Property Lien
A lien is a legal claim recorded against a property that secures payment of a debt or obligation, generally preventing clear title from transferring until it is satisfied or released.
Common types of property liens
Mortgage liens secure the loan used to buy or refinance a property and are voluntary. Involuntary liens are imposed without the owner's consent: property tax liens for unpaid taxes, mechanic's liens filed by contractors for unpaid work, judgment liens from lawsuits, and liens for unpaid municipal charges such as utility bills, code enforcement fines, or special assessments. The involuntary category is where diligence surprises usually originate.
Priority and why order matters
Liens are generally satisfied in priority order, most often determined by recording date, with the important exception that property tax liens typically take priority over everything regardless of when recorded. Priority determines who is paid from sale proceeds and who is wiped out in a foreclosure, so a junior lienholder can be left with nothing. This is why an unrecorded or recently recorded lien can materially change a transaction's economics.
Liens in diligence
Most liens are recorded at the county recorder's office, and a professional title examination and title commitment are the principal checks before closing. They are not infallible: statutory, municipal, mechanic's, and recently filed or misindexed claims can exist without appearing in an ordinary record search, which is one reason title insurance exists alongside the search. Paxiv includes lien overlays beside easements on the parcel map so encumbrances can be spotted while a site is still being screened rather than after a title commitment arrives. That is a screening aid, not a substitute for a title examination.
Paxiv by the numbers
| Parcel records | 150M+ Parcel records in the nationwide serving table, covering residential, commercial, agricultural, and vacant land. |
|---|---|
| State coverage | All 50 states Every U.S. state is queryable on every tier, including the free one — coverage is not a paid upgrade. |
| City infrastructure coverage | Water, sewer, and storm — mapped per parcel Sourced from municipal GIS, city by city rather than one national feed — the city-level layer most nationwide parcel tools do not carry at all. |
| Free tier | $0, no card, no time limit Includes 15 parcel lookups, 3 zoning reports, 5 AI search credits, 3 skip traces, and 1 deal room. |
| Transaction fees | Zero Paxiv is subscription software, not a brokerage. It takes no commission and never participates in a deal. |
Where this data comes from
Paxiv's parcel, ownership, and zoning records link back to the originating county assessor, county recorder, or municipal zoning code, with flood data from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer and geographic reference data from the U.S. Census Bureau — so every figure can be checked against its authoritative source rather than taken on faith.
- County assessor and recorder offices — Parcel boundaries, ownership of record, assessed values, and transaction history. Every record in Paxiv links back to the originating county office for one-click verification.
- City and county zoning ordinances — Zoning classification per parcel, linked to the municipality's own published zoning code so the underlying ordinance can be read directly.
- FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer — Flood zone, Special Flood Hazard Area status, and base flood elevation, resolved by point-in-polygon lookup against FEMA's own published layer.
- U.S. Census Bureau — Census tract containment via the Bureau's official geocoder, plus TIGER/Line geographic reference files.
Frequently asked questions
What is a lien on a property?
A lien is a legal claim recorded against a property that secures a debt. It generally must be paid off or released before clear title can transfer to a buyer.
How do I find out if a property has a lien?
Most liens are recorded with the county recorder or clerk, and a professional title examination is the principal check. It will not always reveal statutory, municipal, recently filed, or misindexed claims, so jurisdiction-specific lien and municipal searches are sometimes needed as well. Screening tools can surface known encumbrances earlier, but they do not replace a title examination before closing.
Which liens have priority?
Priority usually follows recording date, with property tax liens typically taking priority over all others regardless of when they were recorded. Priority decides who gets paid first from sale proceeds.