Judgment liens in Washington

What to file, and where

Any Washington judgment can be a lien on the debtor's real estate, and the starting date is not the day the judge signed.

Judgments of the state supreme court, the court of appeals, a superior court or a district court, and a federal district court judgment rendered in Washington, bind the debtor's real estate as a lien that begins when RCW 4.56.200¹ says it does. RCW 4.56.190² lists the courts and points to the other section for timing.

For a superior court judgment, the lien on real estate in the county where the court sits commences when the county clerk files the judgment on the execution docket under RCW 4.56.200(2). Filing by the county clerk is the act, and the execution docket is where it lands.

A district court judgment works through the superior court. Under RCW 4.56.200(4), its lien on real estate in the county commences from the filing of a certified district court judgment, or a certified transcript of the district court docket, with the county clerk. On that filing it becomes a judgment of the superior court for that county. The federal path is simpler. Under RCW 4.56.200(1), a federal district court judgment's lien commences from the time of its entry or filing in the county where the real estate sits.

What it reaches

Real estate the debtor owns is bound, and so is real estate the debtor has not bought yet. Personal property is a different story.

Washington judgments hold the debtor's real estate, including real estate the debtor later acquires, other than real estate exempt by law. RCW 4.56.190 says so. Where the debtor owns land jointly or in common with someone else, the same section makes the judgment a lien on the debtor's interest only, not on the co-owner's.

Two carve-outs are worth knowing. For judgments rendered after August 23, 1983, real estate for the purposes of this chapter does not include the vendor's interest under a real estate contract, so that interest is not touched by the lien. And personal property is held only from the time it is actually levied upon, again under RCW 4.56.190. Land is reached by filing. Reaching a car or a bank balance takes the sheriff.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

Ten years from entry, with an extension the statute grants almost without discretion, capped at twenty years in the end.

The lien runs for no more than ten years from the day the judgment was entered, unless the period is extended under RCW 6.17.020(3)³. One exception survives longer: a judgment from a criminal sentence for a crime committed on or after July 1, 2000, whose lien remains in effect until the judgment is fully satisfied. RCW 4.56.190 carries both.

Extension is close to automatic. Under RCW 6.17.020(3), the application is granted as a matter of right, subject to review only for timeliness, for full or partial satisfaction, or for errors in calculating the judgment summary amounts. The holder of a judgment rendered under subsection (1) or (4), or filed as a foreign judgment, may apply within 90 days before the original ten years expire for an order granting an additional ten years in which execution, garnishment or other legal process may issue. There is a trap for transcribed district court judgments: the original is not extended, and the petition to extend the transcribed judgment must be filed in the superior court within 90 days before expiration of the ten-year period that runs from the date the transcript was filed.

What was already perfected is not disturbed. Extension does not alter the perfection or priority established by RCW 6.13.090 and chapter 4.56 RCW, and the lien remains in full force and need not be rerecorded, per RCW 6.17.020(6). Where the judgment was transcribed to and perfected in other counties, continued perfection after extension is kept up by filing a certified copy of the extending order, or of the docket where it was extended, with the clerk of each of those counties. A hard ceiling sits over all of it in RCW 6.17.020(7): except as ordered under RCW 4.16.020(2) or (3), chapter 9.94A RCW or chapter 13.40 RCW, no judgment is enforceable more than 20 years from its entry in the originating court. Duration and renewal rules vary widely from state to state.

Land in another county

One county's perfected lien does nothing to land in the next county until another filing is made there.

For a judgment of the supreme court or the court of appeals, of a superior court for another county, or of a federal district court rendered elsewhere in the state, the lien on real estate in a given county commences from the filing of a duly certified abstract of the judgment with the county clerk of the county where the real estate sits. That rule is in RCW 4.56.200(3).

District court judgments reach across county lines by a longer path. Once a transcript of the district court docket has been filed with the county clerk where the judgment was rendered or filed, the lien on real estate in another county commences when a certified abstract of the record of that judgment is filed with the county clerk of the county where the real estate sits. RCW 4.56.200(5) sets both steps. Two filings, two offices, before the land in the second county is bound.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

A Washington homestead is not seized outright on an ordinary money judgment. It is appraised first, and sold only if the equity clears the exemption.

When execution on an ordinary judgment, meaning one not within the classes listed in RCW 6.13.080, is levied on a homestead, the judgment creditor must apply to the superior court of the county for appointment of a person to appraise its value. RCW 6.13.100⁴ requires it. If the appraised value, less liens and encumbrances senior to the judgment being executed on, exceeds the homestead exemption and the property is not divided, the court orders a sale under RCW 6.13.160⁵. No bid may be received unless it exceeds the exemption amount.

The exemption itself is not a fixed figure. It is the greater of $125,000 or the county median sale price of a single-family home in the preceding calendar year, per RCW 6.13.030(1)⁶, so the floor moves with the county. One narrow situation has no ceiling at all: where the homestead is reached to satisfy another state's judgment for unpaid income tax on pension or retirement benefits received while a Washington resident, RCW 6.13.030(1)(c) sets no dollar limit. Compare the rest of the country on the homestead page.

Where the records live

One office holds the filing, the county clerk. Which act starts the clock depends on the court.

For a superior court judgment, the lien begins when the county clerk files it on the execution docket under RCW 4.56.200(2). District court judgments begin when a certified judgment or docket transcript is filed with the county clerk under RCW 4.56.200(4), at which point they become superior court judgments. Federal district court judgments begin at entry or filing in the county under RCW 4.56.200(1).

So the question to ask of any Washington judgment is which court entered it and which county clerk holds the filing, because that pair sets both the office and the date. The broader map of how a judgment becomes a lien sits on the state-by-state overview.