Lis Pendens in Washington: RCW 4.28.320 Filing and Removal

A lis pendens in Washington under RCW 4.28.320 is a recorded notice that a lawsuit affecting title to real property is pending, and it binds anyone who later buys or takes a lien on that property to the outcome of the case. To be valid, the notice has to be tied to a lawsuit that actually affects title, contain four specific pieces of information, and be backed up by service of the summons within 60 days of recording. Get any of that wrong and the filing is void, or worse, exposes the filer to damages and attorney’s fees.

When a Lis Pendens Is Allowed

RCW 4.28.320 permits a lis pendens only in connection with “an action affecting title to real property.”¹ That covers boundary disputes, ownership claims, easements, and specific performance of a purchase agreement. It does not cover a personal injury case, a breach-of-contract claim with no property at stake, or a general business dispute, even when the defendant happens to own real estate. Courts have consistently rejected filings that try to leverage an unrelated lawsuit into pressure on a property owner.

This is the threshold question. If the underlying suit is not one that could result in a judgment altering title to the specific property, a lis pendens does not belong on it, and filing one anyway is the fastest route to liability under RCW 4.28.328.

What the Notice Must Contain

The statute lists four required elements:

Names of the parties to the lawsuit
A description of the property affected by the action
The case number assigned by the court
The date the lawsuit was commenced

The property description is where most drafting errors happen. A street address is not enough. The description should match the legal description on file with the county assessor. An incomplete or vague description can render the notice unenforceable.¹

The 60-Day Service Deadline

Recording the notice is only half the job. Under RCW 4.28.320, the lis pendens “shall be of no avail” unless the filer personally serves the defendant with the summons or publishes the summons within 60 days of recording.¹ Miss the window and the notice is void, even if the lawsuit itself continues. Anyone recording a lis pendens early in litigation should calendar the 60-day mark as a hard deadline.

Who Can File

The plaintiff in a qualifying state court action can file a lis pendens when the complaint is filed or any time afterward. A sheriff who levies a writ of attachment on real property can also record one.¹ In federal court, the companion statute RCW 4.28.325 also lets defendants who raise affirmative claims affecting the property file the notice.²

Corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and trusts can file as long as they are actual parties in a qualifying lawsuit, and whoever signs on the entity’s behalf needs authority to act for it. Trustees and personal representatives handling probate or trust litigation over estate property are common filers.

Government entities can file in condemnation and land use enforcement actions. Worth knowing if you are on the receiving end: RCW 4.28.328 exempts the United States and its agencies, and the State of Washington along with its agencies, political subdivisions, and municipal corporations, from the definition of “claimant” who can be held liable for damages from a wrongful filing.³ A private filer faces real financial exposure for a bad filing; a government agency does not face the same statutory consequences.

Recording With the County Auditor

A lis pendens must be recorded with the county auditor in every county where the property sits. Property that straddles county lines gets filed in each one.¹

Standard recording requirements under RCW 65.04.045 apply. The first page needs a three-inch top margin, one-inch margins elsewhere, and must show the return address, document title, grantor and grantee names, an abbreviated legal description, and the assessor’s parcel number. Pages cannot exceed 14 by 8.5 inches, and text must be at least 8-point type in clearly imaging ink. The auditor will reject documents that do not comply.⁴

Fees have climbed. The base statutory fee under RCW 36.18.010 is $5 for the first page and $1 for each additional page, but housing, document preservation, and other surcharges push the first-page recording cost well above $300 as of 2025.⁵ Call your county auditor for the current total before filing.

Effect on the Property

A recorded lis pendens creates constructive notice to anyone who later acquires an interest in the property. Under RCW 4.28.320, “every person whose conveyance or encumbrance is subsequently executed or subsequently recorded shall be deemed a subsequent purchaser or encumbrancer, and shall be bound by all proceedings taken after the filing of such notice to the same extent as if he or she were a party to the action.”¹ A buyer who purchases after the notice is recorded can lose the property if the original plaintiff wins.

The market effect is severe. Title insurance companies almost always refuse to issue a policy on property carrying a lis pendens. Without title insurance, most lenders will not finance a purchase. Cash buyers willing to proceed typically demand a steep discount for the litigation risk. The notice takes effect from its recording date, so transactions that closed before it was filed are not affected.

How Long a Lis Pendens Lasts

Washington sets no fixed expiration date. Unlike states that require renewal after a set number of years, a Washington lis pendens generally stays effective as long as the underlying lawsuit is pending. The statute lets a court cancel the notice “at any time after the action shall be settled, discontinued or abated.”¹ Until one of those events happens, or a court orders cancellation on other grounds, the notice sits on the property’s title indefinitely.

For property owners, that means a lis pendens tied to slow-moving litigation can cloud title for years. The practical response is to move quickly on the underlying dispute or file a motion to cancel, not wait the case out.

Removing a Lis Pendens

A lis pendens comes off the record in one of three ways: the filer voluntarily releases it, the underlying lawsuit resolves, or a court orders it canceled.

Both RCW 4.28.320 and RCW 4.28.325 give courts discretion to cancel once the action is settled, discontinued, or abated. Any “person aggrieved” can apply, but has to show good cause and provide the notice the court directs.¹ A property owner can also move to cancel on the ground that the underlying lawsuit does not actually affect title, which triggers the liability provisions below.

Winning the motion is not the last step. The cancellation order itself has to be recorded with the county auditor to clear the title record. Until the auditor files it, the lis pendens still shows up in a title search.

Liability for Wrongful Filing

RCW 4.28.328 creates two separate paths to liability, and the distinction matters.³

The first path applies when the underlying lawsuit does not affect title to the property at all. If the property owner wins a motion to cancel on that ground, the filer is liable for actual damages caused by the filing and for the attorney’s fees the owner spent getting the notice removed. This exposure is essentially automatic once the motion succeeds.⁶

The second path applies when the property owner prevails in the underlying lawsuit itself. Unless the filer can show “substantial justification” for the lis pendens, the filer owes actual damages and, at the court’s discretion, attorney’s fees and costs from defending the entire action.³ The “substantial justification” standard gives some protection to a filer who had a reasonable basis for the claim even though they lost.

Actual damages can include lost sale proceeds, carrying costs on a property that could not be sold, diminished property value, and the cost of alternative financing. Washington does not generally allow punitive damages absent specific statutory authorization, and RCW 4.28.328 does not authorize them.

Because every month the notice sits on title is another month of potential damages, an owner who believes a lis pendens is wrongful should move to cancel as soon as possible rather than waiting for the underlying case to resolve.

Federal Court Actions

When a lawsuit affecting Washington property is filed in U.S. district court, RCW 4.28.325 is the operative statute. It permits either the plaintiff or a defendant asserting an affirmative claim to file a lis pendens with the county auditor, following the same general procedure as the state-court version, and the same 60-day service requirement applies.² Under 28 U.S.C. § 1964, a federal action affecting real property provides constructive notice only if the party complies with state recording requirements.⁷ Filing a federal lawsuit does not, by itself, put third parties on notice; the lis pendens still has to be recorded with the county auditor.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 4.28.320 – Lis Pendens in Actions Affecting Title to Real Estate
2
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 4.28.325 – Lis Pendens in Actions in United States District Courts
3
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 4.28.328 – Lis Pendens Liability of Claimants Damages, Costs, Attorneys Fees
4
Washington State Legislature. RCW 65.04.045 – Recorded Instruments Requirements
5
Washington State Legislature. RCW 36.18.010 – Auditors Fees
6
Washington State Courts. Tiokasin-Orr v Estate of Patricia Spruance Orr
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1964 – Constructive Notice of Pending Actions