How to check for liens on a property in Forsyth County, NC

In Forsyth County, liens and lis pendens recorded against a property are in the Forsyth County Register of Deeds index, searched by the owner's name and the property, and judgments are kept by the court clerk, not the recorder. Each deed of trust also needs a recorded satisfaction to be off the title. A HeritageDeed report does this for one address in Forsyth County: $49, usually within minutes, with the source of every finding.

Search a Forsyth County property, $49

Step by step in Forsyth County

1
Identify the parcel
Find the owner of record and the parcel number in the Forsyth County Tax Administration records: liens are indexed against the owner's name and the property.
2
Search the recorded liens
Search the Forsyth County Register of Deeds index under the owner's name and the property for liens, lis pendens and other notices.
3
Check the court for judgments
Judgments are docketed with the Clerk of Superior Court, not with the Forsyth County Register of Deeds; search the owner's name there too.
4
Check every deed of trust
A deed of trust with no recorded satisfaction is still a lien of record; North Carolina gives the lender 30 days after the creditor receives full payment (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-36.9).
5
Or order the report
A HeritageDeed report runs these searches for one Forsyth County address and lists every finding with its source, $49, usually within minutes.

What Forsyth County records show

In North Carolina, deeds and other real property documents are recorded by the county Register of Deeds. A recorded conveyance is effective against lien creditors and purchasers only from the time of its registration (G.S. 47-18), so the order of recording decides priority.

A North Carolina home loan is secured by a deed of trust. The lender must submit a satisfaction for recording within 30 days after payoff (G.S. 45-36.9), so a loan with no recorded satisfaction is still a lien of record.

The Register links a deed of trust and its satisfaction to each other by cross-reference, and UCC financing statements are not available through the Register's real estate records.

The Register's office says information about divorce decrees, estates, foreclosures, judgments, liens, wills and paternity is held by the Clerk of Superior Court; judgments are docketed there, not with the Register of Deeds (G.S. 1-234).

A real Forsyth County report

We ran this search on the Wells Fargo Center (100 N Main St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101): 1 deed, 1 open deed of trust, 0 recorded liens. See the Forsyth County sample report.

What the report checks in Forsyth County

Liens and other notices recorded with the Register, listed as name matches to verify
Federal court records matched to the owner

Not covered here

Judgments, and the liens, estates and wills the Register says are kept by the Clerk of Superior Court, are not searched.

Questions

Are judgments recorded with the Forsyth County Register of Deeds in Forsyth County?

How long does a lender have to record a satisfaction in North Carolina?

30 days after the creditor receives full payment (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-36.9). Statutory duty to submit the satisfaction for recording.

What does a HeritageDeed search in Forsyth County not cover?

Records are computerized from 1965 and show only the year for documents before 1997; earlier instruments and the Register's older books are not searched.

Is this title insurance?

No. It is a search of the public record for one Forsyth County property. A lender closing a loan will still require a title insurance commitment from a licensed insurer.

More about Forsyth County property records

Check the title of a Forsyth County property

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