Selling a house with liens in Philadelphia
Liens and back taxes don't have to block your sale.
They get sorted through closing the same as any sale, and that paperwork is exactly the kind of thing we handle every day.
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You pick the closing date
Can you sell a house in Philadelphia that has liens on it?
Yes. Liens are settled at closing out of the sale proceeds, the same way a mortgage payoff is, so they come off the top rather than out of your pocket. Water department liens, tax liens and judgments are all things we deal with regularly.
What happens if the liens are worth more than the house?
Then the numbers have to be worked through before anything is signed, and we will tell you straight if a sale does not clear. Sometimes there is a path and sometimes there is not. Either way you find out early rather than after weeks of paperwork.
What kinds of liens do you actually see on Philadelphia houses?
Most often unpaid property taxes, water and sewer balances, and gas or utility liens. After that, municipal charges tied to code enforcement, contractor filings, and occasionally a judgment against the owner personally. Several at once on the same house is common and not a reason to assume it cannot sell.
Do I have to pay the liens off before we close?
No. They are settled out of the sale proceeds at closing rather than out of your pocket beforehand. That is the part people are usually most relieved by, because the reason the house has not sold is often that nobody had the money to clear it first.
I do not know what is against the house. Can you find out?
Yes, and this is a normal first step rather than a favor. A title search returns everything recorded against the property. Plenty of sellers find out what they are dealing with for the first time through us, and knowing the real position is better than guessing at it.
The water bill has been building for years. Does that stop a sale?
No. A long-running water and sewer balance is one of the most common things we see, and it gets settled at closing like any other charge against the property. It affects the arithmetic of what is left for you, not whether the sale can happen.
What if a lien turns up during closing that nobody knew about?
It gets dealt with rather than becoming your emergency. Title work exists precisely to surface the ones nobody remembered. We would rather find something late than have it found after closing, and we will tell you what it means for your position as soon as we know.
Where can I check what the city says I owe?
The City of Philadelphia Department of Revenue publishes property tax balances and payment information at phila.gov/departments/department-of-revenue. That covers what the city itself is owed. It will not show private judgments or contractor filings against the property, and a title search is what picks those up.
What if I inherited the house with the liens already on it?
Then you inherited the charges along with the property, and it is a very ordinary situation. The liens are settled from the sale in the same way. We work with estates regularly and the two things being tangled together does not make the house unsellable.
Can you still buy if the city has an open case on the property?
Usually, yes, and it is worth telling us early rather than hoping it goes unnoticed. What matters is what the case is and where it has reached. We would rather build it into the plan at the start than discover it two weeks before a closing date.
Here's what happens when you reach out.
Tell us about the house
Share the address, call, or text. A few quick questions, you're not signing up for anything.
Talk to someone on our team
We look at the house and comparable sales, then walk you through a clear cash offer, usually within 24 hours.
Close when you're ready
If you like it, you choose the date, in many cases in as little as 14 days once title is clear.
