Has anyone closed a land assignment where the parcel had a tax lien from a prior owner that the county never released after the estate sale

Good news in the structure of this problem: the debt was actually paid. That is the hard part. What you have left is a recording gap, which is a paperwork problem, and those are solvable.

A tax lien release (also called a lien satisfaction, the document the county records to show the debt is gone) should have been filed by the county treasurer's office at the time of payoff in 2020. It was not. Your seller has the receipt and the probate accounting line item, which means you have the evidence you need to request that the release be generated retroactively.

The practical path most people take in this situation: call the Thurston County Treasurer's office directly, ask for the person who handles lien releases, and tell them you have proof of a 2020 payoff on a 2011 lien and need a formal release recorded. Bring the receipt number, the payoff date, and the parcel number. Some counties will draft and record the release themselves in one to two weeks once they confirm the payment in their own system. Others require a formal written request on county letterhead or a specific form.

I cannot tell you how long Thurston County takes right now because that varies. The probate attorney who handled the estate in 2020 is also worth a call because they may have internal correspondence with the treasurer's office that speeds things up.

Your title company contact is your other lever here. Ask them whether they would insure with an indemnity agreement (a written promise to resolve a known title issue) while the release is in process, or whether they would consider a hold-back from the seller's proceeds. A real estate attorney familiar with Washington title law can tell you which of those options applies to your situation. That is worth one short consult.

Do you know yet whether your end buyer has any flexibility past the 30-day window if the release takes an extra week or two?

The lien itself is not the problem. The county recorded evidence of the debt and never recorded evidence of the extinguishment. That is a purely administrative gap, and in most cases it is resolvable, but "resolvable" and "resolvable in 30 days" are two different things.

The assumption doing the most work in your timeline is that Thurston County will prioritize this. Treasurer's offices issue lien releases through their own process, and the backlog varies by staffing and fiscal calendar. Some counties can get a release recorded in a week once you present a payoff receipt and a written request from the property owner. Others take six to ten weeks even with clean documentation. I cannot tell you where Thurston sits right now; you need to call the county treasurer's office directly, ask specifically about the release process for a tax lien paid through probate, and ask what the current processing time is. Get that answer in writing or at minimum document who you spoke to and when.

The seller's receipt from the county treasurer and the probate accounting line item are exactly what you need to initiate that request. The probate attorney who handled the estate should also be able to generate a letter referencing the payoff within the probate proceedings, which can accelerate county acceptance of the request. Whether that attorney charges for that letter is between the seller and the attorney, but confirm who is initiating the request to the county, because this should come from the property owner, not from you.

The risk you did not raise: your end buyer has a 30-day window. If the county release takes longer, you have a deadline problem. Your options are to get the buyer to extend, to negotiate a short extension now before the title company's flag turns into a buyer concern, or to structure around it with a closing contingent on lien release. Talk to your title officer about whether they can close into escrow pending recordation of the release once it is confirmed as issued. Some title companies will do this; others will not insure until the release is actually on record.

What is the current status of your contract with the seller? Does it have a contingency period still open, or are you past that?