A Maryland lis pendens is a notice recorded in a county’s land records that puts the world on warning: the property is the subject of a lawsuit affecting its title or a leasehold interest in it. The procedure comes from Maryland Rule 12-102, which sets who can file, how to file, what legal effect the notice carries, and how it ends.1New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 12-102 – Lis Pendens A properly recorded and indexed notice gives constructive notice to every later buyer and lender, which in practice makes the property almost impossible to sell or refinance until the lawsuit resolves.
The rule reaches lawsuits filed in a Maryland circuit court or in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, provided the property sits in Maryland and the suit actually affects title or a leasehold interest in it.1New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 12-102 – Lis Pendens A plain breach of contract claim or a claim for money alone will not support a lis pendens, even if the defendant happens to own real estate you would like to collect against.
Which Lawsuits Qualify
The Maryland Court of Appeals in DeShields v. Broadwater stated that lis pendens “has no applicability … except to proceedings directly relating to the title to the property transferred or in which the ultimate interest and object is to subject the property in question to the disposal of a decree of the court.”2Maryland Judiciary. Weston Builders and Developers Inc. v. McBerry LLC That standard typically covers:
- Quiet title actions, disputes among heirs, contested deeds, and fraud in a conveyance.
- Boundary and easement disputes that could shift a property line or create a right of access.
- Leasehold disputes affecting a tenant’s interest.
- Foreclosure actions and suits to enforce a mortgage, deed of trust, or mechanics’ lien against the property itself.
A plaintiff who is really chasing money sometimes dresses up the claim with a constructive trust theory or a fraudulent transfer allegation to justify a lis pendens. Courts look at the substance of the dispute, and a speculative future interest, such as the chance that a money judgment might one day become a lien, will not qualify.
How to File a Lis Pendens in Maryland
Under Rule 12-102(b), you create a lis pendens by filing one of two documents with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the property sits:
- A certified copy of the complaint from the underlying lawsuit, or
- A Notice of Lis Pendens on the form approved by the State Court Administrator and posted on the Maryland Judiciary website.
Maryland’s official form is CCCV 082, which asks for the case number, the parties, the court where the action is pending, and a description of the property.3Maryland Courts. Notice of Lis Pendens Form If the property crosses county lines, file separately in each county’s land records.
Recording fees come from Maryland Real Property Code § 3-601. An instrument of nine pages or fewer carries a $20 base fee; ten pages or more costs $75. Every land-records instrument also carries a $40 surcharge, so a short lis pendens typically costs $60 to record.4Maryland Courts. Recording Fees Every filing must be accompanied by a complete intake sheet identifying the property, the parties, the type of instrument, and the recording charges due, as required by Real Property Code § 3-104.5Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Real Property 3-104 – Prerequisites to Recording Deeds and Other Instruments An incomplete intake sheet will get the filing rejected.
Why Correct Indexing Decides Everything
Recording is only half the job. The clerk indexes every instrument alphabetically by grantor and grantee name under Real Property Code § 3-302, and that index is what a title searcher actually looks at.6Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Real Property 3-302 – Indexes In Greenpoint Mortgage Funding, Inc. v. Schlossberg, a lis pendens was recorded but indexed under the wrong name. The Court of Appeals held that “a party seeking to establish a notice of lis pendens is charged with the duty to assure the correctness of the recording and indexing of the instrument he or she has filed,” and because the notice was mis-indexed it failed to provide constructive notice to later lenders.7FindLaw. Greenpoint Mortgage Funding Inc. v. Schlossberg
The risk of a clerk’s indexing error rests on the filer, not on the searcher. Pull the index yourself after you record and confirm the names and property identifiers match. A typo can silently destroy the notice.
What a Lis Pendens Does to a Property
A recorded lis pendens does not formally stop a sale or refinance; no court order blocks the transfer. What it does is scare off the people who make those deals possible. Title companies flag the notice and generally refuse to issue title insurance until it clears, and without title insurance virtually no buyer or lender will close.
Timing controls who is bound. In DeShields v. Broadwater, the Court of Appeals explained that if the lawsuit is filed before the property changes hands, anyone who later acquires the property takes it subject to the outcome. If the transfer happened before the lawsuit was filed, the doctrine does not reach back to cloud that earlier transaction.2Maryland Judiciary. Weston Builders and Developers Inc. v. McBerry LLC A defendant who conveyed the property before the complaint was filed may already be out of reach.
For the owner, the impact runs beyond blocked sales. Refinancing becomes very hard, home equity lines may be frozen, and even routine transactions like adding a family member to the deed can stall. The property sits in limbo until the suit resolves or the notice comes off.
How to Terminate a Maryland Lis Pendens
Rule 12-102(c) provides two routes: a court motion while the case is pending, and automatic termination when the underlying case reaches certain outcomes.1New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 12-102 – Lis Pendens
Motion to Terminate for Good Cause
Any person with an interest in the property, usually the owner or defendant, can move to terminate the lis pendens for good cause. The rule does not define good cause, which leaves room for arguments like: the underlying lawsuit does not actually affect title or a leasehold interest; the claim is frivolous or unlikely to succeed; or the notice was filed without a qualifying pending action. The court where the action is pending can terminate the lis pendens in that county and in any other county where it was recorded.
Automatic Termination
A lis pendens ends by operation of law in three situations:
- The underlying action is dismissed and no timely appeal is taken, or an appeal is dismissed or the dismissal is affirmed.
- The defendant wins at trial and either no appeal is taken or the judgment is affirmed.
- An appellate court reverses a trial-level judgment that had been for the plaintiff.
If the plaintiff loses at trial and appeals, the lis pendens does not automatically continue through the appeal. In Weston Builders & Developers, Inc. v. McBerry, LLC, the Court of Special Appeals noted that Rule 12-102(c) governs termination independently from the rules on stays of enforcement.2Maryland Judiciary. Weston Builders and Developers Inc. v. McBerry LLC The interplay between an appeal, a stay, and the lis pendens itself is where mistakes get expensive.
What a Wrongful Filing Can Cost
Filing a lis pendens without a legitimate claim affecting title can rebound on the filer. A property owner who wins a motion to terminate may be able to recover attorney fees, and courts can impose sanctions when the notice was filed in bad faith or without probable cause.
A wrongful filing can also support a separate suit for slander of title. Under Maryland law, the owner must prove a false statement about title, malice, and special damages, meaning actual financial harm such as a lost sale or higher borrowing costs.8Justia Law. Horning v. Hardy Malice here is not limited to personal spite; it includes filing a notice known to be baseless or filing to harm the owner’s ability to deal with the property. Someone who asserts an honest claim in good faith, even one that ultimately fails, is generally protected by a conditional privilege.
Abuse of process is another avenue. If the lis pendens was used not to protect a genuine property interest but as leverage to force a settlement on something else, the owner may have a claim for actual damages and, in egregious cases, punitive damages.
Lis Pendens and Bankruptcy
If the property owner files for bankruptcy, the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 immediately halts the “commencement or continuation” of proceedings against the debtor, bars acts to obtain or control property of the estate, and prohibits acts to “create, perfect, or enforce any lien against property of the estate.”9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay A creditor who files a new lis pendens after the petition, or who takes steps to enforce an existing one, risks a stay violation. Most practitioners seek relief from the stay before acting.
The trustee also matters. Under 11 U.S.C. § 544(a)(3), a bankruptcy trustee holds the rights of a hypothetical bona fide purchaser of real property as of the petition date and can avoid any interest a bona fide purchaser could avoid under state law.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 544 – Trustee as Lien Creditor and as Successor to Certain Creditors and Purchasers A lis pendens that was never properly recorded or was defectively indexed before the petition can be wiped out by the trustee, which puts the Greenpoint indexing duty in sharp relief.
Practical Points for Both Sides
If you’re the one filing, treat the paperwork as substantive, not clerical. Use the official form, match the property description to the deed, file in every county where the property sits, and verify the index entries after recording. A misspelled name or a transposed digit can gut the notice under Greenpoint.
If you’re the owner, don’t wait. The cloud stays on title until a court lifts it or the lawsuit ends. Move to terminate under Rule 12-102(c)(1), and focus the motion on whether the lawsuit actually involves title or a leasehold interest in your property. If the real dispute is about money and the plaintiff bolted on a constructive trust theory, say so. Keep contemporaneous records of lost buyers, canceled contracts, and higher borrowing costs; those records are the backbone of any later slander of title claim if the filing turns out to have been baseless.