Where property is subject to a lien and part of it is sold by the debtor, the part remaining shall be first applied to the payment of the lien. If the property subject to the lien is sold in several parcels at different times, the parcels shall be charged in the inverse order of their alienation.
§ 9-13-51.Sale of property subject to lien; order of application to payment
Chapter 13. Executions and Judicial Sales · Article 3. Property Against Which Execution Levied · Last amended 1933 · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceO.C.G.A. § 9-13-51 requires that when property subject to a lien is partly sold off by the debtor, the part the debtor still owns is applied to the lien first, and when the property is sold in separate parcels at different times, the parcels answer for the lien in reverse order of their sale, so the parcel sold most recently is exhausted before parcels sold earlier.
Full Text of § 9-13-51
Plain-English Summary
A lien does not vanish just because the debtor sells off pieces of the property it covers. This section decides which piece bears the burden when only part of the encumbered property remains in the debtor's hands. Whatever the debtor still owns gets applied to the lien first, ahead of anything already sold to someone else.
The second rule handles a debtor who sells the encumbered property off in separate parcels over time, to different buyers. Rather than spreading the lien evenly across every purchaser, the statute charges the parcels in reverse order of sale — the parcel conveyed away most recently answers for the lien first, and the parcel sold earliest answers last, if it has to answer at all. A buyer who purchased early, before the debtor kept selling off more of the same encumbered tract, is not made to share the loss equally with a buyer who came along later.
The practical effect favors the earliest purchaser. Someone who buys a slice of encumbered land or goods takes some risk that the lien might still reach the property, but this section tells that buyer the risk shrinks with time: each later sale by the debtor pushes the lien's first claim onto property sold afterward, protecting the parcels already sold from being resorted to until the more recently sold parcels are used up.
Frequently Asked Questions
If a debtor sells part of lien-encumbered property, which part answers for the lien first?
The part the debtor still owns. O.C.G.A. § 9-13-51 requires that the remaining property be applied to the lien before the lien reaches property already sold.
What happens when the debtor sells the encumbered property off in several parcels over time?
The parcels are charged in the inverse order of their sale — the parcel sold most recently is resorted to first, and the parcel sold earliest is resorted to last.
Does this rule protect the earliest purchaser of a parcel?
Yes, as a practical matter. Because later-sold parcels bear the lien first, an early purchaser's parcel is the last one reached if the lien has to be satisfied out of the sold-off property.
Does this section apply only to real estate?
No. The text speaks generally of property subject to a lien sold in parcels, without limiting itself to land, so it can apply to other property sold off in pieces as well.
Can the debtor and a buyer change this order by agreement?
This section does not address private agreements between the debtor and a purchaser; it states the default order that applies to successive sales of encumbered property.
Amendment History
Civil Code 1895, § 5424; Civil Code 1910, § 6029; Code 1933, § 39-118.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published by the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Georgia Code Revision Commission / LexisNexis. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: georgia inverse order of alienation lienorder parcels charged lien georgiamarshaling encumbered property sold in parcels georgiawhich purchaser bears lien first georgia execution