The priority of liens on a property, sometimes called lien positioning, identifies which debt will be repaid first in the event of default and foreclosure.When the collateral, such as a home, is sold, the creditor with the highest-priority lien gets paid out first, followed by the second-priority lien holder and so on, until the proceeds have been exhausted. This means that creditors with liens in a lower position might not recoup all of their losses, or recover their money at all.There’s one exception to lien positioning: money owed to the government, such as federal and property tax liens. These trump the “first in time, first in right” rule.