Complete Story
 

04/09/2018

UCC search turned up a lien on one of our delinquent tenants

City Storage South - Drew Lewis

UCC search turned up a lien on one of our delinquent tenants. Lien was filed 2 years prior to the tenant putting items in the unit and expires in 2 years. We are not even sure the items in the unit are related to this lien. The secured party's name on the lien states it is a representative. We have reached out to the representative party but they say the lender will only talk with the debtor. How do we find out who the actual secured party is in order to even ask if they want their items back? We feel trapped because we don't know the next step. Can we go to auction or do we have to wait 2 years until lien expires?

Printer-Friendly Version

1 Comment

Kevin Leebrick   on Tuesday 04/10/2018 at 10:34 AM

Good Morning Drew,

Let me start and say I'm not an attorney and the below is not legal advice rather it's my reading of the lien process and NCGS 44A.

The tenant should have alerted you to any thing that has a lien on it. It sounds like that didn't happen.

I would try to verify the items are in the unit.

Once you contact the Lien Holder or their representative, they have the right to pay of the unit and claim their items. It is your responsibility to do so via the UCC search that you have done. Your responsibility is to contact that which is listed on the Sec. of St. site and found on the UCC search. Should they choose not to take action, that's their decision and that's not your responsibility to make them.

You've done your job to alert them that their items may be in the unit. Again should they choose not to respond that's on them, not you. They made that choice after they were alerted.

Make sure you document document document all calls and contact with the lien holder/representative as well as the tenant. That is always the key to the Lien/Auction Process.

You can join the SSLN if you want to get the opinion of a lawyer. It's relatively cheap and might be well worth it in your case.

Feel free to reach out and Good Luck!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the comments shown above are those of the individual comment authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of this organization.