Property Lien
Categories: Credit, Ethics/Morals
You stop paying your taxes. After you ignore a series of increasingly insistent letters demanding payment, the government takes action. It puts a property lien on your house.
The lien gives the government a claim on your property as a way of collecting a debt. If you continue to ignore the government, they might take the step of forcing a foreclosure. They would make you sell the house and use the proceeds to pay the outstanding debt...a right they have because a judge allowed them to attach the property lien.
Prop liens happen all the time. Don't pay your contractor...the gal who fixed your pipes? You'll get a lien on your property. Essentially, it's a red flag to any creditors...until you pay up or adjudicate things properly.
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/images/finance-glossary/run-down-shack.jpg)