What is a Lis Pendens?
The term lis pendens sounds like a foreign concept to many of those who are not really vested that much into real estate laws and regulations. Lis Pendens is a Latin phrase that stands for litigation pending, it is also commonly known as "caution".
Bret Sanya
It is a notice in the form of a register to the effect that no action of a specified nature in relation to the land or real property in respect of which the notice has been entered may be taken without first informing the person who gave the notice.
To put this into a simpler form, you simply file a complaint and the complaint is usually with regard to a certain property and the complaint usually has to relate to the title or possession of the real property.
The complaint has to be alleging that they have a right to a title or possession of the property and after filing the complaint you then can file a lis pendens.
By the time you are filing the lis pendens, you have already outlined in your complaint the reason for the lis pendens e.g. you may be complaining about wrongful foreclosure.
A lis pendens usually give a description of what the case is about i.e. it informs of the case number, the name of the plaintiff and basically, it gives a legal description of the complaint. It also serves as a public record.
