What Does Lien Mean?

Lien can be described as the right to take over the possession of the property belonging to someone if the obligation is not honoured. In other words, it means the right to take ownership or dispose off the property of a debtor as payment or security for a debt. In the financial parlance, it is the creditor's or the bank's right to sell the property in mortgage or any such collateral of the person, who fails to make a payment or honour the obligations of the loan contract. For instance, a mortgage lender has a lien, or the right to foreclose and take ownership or sell off the property, in case the debtor is not able to make the payment for the mortgage loan

Liens can be of the consensual or non-consensual nature. In the consensual type of lien, there is a contract between the creditor and the debtor, for example, a mortgage contract. Non-consensual lien comes into existence by the operation of the common law or a statute, for example, tax-liens, attorney liens, judgment liens, maritime liens etc.

The term 'statutory lien' is used as a noun and is formed of two different words. As the word is formed of two different words the meaning that can be derived from the term can also has its relationship with the two words.

Statutory is a word that describes something that is fixed by law and any body who is not abiding by it is committing the offence of breaking the law. Lien is a word that defines the meaning of the right to keep the property that belongs to somebody and the property is kept until the debt the person has taken is paid.

So the term 'statutory lien' describes the idea of keeping somebody's property by law until he pays the debt he has taken.

I owe my electric company an outstanding balance and I have made several attempts to make an arrangement..the electric company wanted me to put half down wich I didn't have and they sent me something saying they were going to put a lien on my property. What does this mean?