Northern Virginia Title & Escrow, Inc.

I am in receipt of your letter of February 24, 2015, regarding the above referenced complaint, filed by [redacted]. As you know, we are a title company, and we performed a closing on property located at [redacted], Vienna, VA, on July 25, 2014. At that time the title work reflected...

that [redacted] had a mechanics lien on the property for $3030. This amount was disputed by the seller of the property, and he refused to pay the lien. The seller did agree to put $3,100.00 into our escrow account to hold until the lien issue was resolved.Anyone can file a lien against a property, and property owners can force a lien holder to get a judgment in a court of law to enforce the lien. A lien is merely notice to the world that the lien holder is alleging that someone owes him money. The law requires the person filing the lien to file suit and get a judgment within 6 months, as the lien expires six months after filing it. The law states it becomes “invalid”. Title 43, Code of Virginia, section 43-17, states that “No suit to enforce any lien shall be brought after 6 months. . .” It is standard practice in the title business to have the seller put a sufficient amount into the title companies escrow account, if there is a lien on the property they are selling, to pay off a judgment if the lien holder files suit and is successful. If the lien holder never files suit, the lien expires and the money is returned to the seller. This is what happened in this case. The lien holder never perfected their lien, and therefore, the lien is expired and we were forced to return the escrowed funds.
Thank you for your assistance, and feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Douglas E. W[redacted]
President