New York · LiensNew York judgment liens on real estate: docketing, the ten-year lien and renewal

In New York a money judgment becomes a lien on the debtor's real property when it is docketed with the clerk of the county where the property is located. From the time of docketing until ten years after the judgment-roll was filed, no transfer of the debtor's interest in that property is effective against the judgment creditor – so a buyer takes subject to the judgment unless it is paid or released at closing. The statute lists exceptions, including a transfer in satisfaction of a mortgage given to secure the purchase price of the debtor's interest, a transfer to a purchaser for value at a judicial or execution sale, and a judgment entered after the debtor's death (CPLR 5203(a)). On the creditor's motion with notice to the debtor, a court may extend the lien past ten years only for as long as the creditor was stayed from enforcing it, or for the time needed to complete an execution sale begun before the ten years ran; the order is effective from filing with the county clerk (CPLR 5203(b)). To keep the lien going, the creditor may bring an action on the judgment during the year before ten years since first docketing expire; the result is a renewal judgment, and its lien takes effect when the ten years from the original docketing expire (CPLR 5014).