How to Remove a Lien From a Property

A lien on your property is a registered claim that clouds your title and blocks you from selling or refinancing with a normal lender until it’s cleared. There are really only a few ways to get one off: pay it, refinance to pay it, dispute it, or wait for it to expire. Which one fits depends on the lien type, whether you actually owe the debt, and how much time and equity you have.

This guide walks through each route, with a focus on the one most homeowners end up using — an equity refinance that pays the lien out and discharges it. For the financing service, see our judgment & lien mortgage page. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm your situation with a lawyer.

You can’t clear what you can’t see. A lawyer or title-search company can pull your parcel register to show exactly what’s registered — the type of lien, the claimant, the amount, and the priority. Common types behave differently:

• Construction (contractor’s) lien — from an unpaid contractor or supplier; strict statutory deadlines and the most aggressive.
• Judgment / writ — a creditor’s enforcement after winning a lawsuit (what a writ is).
• Tax lien — CRA or municipal property tax arrears, which take priority on title.
• Support / family arrears — enforceable against property.

Knowing the type tells you which removal routes are even available and how urgent it is.

The cleanest route, when the debt is valid, is to pay the claimant and obtain a discharge (or, for a construction lien, a release), which your lawyer then registers to remove the lien from title. If you have the cash, this is straightforward. Get the discharge in writing and registered — paying without registering the discharge leaves the lien clouding your title on paper.

Most homeowners don’t have a lump sum sitting idle, which is where the next route comes in.

If you have equity but not cash, an equity refinance is how you fund the payout. An alternative lender (B-lender/alt-A or private) advances a mortgage sized to cover your existing balance plus the lien plus costs. At funding the money goes to your lawyer in trust, who pays the claimant, gets the discharge, and registers it — so the lien comes off and you’re left with clean title and one mortgage.

This works even when a bank has already declined you, because it’s equity-based, not credit-based. Generally the new mortgage needs to stay under about 80% loan-to-value at alt-A or 65–75% on private (illustrative). Multiple liens can be bundled into a single payout. This is the route our judgment & lien mortgage service arranges.

If you don’t actually owe the debt — a construction lien for defective or incomplete work, or a claim in the wrong amount — you may be able to dispute it rather than pay it. For a construction lien, your lawyer can often vacate the lien by paying the disputed amount (plus security for costs) into court, which removes it from title while the dispute is litigated separately. That lets you refinance or sell in the meantime without conceding the claim.

Disputes are legal work and belong with a lawyer. But the important point for a homeowner is that a lien you genuinely dispute doesn’t have to freeze your property — there’s a mechanism to get it off title while you fight it.

Some liens expire if the claimant doesn’t take the next legal step in time — construction liens in particular have strict deadlines to “perfect” the claim. In narrow cases a lien lapses on its own. But waiting is a dangerous default strategy: an active writ or a perfected construction lien can escalate toward a forced sale long before it would ever expire, and interest keeps accruing. Treat expiry as a lawyer’s technical assessment of a specific lien, not a plan you rely on.

If you owe the debt and have cash, pay and discharge. If you owe it but don’t have cash, refinance against your equity to pay it out — the most common route, and the one that also clears the path back to a bank. If you genuinely don’t owe it, dispute or vacate with a lawyer. Only rarely does waiting make sense.

Mortgage Squad Advisors (FSRA #13737) arranges the equity refinance that clears a lien, discloses every fee up front, and maps the exit back to bank pricing. See the judgment & lien mortgage page, or get a confidential assessment — no credit pull to begin. For legal steps to dispute a lien, work with a licensed lawyer in your province.