I know that for relatively small amounts of money a civil lien will just sit on a house and there is nothing else the lienholder can do.
However, at some point of value, it must be possible to sieze the house. For example, if a homeowner has $200,000 in equity in their home and there is a judgement against them for $5,000, then at best the plaintiff could get a passive lien for $5,000 on the house. However, let's say instead that the judgement was for $190,000, then in that case the plaintiff could probably have the house seized and sold to satisfy the debt.
My question is if there are legal standards defining at what point a claim is so large in comparison to the value of an asset, that the asset can be seized, or is it just at the personal whim of the judge to decide it?
(Note I am not talking about a mortgage here, I am talking about when somebody gets sued and the winner of the lawsuit wants to start seizing the loser's stuff and selling it to satisfy the judgement.)