Lis Pendens

It’s been fun and all, but after fifteen years of marriage, our good friends Aldous and Hepsibah are getting a divorce. Hepsibah wants to stay in the house they own, and Aldous says that’s fine...as long as she's willing to give him half the value of the home in the divorce settlement. “No way,” says Hepsibah.

And now we have a problem. If Aldous wants that money, it looks like he’s going to have to file a lawsuit.

Well, of course he wants the money, so that’s exactly what he does. As soon as that happens—as soon as a legal claim is filed pertaining to a piece of property or real estate—a “lis pendens” is issued: a formal written notice that alerts the public that a certain piece of property is currently involved in litigation.

Lis pendens are attached to the property itself and not necessarily to the property’s owner, which means that, if Hepsibah decides to sell the house, the new owner is going to have to deal with Aldous’s lawsuit. In fact, regardless of whether she, um...loves it or lists it, the lis pendens will remain until that lawsuit is done and dusted.

We don’t only use lis pendens in contested divorce property cases, though. They can also be issued when a bank goes after a borrower for defaulting on a loan, or in cases where potential buyers sue property sellers for discriminatory or otherwise contract-breaching practices.

Lis pendens are to real estate sales what garlic is to vampires: no one wants to pay for someone else’s legal issues, so if there’s a lis pendens hanging around, chances are, buyers won’t be.