What Is a Lis Pendens in Florida?

The Short Answer

A lis pendens (Latin for a pending suit) is a notice recorded in the official records of the county where the property sits, stating that a lawsuit is pending that may affect that property. Florida law gives the notice a specific set of effects. A person who buys or lends on the property after the notice is recorded takes subject to whatever the lawsuit decides. A person who buys or lends while no notice is of record takes free of the claims in the suit, even if that person knew about the case. The notice lasts 1 year from the start of the suit unless the claim is founded on a recorded instrument, and where it is not, the court controls and discharges it the way it would grant and dissolve an injunction, which is where the bond comes from.

Two situations bring people to the question. An owner who just found a lis pendens recorded against their home or lot wants it gone and wants to know what it costs the person who recorded it if the claim fails. A plaintiff about to file a quiet title action or a partition wants to know whether the notice will hold and whether a bond will be demanded. The answer to both turns on the same question, which is whether the lawsuit is built on the terms of a recorded instrument or on how that instrument came to be signed.

What a Lis Pendens Does to the Title

The notice has to be recorded to do anything. A lawsuit by itself, even one about the property, has no effect on title as against anyone outside the case unless a notice of lis pendens is recorded and has not expired, been withdrawn or been discharged. The notice must contain the names of the parties, the date the suit began or its case number, the name of the court, a description of the property, and a statement of the relief sought as to the property. A notice recorded the same day as the complaint can use the clerk’s date stamp for the filing date.

Three consequences follow from recording.

• Later buyers and lenders take subject to the outcome. Anyone who acquires an interest in or a lien on the property after the notice is recorded takes it subject to the judgment in the case. A title underwriter treats a live lis pendens as an exception it will not insure over, so in practice the property cannot be sold or refinanced until the notice is gone.
• Unrecorded interests have 30 days. The holder of an interest or lien that was unrecorded when the notice was recorded, including a federal tax lien, must move to intervene in the case within 30 days after the recording or be barred from enforcing it against the property. The exceptions are the interest of a person in possession and easements in use.
• Without a notice, a buyer for value takes free. Where a suit is not based on a recorded instrument and no notice is recorded, or the notice has expired, a person who pays value for an interest in the property takes it free of every claim in the suit and free of the judgment, as though that person had never heard of the case.

The third point decides the most money, and the section on what a buyer sees tells the story of a $400,000 condominium that turned on it.

The One-Year Life and the Recorded-Instrument Exception

A notice of lis pendens stops working 1 year after the suit was commenced, and expires at that point, unless the pending pleading shows that the relief sought is founded on a duly recorded instrument or on a construction lien. The court can extend the time on reasonable notice and for good cause, and can attach conditions to the extension. Time spent in an appellate court does not count toward the year.

The recorded-instrument exception is narrower than it sounds. A suit to foreclose a recorded mortgage is founded on a recorded instrument, because the relief comes from the mortgage’s own terms. A suit to cancel a recorded deed because the signature was forged, or because the person who signed it was pressured, or because a power of attorney was misused, is founded on the circumstances of the signing rather than on the terms of the deed. Florida’s Supreme Court drew that line in 1990, and the district courts have applied it since. So a quiet title action that attacks a deed’s execution has a lis pendens with a 1-year life and a court that can discharge it, and the plaintiff who wants it to last has to ask for the extension before the year runs out.

When You Hold One as of Right

Holding a lis pendens as of right means the court cannot discharge it while the case is pending, whatever the court thinks of the merits. Florida gives that protection only where the lawsuit is founded on a duly recorded instrument, and the district courts read that as a suit built on the terms of the instrument itself. Everything else is held at the court’s discretion.

A 2021 Third District case shows the line from the claimant’s side. Buyers of two condominium units in Islamorada sued their association, claiming that areas the association treated as common elements belonged to them, on the theory that the recorded documents submitting the land to the condominium were missing essential signatures. They recorded a lis pendens. The association counterclaimed to reform the documents and quiet title, won summary judgment on the reformation, and the court discharged the lis pendens. The appeals court denied review. The buyers’ claim depended on a decree invalidating the recorded documents, which meant it attacked the circumstances of execution rather than resting on the terms of a recorded instrument. In the court’s words, “Consequently, petitioners’ authority to maintain a lis pendens is not as of right, but is subject to the direction and control of the trial court.” The buyers had a real point, since the recorded documents were missing signatures, and a claim built on that gap looked like a claim built on the record. The distinction the court drew is between relying on what a recorded instrument says and asking a court to undo it.

Practice pointer. If your claim needs a court to knock out a recorded deed or declaration, expect to defend the lis pendens at a hearing rather than hold it automatically, and be ready to show the connection between the property and the dispute.

The Bond a Court Can Require

Where the lis pendens is held at the court’s discretion, the court treats it like a temporary injunction. The claimant has to show a fair connection between the property and the dispute, and the court can condition the notice on a bond. The bond is sized to the damages the owner is likely to suffer if the notice turns out to be unjustified, and where the owner shows no irreparable harm the court can decline to require one at all.

A 2017 Third District case shows how large that number can be. In 1973 a couple bought bayfront lots in Coconut Grove through their corporation. The husband died in 1995, the corporation was dissolved in 1997, and the widow then signed a series of quitclaim deeds, transfers and corrective documents over the lots. In 2014 her daughter sued her to quiet title, alleging the transfers were fraudulent, and recorded a lis pendens. After an evidentiary hearing on the mother’s likely damages, the trial court kept the lis pendens on one condition, that the daughter post a $3,000,000 bond by a date certain. She did not post it, and the notice was discharged. The appeals court denied her petition. In its words, “When a suit involving real property is, as in the present case, not based on a duly recorded instrument but there is a fair nexus proven, the control and discharge of the lis pendens is at the discretion of the trial judge.” The court found competent evidence that $3,000,000 bore a reasonable relationship to the damages the mother would likely suffer if the notice proved unjustified. The daughter represented herself on the appeal.

Practice pointer. Before recording a lis pendens on a claim that attacks how a deed was signed, know the number the owner will put in front of the judge as damages, because the bond will be built from it, and on waterfront land that number is usually the sale being blocked. A bond you cannot post ends the notice.

How It Fits Quiet Title and Partition

In a quiet title action the lis pendens is usually held at the court’s discretion, because the suit asks the court to cancel a recorded deed, mortgage or lien, and the relief comes from undoing the instrument rather than enforcing its terms. So the notice has a 1-year life, the court can discharge it under the injunction standard, and a bond can be required. Whether a particular quiet title claim is founded on a recorded instrument is argued case by case, and the cases on this page show which way it usually goes.

A lis pendens is a notice rather than a claim, and it only holds while the underlying case does. In a title dispute the underlying case is usually a quiet title action, and the pleading that has to support it is the quiet title complaint. The reason people file one at all is the timeline in how long a quiet title action takes, which is long enough for a property to change hands twice.

A 2018 Third District case shows the version that keeps its notice. A man signed a power of attorney to a woman. She used it to sign a quitclaim deed of his property to herself. He sued to rescind the deed and quiet title, and recorded a lis pendens the same day he filed. She moved to discharge it or to force a bond, and set the motion on a calendar with no evidence taken. The trial court held that his suit attacked the circumstances of the deed’s signing rather than its terms, so he held the notice at the court’s discretion, and then treated it as a temporary injunction. The court found a fair connection between the property and the dispute, found she had shown no irreparable harm from the notice, and required no bond. The appeals court affirmed. In its words, “Upon finding that Rodriguez had not satisfied her burden of demonstrating irreparable harm, the trial court then exercised its discretion not to impose a requirement of a bond.” From the owner’s side, that is the shape to aim for. He recorded the notice the day he sued, he could show the property was the subject of the case, and she could not show she was losing anything by waiting.

A partition action sits differently. Partition presupposes that the co-owners own the property together and asks the court to divide or sell it, and Florida allows service by publication in partition as it does in quiet title. Where a partition case includes a claim that a co-owner’s deed is invalid, the title question is decided first and the partition follows. Where the cloud is a missing heir and the question is whether probate has to come first, our guide to filing a quiet title action covers the sequence, and the tax deed guide covers the version with the shortest chain.

What a Buyer or Lender Sees

A buyer or lender checks the official records before closing, and a lis pendens is one of the first things the title search reports. With a notice of record, the buyer takes subject to the outcome of the case and the lender’s mortgage sits behind whatever the judgment decides, so the closing stops. Without a notice of record, a buyer who pays value takes free of the claims in the suit, and Florida’s statute says that is so even if the buyer knew about the case.

A 2020 Fourth District decision shows what that rule is worth. A woman named Sadie owned a condominium. In 2000 she deeded it to herself and her daughter, Candy Wisotsky, as joint tenants with survivorship, the ordinary way a parent passes a home to a child without probate. In 2004 she made a revocable trust with herself and Candy as co-trustees and deeded her half into the trust, which broke the survivorship. In 2005 a quitclaim deed signed by Sadie and Candy, each for herself and as trustee, conveyed the unit to Sadie for life with the remainder to Candy. Sadie died in February 2009. In July 2009 Candy sold the unit to a man named Jack Schlossberg for $400,000. Sadie’s son, Hirschhorn, as personal representative of her estate, then claimed the 2005 deed was void, on the theory that the trustees could only distribute to Sadie herself, so the estate still owned half the unit and the buyer had bought only half. He had known about the 2005 deed and what he believed Candy had done to get it since 2006. He did not record a lis pendens until a year after Schlossberg bought.

The appeals court held the 2005 deed valid, because a person who makes a revocable trust can revoke it in part by deed. Then it went further. Even if the deed had been procured by undue influence, that would make it voidable rather than void, and a buyer who paid value without notice of the claim takes free of a voidable deed. The court put the void category narrowly, “Generally, void deeds are limited to forged deeds or deeds that violate the constitutional protection of homestead.” On the notice, in its words, “It is undisputed that Hirschhorn did not file a notice of lis pendens in this case until a year after the purchase, even though he knew of the 2005 deed and the alleged conduct of Wisotsky in securing it by 2006.” The court ordered judgment declaring Schlossberg the owner of the entire condominium. The estate’s claim was three years old by the time the buyer paid, and the paper that would have bound him cost the county’s recording charge.

Practice pointer. A buyer who pays value with no lis pendens of record takes free of a voidable deed in the chain, and a claimant who waits to record until after the sale has handed the buyer that defense. Record the notice when you file, and file before the sale.

How a Lis Pendens Gets Discharged and What a Wrongful One Costs

A lis pendens ends in one of four ways.

1. The notice expires. One year after the suit began, unless the claim is founded on a recorded instrument or a construction lien, or the court has extended it for good cause. Time on appeal is not counted.
2. The claimant withdraws it. The person who recorded it can record a withdrawal, which is what happens when a case settles or a claim is dropped.
3. The court discharges it. Where the suit is not founded on a recorded instrument, or the case no longer affects the property, the court controls and discharges the notice the way it would dissolve an injunction. The owner moves, the claimant has to show the connection between the property and the dispute, and the court can discharge the notice or condition it on a bond.
4. The bond is not posted. A court that conditions the notice on a bond by a date certain discharges it when the date passes, which is how the $3,000,000 Coconut Grove notice ended.

The cost of a wrongful lis pendens is the reason the bond exists. Florida treats a discretionary lis pendens like an injunction, and an injunction bond exists to pay the damages of the person wrongly restrained. The bond amount is set to bear a reasonable relationship to the damages the owner is likely to suffer if the notice proves unjustified, which is why the hearing on the bond is where the owner puts a number on the sale that was lost or the loan that was refused. A claimant who records a notice on a weak claim against valuable property is choosing between posting that bond and losing the notice, and a claimant who posts it has put that money at risk on the outcome of the case.

From the owner’s side, the motion to discharge is the tool, and it can be filed the day the notice is found. Our guide to the quiet title complaint shows what the claimant has to have pleaded for the notice to survive that motion, and our adverse possession guide covers the claim that is built on possession rather than paper.

What It Costs to Record or Fight One

Recording a notice of lis pendens costs the county’s per-page recording charge, posted on the clerk’s schedule. The hearing to keep it or discharge it is litigation, and litigation is quoted per matter after the title search, because the search shows whether the claim rests on a recorded instrument and what the owner’s damages number will look like. The 30-minute consult is free. An owner who found a notice should bring the notice and the complaint it names. A claimant about to file should bring the deed being attacked and the title commitment. The filing fee for the underlying quiet title action is $395, $900 or $1,900 by the value of the claim, and our cost guide lists the rest. How long the case runs, and with it how long the notice has to last, is covered in our guide on how long a quiet title action takes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The notice found at the refinance. A Broward County owner’s refinance stops when the lender’s title search reports a lis pendens recorded by a former business partner, who claims an interest in the property under an agreement that was never recorded. The suit is not founded on a recorded instrument, so the owner moves to discharge the notice. At the hearing the owner puts the lost refinance and its carrying costs in front of the judge as damages, the court conditions the notice on a bond in that amount by a date certain, the partner does not post it, and the notice is discharged. The refinance closes the following month.

The deed signed under a power of attorney. A Hillsborough County man learns that his nephew used a power of attorney to deed the man’s rental duplex to himself. The man sues to cancel the deed and quiet title, and records a lis pendens the same day he files. The nephew lists the duplex for sale the next month, and the listing dies because every buyer’s title search reports the notice. The nephew moves to discharge it. The man shows the duplex is the subject of the case and the nephew cannot show he is losing anything by waiting, so the notice stays with no bond, and the case goes forward on the deed with the property still there to fight over.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §48.23(1)(a) (an action operates as a lis pendens on the property only if a notice is recorded in the official records of the county and has not expired, been withdrawn or been discharged); (1)(b)1. (an action not based on a duly recorded instrument has no effect on title, except between the parties, without a recorded notice); (1)(b)2. (a person acquiring an interest or lien for value while no notice is of record takes free of the claims in the action and of any judgment, as if without actual or constructive notice); (1)(c) (the notice must contain the names of the parties, the date of institution or case number, the name of the court, a description of the property, and a statement of the relief sought as to the property); (1)(d) (recording bars enforcement of interests and liens unrecorded at that time, including federal tax liens, unless the holder moves to intervene within 30 days; persons in possession and easements of use excepted); (2) (not effectual beyond 1 year from commencement unless the relief is founded on a duly recorded instrument or a lien under part I of chapter 713, or the court extends the time on reasonable notice and for good cause); (3) (otherwise the court controls and discharges the notice as it would grant and dissolve injunctions); (4) (the 1-year period does not include the pendency of an appeal). (retrieved September 15, 2026)
• Fla. Stat. §49.011(2), (3) (service by publication allowed in actions to quiet title and to partition real property); §65.061(2), (4) (grounds for quieting title; judgment on default with no evidence taken). (retrieved September 15, 2026)
• American Legion Community Club v. Diamond, 561 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 1990) (an action to set aside a conveyance for fraud is founded on the circumstances surrounding execution, not on the terms and provisions of the recorded instrument, so the plaintiff has no lis pendens as a matter of right), as described in Rodriguez. Rodriguez v. Villavicencio Guerra, 254 So. 3d 521 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018) (suit to rescind a quitclaim deed signed under a power of attorney; lis pendens adjudicated as a temporary injunction; fair nexus found; no bond where the movant showed no irreparable harm; review of lis pendens orders is by certiorari). Weiss Ortiz v. Weiss, 227 So. 3d 689 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017) (where the suit is not founded on a recorded instrument but a fair nexus is shown, control and discharge are for the trial judge; $3,000,000 bond by a date certain bore a reasonable relationship to the owner’s likely damages). Petkovich v. Sandy Point Condominium Apartments Ass’n, 325 So. 3d 201 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (a claim of ownership by virtue of defects in the chain of title requires a decree invalidating recorded documents, so the lis pendens is not held as of right; reporter citation taken from later opinions citing it, pins to the slip, No. 3D20-1775, June 30, 2021). Schlossberg v. Estate of Kaporovsky, 303 So. 3d 982 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (substituted opinion on rehearing, No. 4D19-2053, Aug. 5, 2020; void deeds are generally limited to forgeries and homestead violations; a deed procured by undue influence is voidable; a purchaser for value without notice takes free where the lis pendens was recorded a year after the sale; reporter citation taken from Weisblat v. Feldman, No. 4D22-525 (Fla. 4th DCA Apr. 5, 2023) (slip), which is also the authority for deciding the title question before partition). Opinion text on file; published decisions in other parties’ cases, not matters handled by this firm. (retrieved September 15, 2026)

What I See When a Lis Pendens Decides the Case

I see cases where the lis pendens was recorded the same day as the complaint and cases where it was recorded a year after the sale, and the difference decided who kept the property. In 14 years of law practice, I litigate probate, trust and deed disputes in court, and a title that fails is where many of them start. The notice is a one-page document with five required items, and the two questions that matter about it, when it was recorded and whether the claim rests on a recorded instrument, are usually settled before anyone thinks about them.

I have a few take-home points.

The first is timing. The estate in the 2020 case knew about the deed it wanted to attack for three years and recorded its notice a year after a buyer paid $400,000. The man in the 2018 case recorded his the day he filed. The court in the 2020 case held the deed valid anyway, and then said that even a voidable deed would not have helped the estate against a buyer who paid without a notice of record. The buyer’s defense exists only for the period when no notice is of record, and an owner or heir who believes a deed was procured wrongly should treat the notice as part of the complaint rather than a step that follows it.

Second, the bond hearing is the fight. Where the claim attacks how a deed was signed, the notice is held at the court’s discretion, and the owner’s move is to put a damages number in front of the judge. On Coconut Grove bayfront the number was $3,000,000, and the daughter who could not post it lost the notice without the court ever reaching whether her mother’s transfers were fraudulent. From the owner’s side, that hearing is the fastest way to get a cloud off a property. From the claimant’s side, it is the number to know before recording.

Third, the notice does not decide the merits, and a case can outlive it. Avoid letting the first anniversary of the complaint pass without a motion to extend, because on a claim that attacks a deed’s execution the notice expires on its own at 1 year, and a property that can be sold mid-case is a property that may be sold to a buyer who takes free of your claim.

The honest limit is that the bond amount is for the trial judge, and the appellate opinions I have read affirm the judge’s number rather than set a formula. I can tell you what the owner’s damages evidence will look like and whether the claim rests on a recorded instrument, and after that the number is the court’s. Whether a judge requires a bond at all turned, in the 2018 case, on the owner showing no irreparable harm, and that showing is made or missed on the facts of the property.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The cases described above are published decisions of Florida courts rather than matters handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on September 15, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Title problems turn on the specific records and outcomes depend on the facts; past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.