Louisiana Landlord-Tenant Law for DIY Landlords (2026)

Security deposits, late fees, notice to vacate and the eviction timeline in Louisiana, in plain English for landlords who manage their own rentals.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Louisiana is the one state that runs on civil law instead of English common law. Your lease lives in the Civil Code starting at article 2668, and the parties are called lessor and lessee, not landlord and tenant. Deposits get their own statute in Title 9. Evictions run through the Code of Civil Procedure.

The Civil Code gives the two sides a lot of freedom to write their own deal, so your lease does more work in Louisiana than it does in most states. Here is what a small landlord has to get right, with the section behind each rule.

Security deposits

There is no cap. Louisiana sets no statutory limit on a residential deposit. The amount is whatever your lease says, and the market is the only real ceiling.

You have one month to return it. The deposit goes back to the lessee within one month after the lease terminates (La. R.S. 9:3251(A)).

You can keep what a default or hard use costs you. The statute lets you retain the portion reasonably necessary to remedy a default by the lessee or to remedy unreasonable wear to the premises (§ 9:3251(A)). Ordinary wear is not yours to charge for.

Send an itemized statement. Keep any part of the deposit and you owe the lessee a written statement accounting for what you retained and the reasons for it. Act 63 of the 2026 Regular Session (HB 292) rewrote that deadline. The statement is due within one month after the date the tenancy terminates, or within fifteen days after the date that is one month after the tenancy terminates (§ 9:3251(A)). Treat the one-month date as your target and the fifteen extra days as slack you would rather not need.

The lessee owes you a forwarding address. The statute puts that duty on the tenant at the termination of the lease (§ 9:3251(A)). Ask for it in writing at move-out and keep the reply.

Abandonment changes things. The return rule does not apply where the tenant abandons the premises without giving required notice or before the lease term ends (§ 9:3251(C)).

Selling the property moves the deposit. Transfer your interest during the term and you transfer the deposit to your successor, which releases you from further liability on it (§ 9:3251(B)).

The penalty is real money. Willful failure to comply lets the lessee recover the wrongfully retained portion plus $300 or twice that portion, whichever is greater. Failing to remit within thirty days after a written demand for a refund counts as willful failure (§ 9:3252(A)). Suit can be filed in your parish or the parish where the property sits (§ 9:3252(B)).

Late fees

Louisiana has no statutory cap on residential late fees and no statutory grace period. Put the fee and the day it hits in the lease. Courts can refuse to enforce a charge they read as a penalty rather than a fair estimate of your loss, so keep the number modest and consistent across your units.

Rent increases and rent control

No Louisiana statute caps a rent increase or sets a notice period for one. During a fixed term the lease controls the rent. On a month-to-month, an increase is really a new lease, so give the article 2728 notice below and offer the new terms in the same letter.

Louisiana has no statewide rent control statute. Check your parish or city anyway before you assume nothing local applies.

Entering the unit

The Civil Code sets no notice period for lessor entry. Article 2693 lets you make a repair that cannot wait until the end of the lease even where that inconveniences the lessee, and the lessee may get a rent reduction for a long or severe disruption.

With no statutory rule, your lease is the rule. Twenty-four hours of written notice for anything that is not an emergency is a fair standard to write in and stick to.

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

A lease with no fixed term ends by notice from the party who wants out (CC art. 2727). The timing is in article 2728.

Month-to-month, ten calendar days before the end of the month (art. 2728(2))
A term longer than a month, thirty calendar days before the end of that period (art. 2728(1))

Watch reconduction. Let a fixed-term lessee stay past the end date for seven days with no notice to vacate and no objection from you, and the lease reconducts (art. 2721). A reconducted lease of a month or longer becomes month-to-month (art. 2723(1)).

When rent isn't paid

There is no statutory pay-or-quit cure period in Louisiana. Once the right of occupancy has ceased, for nonpayment or any other reason, you deliver a written notice to vacate that allows the lessee not less than five days from the date of delivery (CCP art. 4701).

One Louisiana quirk matters here. A lessee may waive the notice to vacate by written waiver in the lease, which lets you file the eviction rule immediately (art. 4701). Many Louisiana leases carry that waiver. Read yours before you count days.

The eviction process step by step

Notice to vacate. Written, delivered, five days minimum, or none at all where the lease waives it (art. 4701).
File the rule. You file a rule for possession asking the court to order the lessee to show cause why they should not be evicted (art. 4731). Filing is in the city, parish or justice of the peace court for where the property sits.
Hearing. The court makes the rule returnable no earlier than the third day after service (art. 4732).
Judgment. Win the rule, or get no answer and no appearance, and the court renders a judgment of eviction ordering possession back to you. The judgment stays effective for at least ninety days (art. 4732).
Warrant. The lessee has twenty-four hours after the judgment to comply. Past that, the court issues a warrant directing the sheriff, constable or marshal to deliver possession to you (art. 4733).
Appeal. An appeal suspends the eviction only where the lessee answered the rule under oath with an affirmative defense and filed the appeal and bond within twenty-four hours of judgment (art. 4735).

Skip the process and you lose. Possession comes back through the court, not through a changed lock.

Repairs and habitability

You are bound to deliver the property, keep it in a condition suitable for the purpose it was leased for, and protect the lessee's peaceful possession (CC art. 2682). You make the repairs needed to keep it that way, except the ones the lessee is responsible for (art. 2691).

You warrant that the property is fit for its purpose and free of vices or defects that prevent that use, including defects you did not know about (arts. 2696 and 2697). A waiver of that warranty needs clear and unambiguous language brought to the lessee's attention, and in a residential lease a waiver is ineffective for defects that seriously affect health or safety (art. 2699).

Ignore a repair demand for a reasonable time and the lessee can have the work done and come after you for the cost (art. 2694).

The short version

No deposit cap, returned within one month after the lease terminates
Itemized statement for anything you keep, with the 2026 Act 63 deadline
$300 or double the wrongly held amount for willful failure, after a 30-day demand
No statutory late-fee cap and no grace period, so the lease sets both
Ten calendar days' notice to end a month-to-month
Five-day notice to vacate before filing, waivable in the lease
Hearing no earlier than the third day after service, then 24 hours to move

Let Taz handle the paperwork

Taz is an AI property manager for landlords who would rather not live in the Civil Code. It tracks the one-month deposit clock, sends rent reminders, takes maintenance requests day and night, and keeps the records a Louisiana judge would ask for. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and your parish or city may add rules. Talk to a Louisiana attorney before acting on a specific situation. Last checked September 2026.