{"id":19021,"date":"2025-03-12T04:24:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T11:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=19021"},"modified":"2025-05-05T08:06:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:06:33","slug":"can-you-sell-a-house-with-a-lis-pendens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/can-you-sell-a-house-with-a-lis-pendens\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Sell a House With a Lis Pendens or Pending Lawsuit?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019d like to sell off a piece of real estate, but you\u2019re severely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/can-i-sell-my-house-if-im-behind-on-payments\/\">behind on your mortgage payments<\/a>, owe a bunch of property taxes to the county, or find yourself in the midst of a heated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/sell-house-before-or-after-divorce\/\">divorce<\/a>. Any one of these situations could result in someone, such as the lender or your former spouse, suing you \u2014 in effect placing what\u2019s known as a \u201clis pendens\u201d on your home.<\/p>\n<p>Desperate for a clean break from the situation, you\u2019re wondering: can you sell a house with a lis pendens for a decent price \u2014 ideally before the bank forecloses or the expensive legal fees pile up?<\/p>\n<p>We get that this is a stressful situation, so we put together this guide including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">What is lis pendens?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Who files lis pendens and what\u2019s their motivation?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">How a lis pendens affects your ability to sell the house<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The risk buyers see in pursuing a house with a lis pendens<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The hidden opportunity in selling with a lis pendens<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Who can help you resolve the lis pendens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">Step one: Talk to an expert!<\/h3>\n                        <p>Selling your house soon? Connect with a top agent near you to get an expert opinion on how much your house will sell for, what to fix before listing, and the latest local housing market trends.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/find-agent\/quiz\/seller?#\/qaas=0\/\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Learn More<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div id=\"section--1\" data-toc-header=\"The basics: What is a lis pendens?\" data-toc-type=\"head\"><\/div>\n<h2>The basics: What is lis pendens?<\/h2>\n<p>Translated from Latin, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/lis_pendens\">\u201clis pendens<\/a>\u201d means \u201ca suit pending.\u201d So if you\u2019re selling a home with a lis pendens, you have a formal notice of a pending lawsuit on a property that could interfere with the sale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lis pendens is a written notice that a legal action has been filed involving real estate,\u201d says David Reischer, Esq., real estate attorney and CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/real-estate-law.legaladvice.com\/\">LegalAdvice.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTypically the claim involves either the title to the property or a claimed ownership interest in it. The notice is usually filed in the county records office, so there is a record of the action alerting any potential buyers of the dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A lis pendens is recorded on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/deed-vs-title\/\">title of the home<\/a>, just like any other lien or mortgage. To find out whether one has been filed on your property, you can do a free search at the county clerk or recorder\u2019s office, either online or in-person. You\u2019ll just need your house\u2019s parcel number.<\/p>\n<p>Another option is to contact a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/title-company\/\">title company<\/a> and request that they run a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-what-is-a-property-title-search\/\">title search<\/a> on the property, or ask your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/why-hire-a-real-estate-agent\/\">real estate agent<\/a> for guidance.<\/p>\n<p>In the event that you aren\u2019t aware of the lis pendens when you go to sell your home, it will eventually come to light when the purchasing process begins, as either the buyer, the agent, or the lender will most likely obtain a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/preliminary-title-report\/\">title report<\/a> that will note the existence of the pending lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tullylegal.com\/attorneys\/jeffrey-nogee\">Jeffrey L. Nogee<\/a>, partner at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tullylegal.com\/\">Tully Rinckey PLLC<\/a>, a lis pendens is only valid where the underlying dispute involves the real property. Filing a lis pendens for a case that does not involve an ownership interest in the house is not permitted and carries strict penalties if misused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you sell a house with a lis pendens for a decent price \u2014 ideally before the bank forecloses or costly legal fees pile up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":55574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[322,341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-logistics","category-closing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can You Sell a House With a Lis Pendens or Pending Lawsuit?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can you sell a house with a lis pendens for a decent price \u2014 ideally before the bank forecloses or costly legal fees pile up?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/can-you-sell-a-house-with-a-lis-pendens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can You Sell a House With a Lis Pendens or Pending Lawsuit?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can you sell a house with a lis pendens for a decent price \u2014 ideally before the bank forecloses or costly legal fees pile up?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/can-you-sell-a-house-with-a-lis-pendens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HomeLight Blog\" 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