Hello, My husband and I have been improving our credit now for the past two years. We have no new negatives, and have built up two years of perfect payment records on credit cards. Our scores both range between 650 and 700 on all three CRA's. HOWEVER, we do still have an unpaid tax lien that we have payment arrangements made with the IRS. We pay a monthly payment that is reasonable, and it won't be paid off for another 5 years. I was told that we shouldn't even think of appying for a home loan because we have a tax lien. What do you think our chances are to buy our house with a tax lien still on record as unpaid? What about a car someday? How much damage does a tax lien do - or do they just take into account our credit scores and past two years of perfect records? Thank you for any information you may have. ~Michele
It would be a miracle if you can get home financing with an unpaid tax lien. You'll have to pay it first or get the IRS to withdraw it. Tax liens (paid or unpaid) create problems getting credit with decent terms. Some lenders are forgiving of paid tax liens while others will deny credit automaticially--paid or not. Older liens are less damaging than recent ones.
Breeze - what do you mean, have the tax lien removed? Would the IRS do this? The lien is from a few years ago, back when we made an original payment agreement and then failed to make the payments as promised (bad, bad bad!). Since then, they were kind enough to accept another payment agreement which is going fine - and we are in good standing with them. I did a search for "tax lien" as you suggested but did not find words about actually 'removing' the lien from the report - I can't really challenge it with the CRA's, because it's true, and would come back verified. BTW, it's unpaid income taxes - not a lien on a home, or anything. Make any difference?
I would try disputing. I just had mine removed from EX after the second dispute. Dispute yours by saying "There was no lien filed on *date listed*. Please remove!" This is the method I used an it came off. I first disputed as "not mine", but that didn't work. Check out these posts: http://consumers.creditnet.com/stra...d.php?s=&goto=newpost&threadid=27446&pgnum=11 http://consumers.creditnet.com/stra...ad.php?s=&goto=newpost&threadid=27418&pgnum=9 http://bayhouse.com/credit-forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=607 good luck!
Michele If you are in a repayment program with the IRS and they are willing to subjugate their lien to a mortgage, there are a couple of lenders that will provide a mortgage to you. Understand though, that their rates are relatively high. I have both seen it done and have done it for a couple of clients of mine. Generally speaking, you are correct, you can not get a mortgage with an existing tax lien. Hope this helps. fla-tan
Hello, the IRS will release the lien during the loan process and re-issue the lien once the loan process is over. Since you are on a payment schedule, and assuming you are timely in your payments, this should be an easy process. Also, HUD loans will approve you if you can show your payment agreement and proof of timely payments. Iv
