Well, even if you owned a home and they did put a lien on it, they still couldn't do much as long as you were still living in it--like they couldn't legally put you out on the streets. Having a lien on a home simply means that if you ever actually sold your home, they would get to keep whatever didn't go to the bank. Like for instance, say you still owed 50,000 on your home and you sold it for 52,000. The bank would get to keep the 50,000 you owe them and the creditor would get whatever's left over. Sometimes, the creditors don't like to mess with that because it's a lot of paperwork and they still often don't get the whole amount that is owed them. Usually, it's used as more of a scare tactic than anything else, because a lot of people don't know the whole story--and creditors count on that. (P.S. I learned that personal experience.)