When a residential property is free of liens, lenders are no longer assuring that an escrow is in place to pay real estate taxes and insurance. They may monitor the payments, but they are no longer making those payments out of an account specially set up to cover those costs.If the mortgage is not set up with an escrow account, such as with a reverse mortgage or home equity line of credit, and payments are not made, the lender can foreclose. Since real estate taxes are superior to mortgage liens, non-payment makes the …