Trying to buy a home and surprise: I have a Judgement! What to do

[Ron Turner]

Hello Community,

My situation is that I just submitted a mortgage application to start the house buying process, and was notified that after running my credit check ( I wasn't worried as my credit score is 780) that they discovered I have a Judgement that was filed 7 years ago (it was previously a collections item that I thought was a charge off, but was wrong). The lender told me that I would need to pay this judgement before I could be approved for a mortgage.

Can someone verify that this is indeed the case? If so, what steps should I take to do this? Contact the court? The creditor? Any legal advice (or non-legal ideas that I can pursue) would be appreciated!

[Jennifer L.]

Your lender should be able to give you the information you need to pay the judgment. It is up to the lender whether to approve the loan and it is pretty standard that they will want you to be clear of judgments  by the time escrow closes.  Just went through a refi and discovered there was a judgment against me.  I called the company that won the judgment and negotiated with them.  They knocked off 30% from the judgment and filed the satisfaction of judgment.  The big thing is making sure the record the satisfaction of judgment.

Good luck!