Galveston County solar lien search

Where do you search for a solar lien in Galveston County?

In the Galveston County Clerk's real property records. A solar lien is usually a UCC fixture filing, and Texas sends fixture filings to the county clerk rather than to the Secretary of State. A clean result from the state UCC index says nothing about a house in Galveston, League City or Texas City.

The Texas Secretary of State's UCC FAQsends a fixture filing to "a Texas county clerk". For a home anywhere in this county that clerk is the Galveston County Clerk, who the county describes as custodian of deeds and other instruments. The rule for every state is onwhere to search for a solar lien.

Which of the clerk's searches do you open?

The one behind Search Real Property Records. This is the step people get wrong here, because the clerk runs more than one online search and they do not cover the same records. Land records open in the AVA record search. Marriage records and assumed name records open in a different portal entirely. Starting from the clerk'sRecords Search pageand clicking the wrong line means searching a set of records a fixture filing was never going to be in.

Why does the index only find you by name?

Because that is how the clerk files things. The county's own recording fee schedule charges $0.25 for each name over five that has to be indexed against a document, which tells you plainly what the index is made of. A name that was typed wrong, or left off, is a name the search will not return.

So search every owner on the deed, one at a time. Try the version with a middle initial and the version without. Try an earlier surname. And if the people you bought from had solar, search their names too, because a filing made before you owned the place sits under them.

Do you need a certified copy?

Not for your own check. You are reading the document to see who filed it and what it covers, and a plain copy shows you that. The clerk sends certified copies through a separate request service and charges $5.00 for the certification plus $1.00 a page. If a title company or a lender needs a certified record, getting it is their job at closing, not yours this afternoon.

The clerk's Real Property page also links a Property Fraud Alert sign-up for Galveston County. Worth doing after you sign anything that touches the house, because a filing recorded against your name later is the one nobody thinks to go looking for.

What do you do if you find a solar filing?

Read who filed it. A filing for a solar loan you have already paid off needs a UCC-3 termination from the lender, recorded with the clerk. A filing that protects a lease or power purchase agreement still running means asking the provider, in writing, what they need for a sale or a refinance. Ask now. The reply is the slow part.

It matters at a sale because of lender rules, not the panels.Fannie Mae's Selling Guiderequires a UCC search on a home with solar and requires a filing ahead of the mortgage to be subordinated before the loan closes. The closing version is atselling a house with solar, and refinancing is atsolar leases, refinancing and DTI.

Does every kind of solar leave a filing?

No. Loans nearly always do, leases and power purchase agreements often do, and cash purchases and subscriptions leave nothing on the record. The breakdown is ondo solar panels put a lien on your house. We sell subscriptions, the no-filing kind, so read it knowing where we stand.

Looking at solar for a Galveston County home?

If you want solar with nothing recorded against the house,run your bill through the estimator. It takes about a minute and a real person in Houston follows up. The Texas page covers who this is a bad fit for before you spend any more time on it.