Priority by recording date

0:26New York: two acts, two dates

Start with New York, where there are two acts and two dates.

In New York a money judgment reaches real property when it's docketed with the clerk of the county where the property sits. Docketed, in that county, with that clerk. The signature and the entry are earlier events carrying their own dates, and this clock starts at the docket.

CPLR 5203, subsection A, fixes priority from that moment, against later transfers of the debtor's interest. So check the docket first. Then check the county. Because a judgment docketed in Kings does nothing to a house in Queens until it's docketed in Queens too.

1:09The extension that is not a renewal

Now here's the second date, and this is the one that catches people.

The lien lasts 10 years from the filing of the judgment-roll. That's a different act from docketing. Often a different day.

So priority starts at one event and the clock ends at another. Two events, two dates. Miss the gap between them and a lien you believed was alive expired while you were counting from the wrong day.

Next, subsection B, because it grants less than it appears to.

CPLR 5203, subsection B, looks like a renewal to a creditor in a hurry. What it actually grants is much narrower.

The court may extend the lien past 10 years. But only for the period you were stayed from enforcing, or the time needed to finish a sale under CPLR 5236. That's the whole grant. It gives you back the days you lost to a stay, and nothing beyond them. A judgment creditor who simply forgot to act doesn't get those years back.

2:12When first in time loses anyway

And sometimes first in time loses anyway.

CPLR 5203, subsection A, lists six transfers that beat you regardless of when you docketed. One of them I'd want you to know cold.

Under 5203, subsection A, paragraph 2, a transfer in satisfaction of a purchase money mortgage is good against the judgment creditor, whatever the order of the recordings. The money that bought the property gets repaid before the judgment sitting on it. Your docket date does not move that mortgage.

2:49Florida begins with an address

Now Florida.

Florida records liens on real property by county, and it starts with something small enough to miss entirely.

Under Fla. Stat. 55.10, subsection 1, the certified copy has to carry the address of the person who holds the lien. Or a separate affidavit stating that address has to be recorded at the same moment.

Without it, there is no lien. The subsection says so twice. A lien that doesn't say who holds it isn't a lien in Florida, and no priority date attaches to a record that never became one. That clock, once it does start, runs 10 years from recording.

3:33The Florida gap that does not close

And here's the Florida gap that doesn't close.

Florida lets you extend, and the extension behaves in a way that has cost creditors real money.

Fla. Stat. 55.10, subsection 2, extends the lien by rerecording a certified copy, with a current affidavit, before the lien lapses. And its effective date is the day of the rerecording. It does not relate back.

So anything recorded in the gap between the original 10 years and your rerecording moved ahead of you. And it stays there.

Now compare the federal rule, because it runs the other way on exactly this point.

A federal judgment lien is created under 28 U.S.C. 3201, subsection A. And 3201, subsection B, then says the plain thing out loud. It takes priority over any other lien or encumbrance perfected later in time. It runs 20 years, and renews once for 20 more. Under 3201, subsection C, paragraph 2, the renewal relates back to the date the judgment was filed, on two conditions. The notice goes in before the 20 years run out, and the court approves it.

Same word in both statutes. Relation back. And only one of them gives the years back. Opposite result, across the two systems, on the same question.

4:58Florida personal property, a five-year clock

Florida personal property is a separate creature again. A five-year clock, and a different office.

Under Fla. Stat. 55.204, that lien is filed with the Department of State, and it lapses 5 years after the certificate is filed. A second certificate can go in during a six-month window around the lapse. But it's a new lien, dated from its own filing, and it carries none of the first one's age.

And there is no third. When the second one lapses, the door is closed.

5:31Two records that jump the line

Two more records can jump the line, and both surprise people.

New York's Lien Law 13 gives a mechanics lien priority over advances made on a mortgage after the notice of lien was filed. So a construction lien filed at the right moment climbs over money a lender paid out later. And Fla. Stat. 695.01, subsection 2, deems a grantee by quitclaim a bona fide purchaser without notice. The conveyance that looks weakest on its face carries the recording act's strongest protection.

6:12What this does not cover

Now, what I'm not covering.

Two states. That's the whole map here.

New York and Florida, and nothing beyond them. The other 48 each set their own filing act and their own clock, and the gaps between them aren't small. A rule that holds in Miami-Dade can be reversed one jurisdiction over. The federal provision I just gave you already reverses Florida on relation back, inside the same question we've been asking the whole way down.

I'm not a lawyer and none of this is advice. Whether to rerecord a lien before it lapses, or let it go, is a question for counsel with your file open in front of them.

What I can tell you is narrower. Which recording date to ask about. And which office stamped it.

Both of those are printed on a document you could pull before lunch. And if the parcel has been under construction, the piece on construction liens explains why the date you find may not be the one that governs.