate against public taxes, against debts contracted for the purchase money of the homestead or improvements on it, or against a debt secured by the homestead when the exemption has been waived by written contract. See Tenn. Code 26-2-301(c). And a waiver has to be in the right paper: a duly executed deed, mortgage, or deed of trust conveying the property conveys it free of the exemption, but the exemption may not be waived in a note or other instrument that does not convey the property. Tenn. Code 26-2-301(d).

One edge is sharper than the rest. Property is not eligible for the homestead exemption, in whole or in part, if it was purchased with or maintained by fraudulently obtained funds, or if its ownership was maintained using fraudulently obtained funds. See Tenn. Code 26-2-312⁶. For how other states draw the same line, see homestead protection state by state.

Where the records live

One book in one office decides when the lien begins.

A judgment or decree of a court of record obtained on or after July 1, 1967, becomes a lien from the time a certified copy is registered in the lien book in the register's office of the county where the land is located, as does a general sessions judgment over $500 obtained on or after July 1, 1969. That is Tenn. Code 25-5-101. Ask for the lien book. Ask for the county of the land, and ask for the date of registration. Those three things fix where a Tennessee lien starts. Whether to register, and where, is a question for counsel with the file open. For how the filing act differs elsewhere, see judgment liens state by state.