To stop someone from selling property, you need a legal claim to the property itself and a lawsuit to back it up. The two tools that actually work are a lis pendens, a public notice recorded in the county land records that ties a pending lawsuit to the property’s title, and a court injunction, a judge’s order that directly forbids the sale. Both require an active lawsuit. Neither is available to someone who simply objects to the transaction or thinks the price is wrong. And filing either one without a genuine basis can cost you far more than the sale you were trying to stop.
Do You Have a Claim the Court Will Recognize
Courts will not freeze a sale because you disagree with it. Your claim has to affect title or ownership directly. A handful of situations typically qualify.
- Divorce or separation. A spouse can prevent the other from unilaterally selling the marital home before a settlement or court order divides the property. Many states issue automatic restraining orders the moment a divorce petition is filed, freezing both spouses’ ability to sell, transfer, or encumber marital assets. In states without an automatic order, a spouse can ask for one.
- Breach of a purchase contract. If you signed a valid purchase agreement and the seller tries to back out or sell to someone else, you can sue for specific performance and record a lis pendens. You have to show you were ready and able to close on the agreed terms.
- Inheritance disputes. An heir or beneficiary can challenge a sale if an executor, trustee, or family member is selling estate property without authority or against the terms of the will or trust.
- Business partnerships. A co-owner can block the sale of partnership property when the sale violates the partnership agreement, such as a clause requiring unanimous consent or a right of first refusal.
- Equitable interest. Someone who paid the mortgage or funded major improvements may have an equitable ownership interest even without being on the deed. Courts look at who actually bore the financial burden of ownership.
- Unpaid contractor or supplier liens. A contractor or supplier who was not paid for work on the property can file a construction lien. The lien does not legally prohibit a sale, but it attaches to title and title companies will flag it, which usually stops the deal cold.
If your situation does not fit one of these patterns, or something close, the rest of this article probably will not help you, and pursuing it anyway can expose you to the liability described at the end.
Recording a Lis Pendens
A lis pendens, sometimes called a notice of pendency, is a document recorded in the county land records that alerts the public to a pending lawsuit affecting a specific property.1Legal Information Institute. Notice of Pendency The Latin phrase means “suit pending.” Recording one is usually the single most effective step you can take, because it places a cloud on the property’s title.2Legal Information Institute. Lis Pendens
That cloud is what does the work. Title insurance companies will not issue a policy on a property with a recorded lis pendens, and without title insurance almost no buyer will close and no lender will fund a mortgage. A cash buyer could technically still take the risk, but any buyer who purchases after the lis pendens is recorded is treated as having constructive notice of the lawsuit and takes the property subject to whatever the court eventually decides. In practice, that scares off nearly everyone.
The lis pendens must identify the property by its full legal description (pulled from the existing deed, not just the street address), name all the parties to the lawsuit, and reference the case number. It is only valid if it is tied to an active lawsuit asserting a direct claim to title or possession of that property. A lawsuit over money owed does not qualify unless it is connected to an ownership interest in the real estate.
How long the notice stays effective depends on where the property is. Some states set a fixed expiration period that requires renewal. Others let the lis pendens run for the full life of the underlying lawsuit. Check your jurisdiction before you file, or the notice may lapse when you can least afford it. If it does expire, most states let you record a new one as long as the case is still active.
Getting a Court Injunction or TRO
A lis pendens builds a practical wall around a sale. An injunction builds a legal one. It is a direct order from a judge commanding the property owner to stop, and violating it can bring contempt charges, fines, or jail. Courts treat injunctions as an extraordinary remedy and will not issue one without strong justification.3U.S. Marshals Service. Injunctions/Temporary Restraining Orders
The Four Factors
To win a preliminary injunction, you have to satisfy four requirements the Supreme Court laid out in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council: that you are likely to succeed on the merits of your underlying lawsuit, that you will suffer irreparable harm if the sale proceeds, that the balance of hardships tips toward you, and that the injunction serves the public interest.4Legal Information Institute. Preliminary Injunction Irreparable harm is usually the hardest to prove. You have to show money alone cannot fix the damage. Losing a unique family home clears that bar more easily than losing an investment property with a straightforward market value.
Emergency Relief With a TRO
If the sale is days away, ask the court for a temporary restraining order. A TRO can sometimes be granted the same day you file, and in truly urgent situations a judge can issue one without notifying the other side first. To get one without notice, you have to show through specific facts that you will suffer immediate and irreparable harm before the other party can be heard, and your attorney has to explain in writing what efforts were made to give notice and why notice was impractical.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65 – Injunctions and Restraining Orders
A TRO is temporary by design. Under the federal rules it expires within 14 days unless the court extends it or the other party consents to a longer period.6Legal Information Institute. Temporary Restraining Order State rules vary, but the principle is the same: the TRO buys you a short window during which the court schedules a hearing on a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. If you cannot convert the TRO at that hearing, the restraint lifts and the seller is free to move ahead.
The Bond You Have to Post
Courts almost always require you to post a security bond before issuing an injunction or TRO. The bond protects the property owner: if the court later decides the injunction should not have been issued, it covers the owner’s losses from the delay. Federal Rule 65(c) requires security “in an amount that the court considers proper to pay the costs and damages sustained by any party found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained.”5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65 – Injunctions and Restraining Orders The amount is up to the judge and depends on the seller’s likely losses and the expected length of the delay. For a residential sale, the bond might be a few thousand dollars, or it might be well into six figures.
Filing Steps and Costs
The order matters. Skip a step and you undermine the whole effort.
- File the lawsuit first. Bring your complaint to the clerk of the court in the county where the property sits. The clerk stamps the documents, assigns a case number, and issues a summons. Without an active lawsuit and a case number, a lis pendens has no legal basis.
- Record the lis pendens right away. Take it to the county recorder’s or register of deeds’ office. Recording is what places the cloud on title. The recording fee is modest, typically around $5 to $35 depending on the county.
- Serve the other party. Formally deliver the summons and complaint through service of process, usually a professional process server or, in some jurisdictions, the sheriff. Mailing is generally not enough. The person serving must be an adult who is not a party to the case. Process server fees typically run $45 to $150.7Legal Information Institute. Service of Process
- Ask for a TRO or injunction if the sale is imminent. File your motion for emergency relief with the lawsuit or as soon as possible after.
Court filing fees for a new civil action commonly fall in the $200 to $450 range. Attorney’s fees are usually the largest expense, and the total cost to initiate the process can run several thousand dollars before you reach a hearing.
Notify Everyone Involved in the Deal
Beyond the court filings, send written notice of your claim to every professional handling the transaction: the seller’s real estate agent, the title company, and any escrow officer. Have your attorney send it on letterhead. This notice does not carry the same legal force as a recorded lis pendens, but it creates a real practical obstacle. Agents have a professional duty to disclose known legal disputes to potential buyers, and once an agent and title company are formally on notice of a legitimate claim, they will almost always pause to avoid liability exposure.
Time the notifications alongside the lis pendens recording. The recording gives you the legal teeth; the direct notice ensures no one in the transaction can claim they did not know.
How the Owner Can Fight Back
Filing a lis pendens does not lock the property down forever. The owner can file a motion to expunge it, arguing that the underlying lawsuit does not actually assert a valid claim to the property, that the notice was filed incorrectly, or that the case lacks probable validity. If the judge agrees, the lis pendens comes off the county records and the title cloud disappears.
The owner can also move to dissolve an injunction or TRO by showing changed circumstances, arguing the bond is inadequate, or demonstrating that the four-factor test is no longer satisfied. Judges revisit these orders, and the burden stays on you to justify continued restraint of the owner’s property rights. If your case weakens, the injunction can be lifted.
What Happens If Your Claim Isn’t Real
This is where people who try to use these tools as leverage get hurt. Filing a lis pendens or seeking an injunction without a legitimate legal basis does not just fail. It can backfire badly.
A property owner who is wrongly subjected to a lis pendens can sue for slander of title. To win, the owner has to show the filing was a false statement about the property, that the filer knew or recklessly disregarded its falsity, and that it caused direct financial harm. Recoverable damages include the legal costs of clearing the title, any drop in the property’s market value, and general damages for the delay and inconvenience. In egregious cases, punitive damages are on the table.
Courts can also impose monetary sanctions for bad-faith filings and order the losing party to pay the owner’s attorney’s fees. If you file a lis pendens without a pending lawsuit that genuinely affects the property, or if you use the process purely to delay or harass, you face potential liability for abuse of process and wrongful interference with the sale. The financial exposure from those counterclaims can easily exceed whatever you were trying to protect.
These tools exist for people with real claims to real property. Used any other way, they will cost you more than doing nothing.