If you practice real estate law in Pennsylvania, it is not too uncommon for you to receive a frantic call from a client indicating a deal to purchase real estate is falling apart through no fault of its own. During that call, you would then discuss whether the client wishes to either seek a refund of any monies being held in escrow at the time on account of the agreement of sale and possibly monetary damages as a result of the alleged breach of the agreement of sale or specifically enforce that agreement of sale by compelling the seller to sell the property to it. If the client elects to force a sale of the property, it is typically not sufficient for the client to simply sue the seller for such specific performance of the agreement of sale. Rather, in addition to commencing a lawsuit against the seller, the client must also duly obtain a lis pendens against the property.
Law.com defines the term lis pendens as “a written notice that a lawsuit has been filed which concerns the title to real property or some interest in that real property.” In Pennsylvania, a lis pendens is first filed in the lawsuit pending between the parties by way of a praecipe directing the prothonotary to index the lis pendens within the property’s chain of title and thereafter the plaintiff purchaser should also record the filed praecipe with the recorder of deeds in which the property is located.
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