If you’re involved in a Florida real estate dispute—whether you’re suing to enforce a contract, defending against a fraudulent transfer, or fighting over property ownership—you need to understand lis pendens. A lis pendens is a recorded notice that alerts the world to pending litigation affecting a specific piece of real property. It effectively freezes the property: once a lis pendens is filed, the property generally cannot be sold, refinanced, or conveyed with clear title until the litigation is resolved or the lis pendens is removed.
Florida Statutes §48.23 governs lis pendens and creates a framework that treats different types of claims very differently—a distinction that can determine whether your lis pendens survives or gets dissolved. Below, we break down the filing requirements, the critical “fair nexus” test, and the recent appellate decisions shaping how Florida courts handle lis pendens disputes.
What Is a Lis Pendens Under Florida Law?
A lis pendens (Latin for “pending suit”) is a notice recorded in the official records of the county where property is located, alerting potential buyers, lenders, and other interested parties that the property is the subject of active litigation. Under §48.23, an action “operates as a lis pendens” only if the notice is recorded in the county’s official records and has not expired, been withdrawn, or been discharged by the court.
The recorded notice must contain specific information: the names of the parties, the date of institution of the action or case number, the name of the court, a description of the property involved, and a statement of the relief sought as to the property. Failure to include any of these required elements can render the lis pendens defective.
As the Third District explained in Trujillo v. Garcia, 402 So.3d 422 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024), the purpose of a lis pendens is to “alert creditors, prospective purchasers and others to the fact that the title to a particular piece of real property is involved in litigation.” It serves a dual function: protecting potential buyers from unknowingly purchasing property with disputed title, and protecting the plaintiff from intervening liens that could impair the property interest they’re claiming.
The Critical Distinction: Recorded Instrument vs. Other Actions
Florida’s lis pendens statute draws a sharp line between two categories of actions, and the category your case falls into determines how much protection your lis pendens receives.
Actions founded on a duly recorded instrument (such as a mortgage, deed, or recorded contract) or claiming liens under Chapter 713 (construction liens) receive the strongest protection. In these cases, the lis pendens is maintained as a matter of right. As the Third District noted in Weiss v. BI 27, LLC, 388 So.3d 189 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), citing established precedent, the proponent “maintains a lis pendens as a matter of right” when the action is founded on a duly recorded instrument. These lis pendens may extend beyond the standard one-year limitation period.
All other actions face a more precarious position. Under §48.23(2), a lis pendens in an action not based on a recorded instrument or Chapter 713 lien expires automatically one year after filing, unless the court extends the time “on reasonable notice and for good cause.” Moreover, the court has broad authority under §48.23(3) to “control and discharge the recorded notice of lis pendens as the court would grant and dissolve injunctions.”
This distinction has enormous practical consequences. If your claim is based on an unrecorded contract for sale, an oral agreement, or an equitable claim, your lis pendens can be challenged much more easily—and it will expire automatically if you don’t seek an extension before the one-year mark.
The Fair Nexus Test: The Threshold for Every Lis Pendens
Regardless of whether your action is based on a recorded instrument, every lis pendens must satisfy the “fair nexus” test established by the Florida Supreme Court in Chiusolo v. Kennedy, 614 So.2d 491 (Fla. 1993). The proponent must establish “a fair nexus between the apparent legal or equitable ownership of the property and the dispute embodied in the lawsuit.” In practical terms, the claim must potentially grant some interest in the real property itself—not merely seek money damages that happen to involve property.
Recent appellate decisions show Florida courts applying this test with increasing rigor. In Trujillo v. Garcia (2024), the Third District discharged a lis pendens filed in a property damage action seeking only monetary relief, holding that lis pendens are “not an appropriate instrument for use in promoting recoveries in actions for money judgments.”
The Third District went further in Golubtsova v. Budaev, 418 So.3d 329 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), discharging a lis pendens in a conversion and civil theft case—even though the complaint included property-related counts. The court looked past the pleading labels, emphasizing that “the title of a count in a complaint is not controlling—we must look to the substance of what is being sought.” Because the action was fundamentally “simply a lawsuit for damages,” no fair nexus existed.
The takeaway: you cannot slap a lis pendens on a property just because the defendant owns it. Your claim must directly affect title to or an interest in that specific property.
How to Dissolve or Discharge a Lis Pendens
If you’re a property owner facing a lis pendens you believe is improper, §48.23(3) provides the mechanism for relief. The court may discharge the lis pendens “as the court would grant and dissolve injunctions” when the action is not founded on a duly recorded instrument or when the action no longer affects the subject property.
The burden of proof at a discharge hearing falls on the lis pendens proponent—the party who filed it—to demonstrate a fair nexus between the property and the dispute. This is an important procedural advantage for property owners: you don’t have to prove the lis pendens is invalid. The filer has to prove it’s valid.
Courts may also require the lis pendens proponent to post a bond as an alternative to outright discharge. In Hutchins v. SCT Trading, LLC, 392 So.3d 246 (Fla. 2d DCA 2024), the Second District clarified that while courts have discretion to require bonds, this “comes only after the trial court conducts an evidentiary hearing and determines that a bond is appropriate.” The bond serves to protect property owners from harm caused by a lis pendens that ultimately proves unjustified.
The Fifth District’s decision in Carollo v. Henderson, 290 So.3d 1088 (Fla. 5th DCA 2020) confirmed that a lis pendens not based on a recorded instrument “places a cloud on the title that did not previously exist,” reinforcing the court’s discretionary authority to require bonding or discharge.
What Happens to Buyers Who Purchase After a Lis Pendens Is Filed?
Purchasing property after a lis pendens has been recorded is extremely risky. Multiple 2025 appellate decisions confirm that post-lis pendens purchasers take the property subject to—and bound by—the outcome of the pending litigation.
In American Mortgage Solutions, LLC v. Fresh Brix Properties, LLC, 421 So.3d 517 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), the Third District held that a post-lis pendens purchaser is not entitled to intervene in the pending action. The Fourth District reached the same conclusion in Macana Investments, LLC v. Longridge Financial LLC, 418 So.3d 145 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025), holding that a purchaser who bought after lis pendens filing “had no rights in the property when the foreclosure litigation commenced” and “purchased the property subject to, and bound by, any judgment rendered in the foreclosure action.”
This means if you buy property with an active lis pendens, you could lose the property entirely if the plaintiff prevails in the underlying lawsuit—and you won’t even have standing to participate in the case. This is why title insurance companies typically refuse to issue policies on properties with active lis pendens.
The One-Year Expiration Rule and Extensions
For actions not based on recorded instruments or Chapter 713 liens, the lis pendens expires automatically one year after filing. The statute allows courts to extend this period “on reasonable notice and for good cause,” but the extension must be sought before the lis pendens expires.
The Third District addressed this timing issue in Zakharova v. Innovative Technologies & Consulting Limited Corp., 386 So.3d 988 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), granting certiorari for improper denial of a lis pendens extension motion and confirming that trial courts retain authority to extend expired lis pendens under the proper statutory framework.
For practitioners, this is a calendar-critical deadline. Missing the one-year window means your lis pendens evaporates—and under §48.23(1)(d), any third party who acquires an interest in the property after the lis pendens expires takes that interest “exempt from all claims” filed in the action, even if they had actual knowledge of the pending lawsuit.
Practical Impact: How a Lis Pendens Affects Your Property
The practical consequences of a lis pendens are severe and immediate. Once recorded, the property becomes effectively unmarketable. Buyers walk away because they cannot obtain title insurance. Lenders refuse to refinance because they cannot verify clear title. Even if the underlying lawsuit is meritless, the lis pendens creates a cloud on title that must be affirmatively removed before normal transactions can proceed.
The Sixth District illustrated this impact in CPPB, LLC v. Taurus Apopka City Ctr., LLC, 375 So.3d 327 (Fla. 6th DCA 2023), referencing a case where the property owner “could not sell the subject property and was in danger of defaulting on its mortgages” because of the pending lis pendens. This kind of economic pressure is often the point—lis pendens can be used as leverage to force settlement, which is precisely why courts scrutinize them carefully and discharge those lacking a fair nexus.
If you’re facing an improper lis pendens, time matters. The longer it sits on the record, the more damage it does to your ability to use, sell, or finance your property.
Protect Your Florida Real Estate Interests
Whether you need to file a lis pendens to protect your claim in a real estate dispute, or you need to dissolve one that’s been filed improperly against your property, the legal framework under §48.23 requires careful navigation. The distinction between recorded-instrument and other actions, the fair nexus requirement, the one-year expiration rule, and the bonding provisions all create opportunities and risks that require strategic analysis.
Zoecklein Law PA represents property owners and claimants throughout the entire state of Florida in lis pendens disputes, quiet title actions, and real estate litigation. If a lis pendens is affecting your property—or if you need to file one to protect your rights—contact us for a consultation.
