Received a lien letter? Start here.

What is a lien letter?

A lien is a legal claim against property or against money someone may receive later — for example, out of an injury settlement. Depending on the type of lien and the state, it may be created by a filing recorded with a county office, by a court judgment, or by statute without any filing at all.

A letter about a lien is separate. It may come from the claimant, from that claimant’s law firm, from a debt collector, or from a private notice service that has no role in the lien itself. Who mailed the envelope tells you nothing about whether the underlying claim is valid, and the existence of a valid claim tells you nothing about whether the letter in your hand is accurate. The difference between a notice, a recorded filing, and a demand for payment is worth understanding before you act on anything.

Step 1: Identify the sender

• Read the letterhead and the fine print at the foot of the page. Private companies are generally expected to say plainly that they are not a court or government agency.
• Compare the return address and phone number with the contact details published on the company’s own website, which you find by searching for the name yourself.
• Genuine government mail comes from a named office — a county recorder, a clerk of court, a state tax authority, the IRS. Those offices have official sites, usually on .gov or a state .us domain.
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission publishes general guidance on spotting and avoiding scams, including the pressure tactics that legitimate correspondence rarely uses.

Step 2: Read what the letter actually claims

Separate three things that letters often blur together: a statement that a record exists, a statement of an amount, and a request that you do something. Note any document number, case number, county, claimant name, and date exactly as printed. Those details are what let you check the record independently.

Step 3: Find the underlying record yourself

Most recorded liens sit in a searchable public index kept by the county recorder, county clerk, or clerk of court where the property or the claim is located; federal tax liens and UCC filings have their own systems. Go to that office directly rather than through a link or QR code in the letter. How to check a recorded filing walks through finding the right office and reading what you get back.

One caution worth repeating: a document appearing in public records shows that it was accepted for recording. It does not show that the claim is correct, enforceable, or owed — and it says nothing about whoever mailed you a letter about it.

Getting a letter from American Bureau of Liens?

That name brings a lot of people here. What is American Bureau of Liens? summarises what the company says about itself, and Received a letter from American Bureau of Liens? deals with the letter itself.

Where the information here comes from

This is an independent guide. It is not run by a lien service, a law firm, or a collection agency; it carries no advertising, no affiliate links, and no paid placements, and we are not paid by any company named on the site. Where a point rests on an outside source, we say so and link to it — usually a government agency, a court or recorder’s office, or a legal reference publisher.

Our further reading list collects the outside articles and agency pages we rely on most: the IRS on federal tax liens, the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on collection letters, Cornell’s Legal Information Institute on lien types and UCC filings, and where to find legal aid. Our editorial policy sets out how we decide what to publish and what we refuse to claim.