Lis Pendens in South Carolina: Filing Rules, Deadlines, and Removal

A lis pendens in South Carolina is a public notice, filed with the Clerk of Court in the county where the property sits, warning the world that the property is tied up in a lawsuit. Once it hits the record, later buyers, lenders, and lienholders are treated as if they knew about the suit and are bound by whatever the court eventually decides.¹ The rules live in Title 15, Chapter 11 of the South Carolina Code, and they are unforgiving on timing, content, and the kind of lawsuit that qualifies.

What Makes a Filing Valid

Three pieces have to be on the face of the notice: the names of every party to the lawsuit, a description of what the lawsuit is about, and a legal description of the property specific enough to identify it on the ground.² No judge signs off before filing. It’s a unilateral act by a party to a qualifying case, recorded with the Clerk of Court in every county where the property sits.

The threshold requirement is the one that trips people up: the underlying lawsuit must affect title to real property. A perfectly drafted notice attached to a personal claim, like an ordinary debt collection, is invalid on its face. The qualifying actions are the ones you would expect — foreclosures, quiet title suits, boundary disputes, specific performance of a real estate contract, and partition actions.

Either side of the case can file. A plaintiff may file up to 20 days before filing the complaint, or anytime after. A defendant who raises an affirmative claim affecting real property in their answer may file at the time they submit the answer, or later.² The defendant’s right is less well-known but can matter when a counterclaim reaches property rights.

The Three Deadlines That Can Void the Notice

South Carolina imposes three separate timing rules. Miss any one, and the notice is worthless no matter how strong the underlying claim.

The 20-Day Pre-Filing Window

A plaintiff can record the notice no more than 20 days before filing the complaint. One day too early and the notice is invalid. The South Carolina Supreme Court has confirmed that a complaint filed more than 20 days after the lis pendens was recorded voids the notice.² There’s no matching restriction on filing after the complaint, so filing the same day as the complaint or any later date is always safe on this point.

The 60-Day Service Deadline

Once the lis pendens is recorded, the filer has 60 days to personally serve the summons on a defendant or to begin publication of the summons. If neither happens in that window, the notice is void.¹ This is the deadline most often blown, because the clock runs from the date the notice was filed, not from the date the complaint was filed. If the notice went on record several days before the complaint, those days are already gone.

The Five-Year Expiration

Even with a clean filing and timely service, the constructive notice a lis pendens provides expires five years after the filing date. If the underlying case is still going at that point, the filer has to refile before the five-year mark. Each refiling starts a new five-year period, and the clerk notes on the record that the new entry is a refiling referencing the original.¹ Real property litigation can easily run past five years. Letting the notice lapse means anyone who buys or lends against the property after that date is no longer bound by the outcome.

Where the Notice Has to Be Filed

The notice goes to the Clerk of Court in every county where the affected property is located. Filing in the wrong county is a jurisdictional defect that dooms the notice on its own.²

The underlying case has to be somewhere that can adjudicate title. Circuit Court, the state’s court of general jurisdiction, handles most of these cases through its civil division, the Court of Common Pleas, and through masters-in-equity for equitable actions like quiet title and specific performance.³ Magistrate courts cannot support a lis pendens at all. South Carolina law expressly bars them from any civil case where title to real property is in question, so a lis pendens tied to a magistrate proceeding is invalid on its face.⁴ Federal court is available when diversity jurisdiction applies — different-state parties and more than $75,000 at stake.⁵

Foreclosure Cases Have Extra Requirements

In mortgage foreclosure actions, filing a lis pendens is not optional. The plaintiff has to file one, and it has to be recorded no more than 20 days before the complaint and in place at least 20 days before the court enters a foreclosure decree.² The foreclosure notice also has to include the date of the mortgage, the parties to it, and where and when it was recorded. Once the clerk enters it in the index to lis pendens, anyone who later buys, takes a lien against, or accepts the property as collateral is treated as a party to the foreclosure and is bound by the outcome.⁶

What the Notice Does to the Property

A valid lis pendens is constructive notice to the world. From the moment it’s recorded, anyone who buys the property, takes a mortgage on it, or picks up any other interest is legally treated as though they knew about the lawsuit and is bound by the court’s eventual order to the same extent as a named party.¹

In practice, the property becomes nearly impossible to sell or refinance while the notice is active. Title insurance companies will not insure a title with a pending lis pendens, and most lenders will not fund loans on the encumbered property. A buyer who closes anyway takes the property subject to the eventual judgment, which could mean losing it altogether. Even the threat of a filing carries real leverage in a property dispute for that reason.

Getting the Notice Removed

Two paths exist to clear a lis pendens off the record.

Voluntary Cancellation

The filer can cancel without a court order once the case has been settled, dismissed, discontinued, or abated. They submit a written cancellation notice to the Clerk of Court in every county where the original was recorded.⁷ Once recorded, the cancellation clears the cloud and allows transactions to proceed, though title companies often want documentation confirming the underlying suit is resolved before they’ll issue a clean commitment.

Court-Ordered Cancellation

If the filer will not cancel, the property owner or another aggrieved party can petition the court that heard the original case. The petitioner has to show good cause and provide notice as the court directs. After the action has been settled, discontinued, or abated, the court has discretion to order the clerk to cancel the notice, and the burden at the hearing sits on the filer to show the claim still has a legitimate tie to the property.⁷ The cancellation order itself must be recorded in county records to clear the title.

When a Lis Pendens Is Filed Wrongfully

Because the filing can freeze a property’s marketability, misuse is a real concern. A wrongful filing usually means one of two things: recording a notice when the lawsuit doesn’t actually affect title, or filing to pressure or retaliate rather than to protect a real property interest.

Property owners sometimes try to sue for slander of title. That door is closed in South Carolina. The Court of Appeals has held that filing a lis pendens is absolutely privileged, because the notice is authorized by statute and has no existence separate from the litigation it announces. That absolute privilege blocks any slander of title claim based on the filing itself.⁸

The proper remedy is a suit for abuse of process or malicious prosecution. To win, the owner generally has to show the filer used the lis pendens for an improper purpose beyond the legitimate goals of the underlying lawsuit.⁸ Owners who chase slander of title instead of the right theory waste time on a claim that’s dead on arrival.

For immediate relief, the fastest tool is the motion to cancel under Section 15-11-40. A court that finds the notice lacks a valid legal basis can order it off the record, which stops the ongoing harm to the property’s marketability even if it doesn’t compensate for losses already suffered.⁷

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws – Title 15 – Chapter 11 – Notice of Lis Pendens
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 15-11-10 – Time When Notice of Lis Pendens May Be Filed
3
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Circuit Court
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 22-3-20 – Civil Actions When Magistrate Has No Jurisdiction
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1332 – Diversity of Citizenship; Amount in Controversy; Costs
6
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 29-3-400 – Entry in Index to Lis Pendens
7
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 15-11-40 – Cancellation of Notice
8
South Carolina Judicial Branch. South Carolina Court of Appeals Opinion 3521