Can You Sell a Property With a Lis Pendens (Lawsuit Pending)?
You can sell a property with a lis pendens, and it doesn’t have to be resolved before you can close. The notice follows the property and transfers to whoever buys it, narrowing the buyer pool significantly.
In my experience, most financed buyers walk away once a lis pendens shows on the title search. The ones still willing to move forward are almost always paying cash.
What a Lis Pendens Actually Does to Your Sale
Every title search on a property with an active lis pendens comes back flagged. The term translates from Latin as “lawsuit pending,” and under California Code of Civil Procedure § 405.20, any party to a real property lawsuit can file one once the action is on record.
In every transaction I’ve worked through where a lis pendens was on title, it showed up immediately in the title search and stayed there until the situation was resolved. Any buyer who takes title after that recording steps into the legal uncertainty with the property.
Can a Lis Pendens Stop a Sale?
A lis pendens doesn’t legally block a sale from happening. Most of the traditional buyer pool won’t participate once one shows on title, and the transaction ends up looking very different from a standard deal.
The financing wall is where I see these deals stall out most often. Lenders need clean title insurance to fund a loan, and a property with an active lis pendens can’t get one, which takes most buyers off the table before anyone makes an offer.
How Long Does a Lis Pendens Last in California?
California lis pendens filings don’t expire automatically. In every one I’ve dealt with, it stayed on title until either the underlying lawsuit resolved or someone went through the court process to remove it.
Sellers often come in assuming the filing will fall off eventually on its own. When the lawsuit is active, the lis pendens stays with it, and getting an attorney’s assessment of the underlying claim early creates options on the timeline that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
What It Does to Financing
In the deals I’ve worked through involving an active lis pendens, the financing problem hits at the title insurance stage. FHA and VA won’t fund on these properties at all, and conventional lenders run into the same wall once the title company flags the recording.
As a licensed real estate agent (California DRE #01505854), I’ve had deals fall apart mid-escrow when a lis pendens the seller hadn’t disclosed showed up on the title search. By the time that happens, the buyer has already paid for inspections and taken the property off the market, which ends up being harder on everyone than disclosing upfront and letting buyers decide with full information.
How It Affects the Buyer Pool
A property with clean title can attract a wide range of buyers competing against each other. Once a lis pendens is disclosed, most of that competition disappears.
The sellers I’ve seen try to list with an active lis pendens and no plan for addressing it have generally watched the property sit. Buyers who do show interest tend to be investors, and they build the legal uncertainty directly into their offer number.
Your Options Before You List
Resolve the Underlying Lawsuit
Resolving the underlying action is the cleanest path. Once the lawsuit is dismissed or settled, the party who filed has a legal obligation to release the lis pendens, and title clears once the release is recorded with the county.
For sellers where a settlement is realistic and the timeline isn’t urgent, getting the action resolved before listing gives you access to the full buyer pool. A sale that closes with clean title looks like any other transaction to a buyer and a lender.
Expungement Through the Court
If you can’t wait for the lawsuit to resolve, a court can order the lis pendens expunged. Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 405.32, the court will expunge the lis pendens if the party who filed it can’t establish by a preponderance of evidence that the underlying real property claim is probably valid.
Expungement leaves the lawsuit running while removing the cloud from title, which lets the property sell to a financed buyer. An attorney has to bring the motion, and the burden of proof falls on the party who filed, not on you as the seller.
The expungement process typically runs a few months from the time the motion is filed. An attorney who handles California real property actions can give you a realistic timeline based on the court’s calendar and the strength of the underlying claim.
Bonding Off the Lis Pendens
Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 405.33, a court can order the lis pendens expunged on the condition that the moving party posts an undertaking. The court makes that order when the underlying claim has probable validity but adequate protection for the plaintiff can be secured through the bond rather than keeping the lis pendens on title.
When the underlying claim has some validity and the lawsuit isn’t going to resolve quickly, the bond path lets you move the property without waiting for the court calendar. An attorney familiar with California real property actions can put that together once you’ve decided the timeline makes it the right move.
A Court-Ordered Sale in Wildomar
Momat Avenue, Wildomar
In December 2021 we closed on a house on Momat Avenue in Wildomar for $430,000. It was a court-ordered divorce sale, and a previous buyer had already been under contract and backed out.The property had to close before December 31, 2021, or the whole situation went back to court. A retail listing cycle wasn’t going to fit inside that window.
We walked through the property and put a number together that worked for both the condition and the timeline. The seller got 30 days post-close to move his things out, and we closed on December 30, 2021.
When a close date is set by a court calendar and not by when buyers feel ready, the traditional listing process can’t keep up. The seller needed a specific date and certainty, and a cash offer on a fixed timeline was the only path to that.
If the Lis Pendens Isn’t Going Away Before You Need to Sell
When resolving or expunging the lis pendens isn’t realistic before your sale needs to happen, a cash buyer is usually the realistic path. We buy properties with active title complications across Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, and I’ll be direct that I have an interest in that being part of the answer here.
A cash offer on a property with a lis pendens reflects the legal exposure the buyer is taking on. In situations where the underlying claim has real substance, the gap between what the property would sell for with clean title and what a cash buyer can offer is wider than sellers usually expect going in.
On the other side, some lis pendens filings are recorded as tactical moves in a dispute where the underlying claim is weak. In those situations the discount a cash buyer needs to build in is smaller, and the sellers we’ve closed with in those circumstances have often been surprised by how reasonable the number was.
We walked through how an as-is cash sale works in California and what it actually looks like from contract to wire, including how title complications like this one get handled through escrow rather than becoming the seller’s problem to resolve first.
Disclosure Requirements
A lis pendens has to go on the disclosure. Under California Civil Code § 1102, sellers are required to disclose known material facts affecting the property’s value or desirability, and a recorded lis pendens qualifies as a material fact affecting title.
An as-is sale doesn’t change the disclosure requirement, and forgetting the filing was there isn’t a defense if the buyer finds it after closing. A seller who closes without disclosing a lis pendens is carrying post-closing liability on a document that was already in the public record.
The lis pendens comes up across a range of situations covered in California title issues, and the ones I see most often are divorce proceedings and foreclosure actions. Knowing which situation you’re in shapes how quickly the disclosure conversation needs to happen and who else needs to be in the room.
Lis Pendens and Divorce
Divorce is one of the most common reasons a lis pendens gets recorded on a residential property in California. One spouse files for divorce, the property is jointly owned, and an attorney records a lis pendens to protect their client’s interest in the asset while the division is being worked out.
In a divorce situation, both spouses typically have to agree on the sale before it can move forward, which adds a layer of coordination on top of the title complication. We put together a full breakdown of how the timing and decision-making works in selling a house before or after a divorce in California, including how the property gets handled when the two sides aren’t aligned on price or timing.
Get an Attorney Involved
Selling with a lis pendens involves legal decisions that go beyond what a real estate agent can advise on. An attorney familiar with California real property actions can tell you whether expungement is viable and whether the bond substitution path makes more sense for your timeline than waiting for the lawsuit to resolve.
A seller who knows the underlying claim is weak is in a better negotiating position than one who isn’t sure, and the attorney is the one who can tell you which situation you’re actually in. That assessment changes how you approach the listing strategy and whether a cash sale makes more sense than sitting on the market waiting for the legal picture to clear.
For title situations where there are multiple liens or legal claims on the property alongside a lis pendens, the attorney conversation becomes even more important. Each obligation has its own resolution path, and the order in which they get addressed in escrow affects how the deal closes.
Selling During a Lawsuit When No Lis Pendens Has Been Recorded
If you’re in active litigation involving your property but the other side hasn’t recorded a lis pendens yet, you can generally sell through normal channels. The title search will come back clean, and a financed buyer can proceed.
The disclosure obligation still applies. Under California Civil Code § 1102, any known litigation that materially affects the property’s value or your right to transfer it has to go on the Transfer Disclosure Statement, even without a recorded lis pendens.
Once the other side learns a sale is underway, they may file a lis pendens mid-escrow to cloud the title, and that pattern comes up regularly in divorce and ownership disputes. Before listing, I’d want an attorney’s read on whether that’s a realistic risk in your specific situation.
Does a Lis Pendens Stop a Foreclosure?
A lis pendens doesn’t carry the stopping power most people assume when they hear the term. The automatic stay that actually pauses a foreclosure only comes from filing for bankruptcy, not from recording a lis pendens.
The two come together when a borrower files a lawsuit challenging the lender’s right to foreclose and records a lis pendens as part of that action. That recording can complicate the lender’s position, though the legal protection comes from the lawsuit itself, not from the lis pendens filing.
On deals where a foreclosure and a lis pendens were both in play, sellers have generally had more options than they assumed going in. We put together a breakdown of where those windows exist in the California foreclosure timeline after running into it enough to know where sellers still have room to act.
If You’re the Buyer: What a Pending Lawsuit Means for Your Purchase
Any buyer who takes title on a property with an active lis pendens is stepping into the legal uncertainty with it. The lis pendens stays on the property at transfer, and if the plaintiff wins afterward, the judgment attaches regardless of who owns it at that point.
Conventional and government-backed lenders won’t fund a purchase on a property with an active lis pendens. The title company can’t issue a clean policy on a property in active litigation, and lenders require that policy to fund.
Cash buyers skip the title insurance requirement and take the legal risk directly. Most investors who buy these properties have an attorney assess the underlying claim first, and that assessment shapes what they’re willing to offer.
If You’re Dealing With a Lis Pendens and Need to Move
We’ve worked through enough of these to know the situation looks different based on where the lawsuit stands and how much time you have. If you’re in Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, or San Diego counties and want to talk through your options, call or text us at (951) 331-3844 or request a cash offer through our website.
I’d rather spend time on a call helping you understand what path makes the most sense than have you commit to an approach before you know what the landscape looks like.
Andrea Van Soest is a licensed real estate agent (California DRE #01505854) and co-founded SoCal Home Buyers with her husband Doug Van Soest, who spent seven years as a certified residential appraiser starting in 2003. Together they have closed over 400 transactions across Southern California since 2008.
