Not everyone who has a child support lien on property will necessarily benefit from it. Sometimes, the property subject to the lien, such as a house or car, is already subject to another lien, such as a lien a bank placed on the property when it loaned the payor the money to purchase it. If the other lien is in an amount that equals, or nearly equals, the value of the property, you may not receive any money if the property is sold. In fact, you may not even be able to have the property sold. This is because most state laws provide that a debtor may retain a certain level of property as exempt from sale by those to whom he or she owes money.
Equity is the dollar difference between the value of the property and the loan or lien against it.
Keep in mind that a child support lien may be more effective if you act quickly. This is because a delay in creating the lien may enable other people who have loaned money to the payor, or who have judgments against the payor, to get priority over your lien because theirs were created before yours. The lesson here is to take steps to impose the lien on property as soon as it can legally be done. If you are at all uncertain about the steps necessary to create a lien, contact a lawyer. Getting an advance lien With a little foresight, and a lot of luck, you may be able to entirely avoid problems with collecting child support.