A Certificate of Pending Litigation on Your Title: What It Means Mid-Transaction, for Sellers and Buyers Alike
You accepted an offer and now a lawsuit is stapled to your land, freezing the sale. A CPL is not a verdict — it is a notice with a clear legal gate and a clear way off. The question is whether the claim behind it is really about your property or really about money.
A Certificate of Pending Litigation has been registered on my title while I am trying to sell — what does it actually do, and can I get it off?
A CPL is a court-issued notice, registered against your land, telling the world the property is caught up in a lawsuit — and the instant it lands, your title stops being clear. No lender will fund against it and no serious buyer will close on it, so in practice your sale freezes. But it is not a judgment. If the claim behind it is not genuinely about an interest in your land — or is really just a claim for money — it can be discharged on a motion to the court. The whole fight turns on one question: what is that lawsuit actually claiming?
Source: Courts of Justice Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.43, s.103; Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194, Rule 42. Reviewed 2026.
I am Arthur Zhao. Here is a scenario that ends more deals than most sellers realize is even possible. You listed, you accepted a strong offer, closing is three weeks out — and then your lawyer calls: an ex-business partner, or an ex-spouse, or a buyer from a deal that fell apart last year, has gone to court and registered a Certificate of Pending Litigation against your title, claiming a stake in the property. Suddenly you cannot close.
If you are on the buying side, the same instrument reaches you from the other direction: your title search comes back showing a CPL on the home you are about to buy. Either way, the panic is the same and so is the cure — you have to understand what this thing is, what it takes to register one, and what it takes to get it off. This piece walks the seller through exactly that, with the buyer’s angle covered where it differs.
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The one-line version: a lawsuit, stapled to your land
Strip away the Latin and a CPL — historically a lis pendens — does one thing: it publicly warns the world that this specific parcel of land is the subject of a lawsuit, so anyone who buys or lends against it is deemed to know.
That warning function is the whole point of section 103 of the Courts of Justice Act. Merely starting a lawsuit about a piece of land does not, by itself, put strangers on notice; it is only once a CPL is issued by the court and registered in the land registry that the public is fixed with knowledge of the dispute. So a CPL is how a plaintiff pins their land claim to your title where every prospective buyer and lender will see it.
The legal machinery: section 103 and Rule 42
A CPL cannot be self-registered like a lien. Under Rule 42.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, it can be obtained only by a court order; once the order is made, the registrar of the court issues the certificate in Form 42A, and that certificate is what gets registered on title. The motion for the order is sometimes brought ex parte (without notice to you), though courts have grown wary of granting them that way. And per section 103, a CPL can be registered whether the land is under the Land Titles Act or the older Registry Act. The takeaway for you: something on the far end of this went through a judge — which also means a judge can take it back off.
Not every dispute qualifies: interest in land vs. a claim for money
ℹ️A CPL is not the same as a caution. A caution under the Land Titles Act is a different, generally weaker registration a person can use to flag a claimed interest; a CPL is court-ordered and directly tied to active litigation. If what is on your title is a caution rather than a CPL, the analysis and the way off are different — have your lawyer confirm which one you are dealing with.
Why your closing stalls the instant it lands
From the moment a CPL hits title, the machinery of a normal sale seizes up:
• The buyer’s lender walks. No mortgage lender will advance funds where their charge would sit behind an unresolved land dispute.
• Title insurance balks. A registered CPL is a known defect; insurers typically carve it out as an exclusion rather than stand behind the outcome of the lawsuit.
• The buyer’s lawyer refuses to close. A careful lawyer will not let their client take title with a live lawsuit riding on it, and will requisition that you clear it first.
That paralysis is exactly what the plaintiff wants: a CPL is designed to freeze the property in place until the dispute is resolved. Which is why, for you as the seller, doing nothing is not neutral — every week it sits there, your deal drifts toward collapse.
🚨The classic trigger: a buyer from a collapsed deal. If you walked away from a prior sale and that buyer sues for specific performance, they can seek a CPL — because specific performance is a genuine interest-in-land claim. It will not be granted automatically, but it is exactly the kind of claim that clears the gate. Do not assume a “dead” deal is truly behind you until the limitation window has run.
Getting it off title: the motion to discharge
The route off is a motion to the court to discharge the CPL, brought under section 103(6) of the Courts of Justice Act and Rule 42.02. Here is the shape of it.
Pull the claim and find the weak point
Bring the discharge motion under s.103(6)
Register the order and reopen the deal
The deterrent most people miss: section 103(4) strict liability
There is a powerful check built into the statute that cuts in your favour. Under section 103(4) of the Courts of Justice Act, a party who registers a CPL and turns out not to have a reasonable claim to an interest in the land is liable for the damages their registration caused — think of a sale that collapsed because the property was frozen for months.
This is why a CPL is not a free weapon. Someone who registers one purely to pressure you, over a claim that was never really about your land, is exposing themselves to a damages claim (and courts regularly order costs against them too). If that describes what happened to you, say so in your discharge materials.
✅If you are the buyer, not the seller: you are not a party to that lawsuit, so you cannot move to discharge it — the owner must. Your leverage is the requisition: have your lawyer demand the seller clear the CPL before closing, refuse to close on an unclean title, and preserve your right to walk and recover your deposit if they cannot.
💡 My honest take: when a CPL lands on a deal, the outcome is decided less by “is there a lawsuit” and more by “is the lawsuit about the land or about money.” A real interest-in-land claim can legitimately hold your property for months — plan around it. A money grievance wearing a CPL as a costume usually falls apart on the discharge motion, and often boomerangs into a s.103(4) damages exposure for whoever filed it. Read the claim before you panic — the answer is in it.
- Courts of Justice Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.43, s.103 (statutory basis for a CPL: s.103(1) notice effect, s.103(4) strict liability for registering without a reasonable claim, s.103(6) grounds for discharge)
- Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194, Rule 42 (42.01 issuance by court order, Form 42A; 42.02 discharge motion under s.103(6))
- Land Titles Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.5 (a CPL may be registered against title under the Land Titles or Registry systems)
Frequently Asked Questions
Someone registered a CPL on my property but has no real claim to it — can I get it removed quickly?
You move to discharge it under section 103(6) of the Courts of Justice Act and Rule 42.02. If the claim is really about money, or there is no reasonable interest-in-land claim, courts vacate CPLs and often award costs against whoever registered it. “Quickly” depends on the court schedule and whether they fight — so start the motion the moment your lawyer confirms the claim is weak.
How long can a CPL stay on my title?
Until the litigation is finally resolved or a court orders it discharged. There is no automatic expiry clock; it sits there freezing the property until someone acts. That is precisely why leaving it alone is dangerous when you have a sale pending — the deal will not wait as long as the lawsuit can.
Can I still sell my house with a CPL on it?
In practice, no. Lenders will not fund the buyer, title insurance treats it as a known defect, and the buyer’s lawyer will refuse to close on unclean title. You generally have to get the CPL discharged first, or negotiate a resolution of the underlying claim, before a normal sale can complete.
What is the difference between a CPL and a construction lien?
A construction lien is a security for unpaid work under the Construction Act, available to contractors and suppliers over money owed. A CPL is a Courts of Justice Act instrument that requires a genuine interest-in-land claim and a court order. A pure money dispute belongs in a lien or a damages action — not a CPL, which is one reason improperly filed CPLs get vacated.
If a buyer sues me for specific performance, do they get a CPL automatically?
No. Specific performance is the kind of interest-in-land claim that can support a CPL, but the buyer still needs a court order, and the court weighs whether there is a triable issue and where the balance of harm lies. They can also be exposed under section 103(4) if it turns out they had no reasonable claim.
Arthur Zhao
Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · CLHMS & GUILD Elite · REAIS
VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.
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