County Lien on Foreclosed Property from Criminal Case

[chris4228]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Georgia. My husband and I are interested in a house that was foreclosed in November of 2009. In 2007, the then owner was prosecuted for operating a house of prostitution. She accepted a plea which included a 150,000 dollar fine. The county placed a lien on the property, which was to be paid when the property was sold, as she put the house on the market after her court case.

Well, when the house was foreclosed, the county/state did not remove the lien and are actually in the process of litigating with Chase Bank (owner now). Of course, if the lien is not removed, we will not purchase the property but I really like this house.

Does the County/State have a right to do this? Does this lien supercede the Bank's ownership?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The government can impose liens for money owed to it.

I would assume that the lien is junior to the mortgage, although you haven't provided any information about when the respective liens were registered.

The issue from Chase's perspective, presumably, is that it would prefer not to have the first $150K of any amount paid into escrow by a buyer go to the state, but nobody is going to buy the house unless the lien is paid off out of the purchase price.