Under Indiana law, a final judgment for the recovery of money or costs constitutes a lien on the judgment debtor’s real property located in the county where the judgment has been entered and indexed in the judgment docket. The lien attaches automatically when the judgment is entered and indexed.
If the debtor owns real property in more than one county, after the judgment has been entered in the first county, the judgment creditor must submit it to be indexed in the judgment docket in the other county or counties where the debtor owns real property in order for the automatic lien to attach to the debtor’s real property in those counties. The automatic judgment lien against real property remains valid for a period of only ten years, in most cases, thus the judgment creditor must foreclose the lien during the ten-year period in order to execute the judgment against real property.
After the judgment lien expires, the creditor is limited to executing the judgment against other property of the debtor. The Indiana Code provides for the automatic lien to attach only to real property and not to personal property of the judgment debtor.
Author: Jason P. Lueking (bio)
Phone: 317.464.1591
email: jlueking@bamberger.com