To withdraw a lis pendens, the party who filed it (or that party’s attorney of record) signs a withdrawal document, has it notarized, and records it with the county recorder’s office in the county where the property is located. If the lawsuit is still open, the document is usually filed with the court clerk first. Recording is the step that actually clears the cloud from title. When the filer refuses to cooperate, the property owner can ask a court to expunge the notice.
When Withdrawal Is Appropriate
Settlement is the most common trigger. When the parties resolve the dispute, removal of the lis pendens is almost always a term of the deal, and leaving it on record afterward defeats the point of settling and can expose the filer to liability.
Dismissal of the underlying case is another clear trigger. Whether the plaintiff drops the suit voluntarily or a judge dismisses it, the legal basis for the notice is gone. A plaintiff who amends the complaint to drop the real property claim should also withdraw the notice, since it no longer corresponds to any active claim against the property.
Filing errors matter too. If the lis pendens was recorded against the wrong parcel, referenced the wrong case, or was filed without a legitimate pending lawsuit, prompt withdrawal reduces the filer’s exposure.
One point catches owners off guard: a lis pendens does not disappear on its own when the lawsuit ends. Title companies will flag it on title searches for years, and they typically refuse to issue clean title until someone records a formal withdrawal. A stale lis pendens that nobody bothered to release creates problems every time the property is sold, refinanced, or borrowed against.
What the Withdrawal Document Must Contain
The document goes by several names depending on the jurisdiction. You might see “Notice of Withdrawal of Lis Pendens,” “Release of Lis Pendens,” or “Cancellation of Lis Pendens.” The label varies; the content does not. Many courts and legal form providers offer templates, or an attorney can draft a custom version.
- Court information: the full name of the court where the lawsuit was filed, with the complete case name and case number.
- Party names, listed exactly as they appear in the court records.
- The full legal description of the property, matching what appears on the deed and the original lis pendens.
- Recording information for the original lis pendens: book and page number, instrument number, or document number assigned by the county recorder.
- Clear language stating that the filer is withdrawing or releasing the lis pendens.
The person who filed the original notice, or their attorney of record, has to sign. Most jurisdictions require notarization before the recorder will accept the document. Handle that before you go to the recorder’s office; a missing or defective notarization can send you back to redo the whole thing.
Filing With the Court and Recording the Withdrawal
If the underlying lawsuit is still open, file the notarized withdrawal with the clerk of the court where the case is pending. The clerk stamps the document, producing a conformed copy that shows it was officially received. This step notifies the court that the claim against the property has been released. In jurisdictions where the case is already fully resolved, this step may not be required and you can go straight to recording.
Then take the notarized withdrawal (or the court-stamped version, if court filing was required) to the county recorder’s office in the county where the property sits. Recording is the step that matters for title. It replaces the cloud created by the original notice with a public record showing the lis pendens has been lifted. Without recording, a title search will still show an active notice, and no title company will issue a clean commitment.
After recording, serve copies of the recorded withdrawal on all other parties to the lawsuit. In many jurisdictions this is a procedural requirement as well as a courtesy. Keep your recorded copy. If a title question comes up later, that is your proof.
Costs
County recorder fees for a one-page document generally range from roughly $10 to over $100, depending on the county. Some counties use a flat fee per document; others charge per page, with additional fees for each page beyond the first. If a court filing is also required, the clerk may charge a separate fee.
Attorney fees add to the cost if you hire counsel to prepare the document. For a routine voluntary withdrawal after a settlement, the legal work is minimal and the expense is modest. The cost climbs significantly if a motion to expunge becomes necessary, since that brings court appearances, briefing, and potentially a contested hearing.
What Happens to Title Once You Record
An active lis pendens effectively freezes the property. Title companies treat it as a present risk and typically exclude it from coverage or refuse to insure the title. Lenders usually will not fund a purchase or refinance while a notice is on record, because the collateral itself is in dispute. Buyers who find a lis pendens during due diligence either walk away or push for steep price concessions.
Recording the withdrawal reverses all of that. Once the recorder indexes the release, title companies can issue clean commitments, lenders can underwrite against the property, and buyers can close. The timeline varies. In many counties the document is indexed within a few business days, but the title company may need additional time to update its own records. If a sale or refinancing is already pending, call the title company so they know the release is coming.
When the Filer Will Not Withdraw
If the person who filed the lis pendens refuses to release it, the property owner’s remedy is a motion to expunge. This is a formal request asking a judge to order the notice removed. The property owner carries the burden at the hearing, but the standard varies by state.
Two grounds come up most often. The first is that the underlying lawsuit does not actually affect ownership, title, or possession of the property. A suit seeking only money damages, for example, generally cannot support a lis pendens; if the claims would not change who owns or possesses the property, the notice has no legitimate basis. The second is insufficient likelihood of success. Several states require the filer to show that the claim has a reasonable probability of winning on the merits. Some use a “probable validity” standard, others frame it differently, but the question is whether the claim has real legs.
If the court grants the motion, it issues an order directing expungement. That order has to be recorded with the county recorder, the same way a voluntary withdrawal does, to actually clear the title. An unrecorded court order will not show up in a title search.
Attorney Fees
Many states let the prevailing party on a motion to expunge recover attorney fees and costs. For the owner, that means the cost of bringing the motion may be recoverable if the notice lacked merit. For the filer, holding on to a baseless lis pendens can become expensive. In some jurisdictions, voluntarily withdrawing the notice after a motion has already been filed does not necessarily moot the fee question; courts have awarded fees to the moving party even when the filer released the notice at the last minute.
Bond as an Alternative
Sometimes a court finds the underlying claim legitimate but concludes that the property owner can be adequately protected by money rather than by a continuing cloud on title. The court may then order the notice expunged on the condition that the owner posts a bond or undertaking. The bond amount is set to cover any damages the claimant might suffer from losing lis pendens protection if they ultimately win the case. If the owner fails to post the bond by the court’s deadline, the motion is denied.
Liability for Filing Without a Basis
Filing a lis pendens without proper legal justification is more than a procedural problem. It can support a lawsuit for damages. The most common theory is slander of title, which applies when someone publishes a false statement that casts doubt on an owner’s title and causes financial harm.
To prevail, the property owner generally has to show that the filer made a false statement about the property (the lis pendens), that the filer knew it was untrue or had no reasonable basis to believe it was true, and that the owner suffered actual financial losses. Those losses might include a failed sale, higher borrowing costs, or a reduction in the property’s market value during the period the notice was on record.
A lis pendens filed in connection with legitimate pending litigation does not automatically become slander of title. The claim gains traction when the notice was filed without any pending lawsuit, without a real property claim, or to interfere with a transaction rather than to protect a legal interest.