If you haven't paid your medical or hospital bills you may face the unpleasant prospect of having a lien placed on your property regardless of whether you inherited it. In general, any unsecured creditor can acquire a lien after it sues you in court and wins a judgment. Lien laws differ among states, so consult with a qualified attorney in your area for legal advice.
Hospital Debt
If you've received services from a hospital but have not paid the bills, the hospital can take a variety of actions against you as your creditor. Hospital debt is typically unsecured debt, meaning the hospital doesn't require you to give it a security interest before performing its services. However, when you receive those services you implicitly agree to repay them. When you don't repay them, a hospital can try to recover the debt from you in a variety of ways including by filing a lien.
Lien
A lien is a security interest a creditor takes in your property either voluntarily or involuntarily. A voluntary lien, such as a lien against your car when you use a car loan to buy it, is typically made a condition of entering into a loan agreement. An involuntary loan is one in which a creditor takes against you when you don't pay an unsecured debt. Once the hospital places the lien against your property, such as your home, the hospital can collect the debt from the proceeds of the home if you ever sell it.
Lien Procedures
Unlike a voluntary lien agreement, you don't automatically give a hospital a lien when you go there for services. If the hospital wants to place a lien against your property, it has to first sue you in court and prove its case. Only after the hospital wins can it file a lien against your property. You can pay the debt, defend against the lien in court or negotiate a settlement with the hospital, but once a hospital has a judgment it can file a lien against your property.
Inherited Property
If you inherited property, your creditors can seek to take that property if you fail to repay the debt. That the property once belonged to someone else and has subsequently become yours is irrelevant to whether a creditor can take it. If you stand to inherit property but haven't yet, your creditors cannot take such property because it is not yours and your creditors cannot take another person's property. However, as long as you own it, your creditors can try to recover it or place a lien on it to satisfy the debt.
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