Lis pendens

A lis pendens — formally a notice of pendency — is the recorded flag that a lawsuit claims an interest in the property: whoever deals with the property afterward takes it subject to the litigation's outcome. Foreclosure actions file them as a matter of course, which makes the notice one of the earliest public markers of mortgage distress; partition suits, specific-performance claims, and title disputes generate them too.

Reading them: an active notice means live litigation touching title — diligence reads the underlying case. Notices also expire and get cancelled, so status and date matter; a years-old cancelled notice is history, while a fresh one on a rent-rolling building is the distress story starting to tell itself.