In order to avoid any confusion whatsoever, I'm gonna spoil the story that I'm about to tell by disclosing up front that my friend and ex, Jeff, actually did nothing wrong. Rather, he and I were the victims of coincidence and someone else's sloppiness and, in fact, he was instrumental in helping to put things right.
The closing on the sale of my house was scheduled for this week, so my realtor and I had been working feverishly to put everything in place so that all would go off without a hitch. I had already spoken to him once or twice when he called at mid-morning this past Monday (14 May) and asked a question that I never wanted to hear.
"Are you aware that Jeff put a lien for $10,000 on your house? That'll have to be paid before we can close."
The words echoed in my head and the cacophony grew until I thought my brain would burst. I was completely blind-sided and had no idea what to say, much less what to do. I walked outside, mobile phone in hand, to call Jeff, but decided to detour to the restroom so that I wouldn't have to endure a full bladder while having what I expected to be a contentious conversation.
Before I could get back outside, John called again to share additional information that he'd learned. "It looks like it wasn't Jeff that put the lien on the house. Someone sued Jeff and won a judgment against him and put the lien on the house when his name was still on it." This shed a different light on the situation, but it didn't really make it any better.
I called my buyer's attorney and spoke at length to her paralegal. She mentioned the name of the company that placed the lien, but had few other details. There was no other information in the judgment against which to match Jeff's middle name, date of birth, or other identifiers. She casually mentioned that the judgment contained only his name (a very common name which he shared with The (late) Frugal Gourmet) and address. I asked about the address and when she read it to me, I didn't recognize it as one where Jeff had ever lived. I went to the Web site of our county tax office and found that Jeff and his wife at that address. In a later conversation, the paralegal asked me if Jeff had ever been married to a woman whose name I recognized from the tax records. "Absolutely not," I replied. She confirmed that this was a case of mistaken identity and said that we'd just need to get Jeff to sign an affidavit that this wasn't his obligation.
So, now I had to get a hold of Jeff. I sent him an e-mail message. I called his mobile phone. I called his office. He finally replied to a text message, saying that he was in a meeting and would call soon. When I spoke to him, he met my recounting of the story with shock and indignation equal to my own. He promised to contact the attorney and help me to clear up the situation as quickly as possible.
I called my realtor to update him on the situation and then called the attorney to tell her that she could expect Jeff's call, but she was already on the other line with him. When I went the next day to sign my half of the closing papers, the paralegal told me that they had received from Jeff everything that they needed to remedy the situation.
What a scare! Though it's cleared up now, I'm outraged that a lien could be placed on my property without my receiving any sort of notice. I plan to contact the state attorney general to file a complaint against the company that placed the lien, Unifund CCR Partners of Cincinnati, but I wonder what action could be taken beyond a black mark in some record somewhere, since I suffered no real damages other than an hour or two off of the end of my life and a scorch mark on the ceiling tile above my work cubicle. :J
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