California Judgment Collection
California gives a judgment creditor two entirely separate lien filings in two different offices. An abstract of judgment recorded with a county recorder binds real property in that county alone. A notice of judgment lien filed with the Secretary of State under Code of Civil Procedure section 697.510 binds six defined categories of business personal property statewide – for five years, continuable only through a six-month window before it lapses. What either filing is then worth turns on a county-keyed homestead formula, on Family Code sections 910 and 911, and on facts a record can answer: which county, which category of property, which account title. Identifying those facts is our half of the work. The filings, and the law, are your attorney’s.
One Judgment, Two Offices
A California money judgment reaches real property through an abstract recorded county by county, and business personal property through a single statewide notice filed with the Secretary of State under CCP 697.510. The statewide lien lives five years from filing and can be continued only inside the six-month window before it lapses. It attaches to six categories listed in 697.530 – and never to a DMV-registered vehicle or ordinary retail stock under $500 a unit. The homestead is a formula, not a number: the greater of the county’s prior-year median sale price capped at $600,000, or $300,000, both indexed annually since 2022. Except where a statute expressly provides otherwise, Family Code 910 exposes the whole community estate to either spouse’s debt; 911 walls off the non-debtor spouse’s earnings from a premarital debt only while the account title is exactly right. Every switch in that list is a records question. General information, not legal advice.
One Judgment, Two Filing Offices: Recorder and Secretary of State
Fifty-eight county recorders for land; one statewide filing for business assets.
The familiar filing is the abstract of judgment, recorded with a county recorder. It creates a lien on the debtor’s interests in real property in that county – including interests acquired there later – and under section 697.310(b) it runs ten years from the entry of the judgment, not from the day the abstract reached the recorder’s counter. Its reach is exactly as wide as the list of counties you record in: an abstract in Fresno County says nothing about a parcel in San Bernardino, and a creditor who wants the whole state covered is making up to fifty-eight separate filings.
The second system has no county in it. Under section 697.510(a), a judgment lien on personal property is created by filing one notice of judgment lien in the office of the Secretary of State. Three conditions sit in the subdivision itself: the judgment must be a money judgment, it must have been first entered in California after June 30, 1983, and – subject to one statutory exception – a judgment payable in installments qualifies only once every installment has come due. Filed, the notice binds a defined list of business property wherever in the state it sits.
Which office to use, and when, is not this page’s question. The clock and the procedure – the ten-year life of the judgment, its renewal regimes, the writ, wage withholding, the debtor examination – belong to our California judgment collection guide. This page maps what each filing can actually bind, because that is where the records decide the outcome.
Two Liens in Two and a Half Minutes
The two filings, and the property neither one touches.
Watch Overview
Five Years and a Six-Month Door: Keeping the 697.510 Lien Alive
The Secretary of State lien runs on its own clock, and it is shorter than the judgment’s.
Subdivision (b) gives the lien five years from the date of filing. Subdivision (d) opens the only door for extending it: a continuation statement may be filed only within the six-month period before the five years expire. Subdivision (e) is blunt about both edges of that door – a continuation statement filed outside the window is ineffective. Filed in time, it continues the lien for five more years counted from the day the original notice would have lapsed, and succeeding continuation statements may repeat the cycle the same way.
The lien can also end early. Under subdivision (g) it is extinguished at the earliest of three events: the judgment is satisfied; the judgment’s own period of enforceability ends, counting any renewal extension; or the lien is terminated or released. Once it is extinguished, the statute puts the creditor on a short clock of its own – a statement of release must be filed within 20 days after the creditor receives the debtor’s authenticated demand, with a noticed-motion court route behind it if the creditor does not act. And subdivision (i) adds teeth that cut both ways: in any action or proceeding under the section, the court shall award reasonable attorney’s fees to the prevailing party, whichever side that is.
The operative numbers behind the two filings and the homestead formula, in one place:
| The number | What it measures | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
| 10 years from entry | Life of the county-recorded abstract lien on real property – measured from entry of judgment, not from recording | CCP 697.310(b) |
| 5 years from filing | Life of the Secretary of State lien on personal property | CCP 697.510(b) |
| 6 months | The only period in which a continuation statement is effective | CCP 697.510(d)-(e) |
| 20 days | Creditor’s deadline to file a statement of release after an authenticated demand, once the lien is extinguished | CCP 697.510(g) |
| $500 per unit | Durable-goods retail value that pulls retail inventory into the lien – flat statutory text, no indexing clause | CCP 697.530(d)(3) |
| $300,000 / $600,000 | Homestead floor and cap as printed, both adjusted annually for inflation since January 1, 2022 | CCP 704.730 |
Six Categories In, Three Out: What the Statewide Lien Binds
Counted from the text of section 697.530 as amended effective January 1, 2026.
| What the personal-property lien attaches to | Condition in the statute |
|---|---|
| Accounts receivable | The judgment debtor is located in this state. Records |
| Chattel paper | The judgment debtor is located in this state. |
| Equipment | Located within this state. |
| Farm products | Located within this state. |
| Inventory | Located within this state. |
| Negotiable documents of title | Located within this state. |
That is the whole list – paragraphs (1) through (6), and nothing else, and only interests already subject to money-judgment enforcement at the moment the lien is created. Subdivision (b) makes the filing forward-looking rather than a snapshot: an interest of a listed kind acquired after the notice is filed is caught at the moment it is acquired. One practical limit is worth naming alongside that: the lien by itself does not intercept payment. Until there is an actual levy, an account debtor may pay or settle the receivable without the creditor’s consent.
Subdivision (d) then removes three things by name. No vehicle or vessel required to be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles, and no mobilehome or commercial coach registered under the Health and Safety Code. No as-extracted collateral or timber to be cut. And no retail merchant’s inventory held for sale – except to the extent it consists of durable goods with a unit retail value of at least $500, a flat figure with no indexing clause, unlike almost every other number in this article. The statute even defines who is not a retail merchant for the purpose, including a seller more than seventy-five percent of whose sales are for resale.
Read the six and the three together and the tool’s character is plain: this is a business-asset lien. It reaches receivables, equipment, farm products and qualifying stock; it does not reach a debtor’s car or a shop’s ordinary shelves. A salaried debtor with a car and a rented apartment is outside it entirely – a useful negative finding before anyone pays a filing fee. Whether the name on your judgment stands behind equipment and receivables or behind nothing is the ground covered in collecting a judgment against a business – and if you would rather have that answer before you file anything, you can order the records check and hand your attorney what comes back.
The Homestead Is a Formula Keyed to Your County’s Median
Section 704.730 protects the greater of two moving figures.
What an abstract is worth on a home depends on the homestead exemption, and California states it as a formula. Under section 704.730(a) the amount is the greater of two figures: the countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year before the year the debtor claims the exemption, not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars – or three hundred thousand dollars. Subdivision (b) then adjusts both amounts annually for inflation, beginning January 1, 2022, by the change in the annual California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, rounded to the nearest twenty-five dollars.
Two consequences a flat number would hide. Because the first branch is a countywide median, the protected amount genuinely differs between a coastal county and an inland one for identical debtors – and the same debtor’s exemption changes if they move. And both branches index every January – the Judicial Council’s exemption list covers other exemption amounts but not the homestead, which adjusts on its own schedule under 704.730(b). Treat any specific dollar amount you read for 2026 as third-party arithmetic with an expiry date. The durable facts are the formula, the floor and the cap – and the county, which is not a background detail but an input to the calculation. The wider exemption picture sits in our California asset exemptions reference.
Family Code 910 vs 911: The Account Title Decides
One section opens the community estate; the other shuts a single door inside it.
Read from a creditor’s chair, Family Code section 910 is startlingly generous. Except where a statute expressly provides otherwise, it exposes the whole community estate to a debt of either spouse, whether incurred before the marriage or during it – and it removes two objections a creditor might expect to face. It does not matter which spouse manages and controls the property, and it does not matter whether one or both spouses were parties to the debt or to the judgment on it. Subdivision (b) subtracts one interval: the stretch after the date of separation and before a dissolution or legal-separation judgment. So a judgment with a single married defendant on its caption is not, by that fact, confined to that defendant’s separate property.
Section 911 hands one specific asset back, on conditions. The earnings of the non-debtor spouse during marriage are not liable for a debt the other spouse incurred before the marriage – and once paid, they stay protected only while two things hold together: the money sits in a deposit account the debtor spouse has no right to withdraw from, and it stays uncommingled with the rest of the community estate, trivial amounts aside. Move those wages into a joint account and the wall is gone. The shield covers premarital debt only; for a debt incurred during the marriage, 910 is the operative rule.
So 911 is not a status question but a records question: how the account is titled, who can draw on it, what else has been mixed into it. Whether a particular asset is community or separate is a legal characterisation that belongs to your attorney – the underlying doctrine is mapped in our California community property laws explainer. What records can establish is how holdings appear to be titled, which is the factual predicate that analysis needs.
The 695.030 Edge: What No California Judgment Reaches
And the published figures for what a debtor keeps anyway.
Before any exemption is argued, section 695.030 draws the boundary of the enforceable estate: except as otherwise provided by statute, property of the judgment debtor that is not assignable or transferable is not subject to enforcement of a money judgment. Subdivision (b) then names two things that are subject to enforcement, and both surprise people. The first is an interest in a trust, to the extent provided by law. The second is a cause of action for money or property that is the subject of a pending action or special proceeding – a debtor who is themselves suing somebody has an asset, and a debtor with a pending injury or contract claim is not as empty as a bank search suggests.
Inside the boundary, California also publishes operative figures for what a levy leaves behind. Unlike the homestead, these appear on the Judicial Council’s current exemption list – form EJ-156, revised July 20, 2026:
| What the debtor keeps | Operative figure | Code section |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit account, automatic | $2,325 per judgment debtor, no exemption claim required | CCP 704.220 |
| Motor vehicle | $8,625 | CCP 704.010 |
| Account holding directly deposited Social Security | $4,400 with one designated payee; $6,575 with two or more | CCP 704.080(b) |
| Tools of trade | $10,950 – or $21,900 where spouses share the trade – of which a commercial motor vehicle counts only up to $4,850 / $9,700 | CCP 704.060 |
Two cautions the list itself carries. The automatic deposit-account figure does not stack with the direct-deposit exemptions – where the Social Security figure is the greater, that one applies instead of the $2,325. And the $4,400 and $6,575 rows are Social Security specifically; the parallel public-benefit rows are lower, at $2,175 and $3,250, while directly deposited benefit funds above those figures remain exempt to the extent they can be traced to the payments. The Article 3 amounts took effect April 1, 2025 and adjust on a three-year cycle; the deposit-account figure adjusts each July 1.
The Records That Answer Each Switch
Six California questions whose answer is a fact, not an argument – and our half of the work.
Is There Equipment, or Just a Car?
697.530 reaches equipment; it never reaches a DMV-registered vehicle.
Which Counties Hold Real Property?
An abstract only binds where it is recorded.
Which County Sets the Homestead?
704.730 uses that county’s prior-year median.
How Is the Account Held?
911 turns on withdrawal rights and commingling.
Is the Debtor Suing Somebody?
695.030(b) makes a pending claim reachable.
Is the Stock Ordinary Retail?
Retail inventory is out unless units clear $500.
None of the six is a legal question. Each is a documented fact about a parcel, a filing, an account or a piece of equipment, and each one changes which California rule applies before anyone argues about anything. That is why asset research is not the step after a levy fails – it is the step that decides which levy is worth running. The general shape of that work is in asset search for judgment collection and the deliverable in a judgment debtor asset profile report.
Our half is documentary. We confirm the debtor’s identity against the judgment so nothing is aimed at a namesake, develop a current California location, and research recorded real property across counties, business affiliations and equipment, and how holdings and accounts appear to be titled – each finding delivered with its source and an honest note on how current and complete it is. All of it comes out of recorded instruments, court files and licensed data, opened on a purpose the law permits – enforcing an entered judgment is one such purpose – and none of it from inside anybody’s bank account. We do not file notices, record abstracts, levy, garnish, or contact the debtor to demand payment; those are legal acts, and the characterising calls that go with them belong to you and your attorney. Our wider skip tracing services apply the same method outside California.
One category of request we decline. Where a request looks aimed at reaching a person who has taken steps to be unreachable for their own safety – a survivor of violence or stalking who has deliberately kept their address out of the ordinary residential record trail – we decline it and explain why. Holding a judgment does not change that answer.
Eight California Questions, Answered From the Code
What property can a California judgment actually reach?
Two different things through two different filings. An abstract of judgment recorded with a county recorder reaches the debtor’s real property in that county, including property they buy there later. A notice of judgment lien filed with the Secretary of State under CCP 697.510 reaches six enumerated categories of business personal property anywhere in California. Outside those, section 695.030 sets the general boundary: property that is not assignable or transferable is not subject to enforcement of a money judgment at all.
What is a notice of judgment lien with the California Secretary of State?
It is the filing that creates a judgment lien on personal property under CCP 697.510(a), and it is available only for a money judgment first entered in California after June 30, 1983 – with a judgment payable in installments qualifying, subject to one statutory exception, only once every installment has come due. Unlike a county-recorded abstract it is statewide: one filing, no county in it. It continues for five years from the date of filing.
When can I file the continuation statement for a 697.510 lien – and when is it too early or too late?
Only within the six-month period before the five-year lien expires – that is the entire window. A continuation statement filed before the window opens, or after the lien has lapsed, is ineffective under 697.510(e). Filed in time, it continues the lien for five more years counted from the day the original notice would have lapsed, and succeeding continuation statements may be filed the same way. The five years runs from the date of filing, not from the judgment, so the window is calendared from the notice itself.
Can a California judgment lien take the debtor’s car or store inventory?
The Secretary of State lien cannot. CCP 697.530(d) says it does not attach to a vehicle or vessel required to be registered with the DMV, to a registered mobilehome or commercial coach, to as-extracted collateral or timber to be cut, or to a retail merchant’s inventory held for sale – except durable goods with a unit retail value of at least $500, a flat figure with no indexing clause. In practice it is a business-asset tool: it reaches receivables and equipment, not a debtor’s car or a shop’s ordinary shelf stock.
How much home equity does California protect – $300,000 or $600,000?
Neither number by itself – section 704.730 states a formula. The exemption is the greater of the countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the prior calendar year, capped at $600,000, or $300,000. Both amounts have been adjusting annually for inflation since January 1, 2022, rounded to the nearest $25, and the Judicial Council’s exemption list covers other exemption amounts but not the homestead – so the durable facts are the formula and your county’s prior-year median; treat any exact dollar amount you read as third-party arithmetic.
Can a judgment against one spouse reach community property in California?
Except where a statute expressly provides otherwise, Family Code section 910 exposes the community estate to a debt of either spouse arising before or during the marriage, and it removes two objections a creditor might expect – it does not matter which spouse manages the property, and it does not matter whether one or both were named in the debt or the judgment. Subdivision (b) subtracts the interval after the date of separation and before a dissolution judgment. Whether that reaches a particular asset is a legal characterisation for your attorney; our part is establishing how the asset appears to be titled.
Are the non-debtor spouse’s wages safe from a premarital judgment in California?
Under Family Code 911, yes – while two conditions hold together. The non-debtor spouse’s earnings during marriage are not liable for a debt the other spouse incurred before the marriage, and once paid they stay protected only while held in a deposit account the debtor spouse has no right of withdrawal from, uncommingled with other community property apart from insignificant amounts. The shield covers premarital debt only; for a debt incurred during the marriage, section 910 rather than 911 is the operative rule.
How does this page differ from the California judgment collection guide?
This page owns what a California judgment can reach: the two lien systems, the six categories and three exclusions in 697.530, the homestead formula in 704.730, the outer boundary in 695.030, and community-property liability under Family Code 910 and 911. The California judgment collection guide owns the clock and the procedure – the ten-year period from entry, the two renewal regimes, the county-by-county writ, the earnings withholding ceiling, and the debtor examination. They cover different statutes and neither repeats the other.
Find Out What Your California Judgment Can Reach
Every rule on this page is applied to a specific parcel, a specific account, or a specific piece of equipment – and somebody has to identify it first. Give us the debtor, the judgment, and the lawful reason for the enquiry. What comes back is the California property of record – which counties, which categories, how each holding appears to be titled – set out with sources for your attorney; the first read usually lands within 24 hours.
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