A contractor you argued with filed a lien on your house.
Mechanics liens in Kentucky have strict filing and enforcement deadlines. Sometimes the lien is valid, sometimes it has already expired, and the difference is worth checking.
Sort out the lienWhy the lien exists at all
Kentucky law lets contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers who improve real property secure payment by filing a lien statement against it. The idea is that someone who added value to your house should have recourse if they are not paid.
It also means a dispute over workmanship, a subcontractor your general contractor failed to pay, or a supplier you never met can all end up attached to your title. You can be current with your contractor and still get a lien from someone downstream of them.
Deadlines cut both ways
There are statutory windows for filing a lien statement after the work ends, and a separate window for filing suit to enforce it. Miss either and the lien can lose its force.
Which means the first question is not how to pay it but whether it is still enforceable. A Kentucky construction attorney or a good title company can tell you quickly. People pay expired liens more often than you would think, simply because nobody checked.
Getting to a clean closing
If the lien is valid, it gets paid or negotiated at closing and a release gets recorded. If it is defective or expired, the title company may be able to insure over it or require a release the claimant has little basis to refuse.
Either way it is resolved as part of the transaction rather than something you have to finish before you can sell. Tell us what the dispute was about, because it usually explains what the claimant will actually accept.
Five questions. That is the whole thing.
We already know your situation from this page. Change it if it does not fit.
Question 1 of 5
What people ask about this
I paid my contractor. Why is there a lien from someone else?
Because your contractor may not have paid their subcontractors or suppliers, and those parties have their own lien rights. It is a common and genuinely unfair situation.
Can I fight it instead of paying it?
You can contest a lien, and there are procedures for bonding around it or forcing the claimant to act. That is an attorney question, and worth asking if the amount is significant.
Does the lien stop me from selling?
It stops a clean transfer until it is addressed. It does not stop you from going under contract while it gets resolved.
Often it is more than one thing at once
Sort out the lien.
No cost, no obligation, and nobody shows up at your door unless you ask them to.