Delinquent Property Taxes in Louisiana: The 2026 Tax Lien Auction, and the Three Years Before Anyone Can Sue
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Louisiana · Last updated October 21, 2026
Louisiana stopped selling tax sale title on January 1, 2026 and now auctions the tax lien instead, so what changes hands at a parish auction is the debt, not the home. Delinquent property taxes are property taxes a homeowner did not pay by the date the state set, after which the collector adds interest and a penalty and can eventually force a sale to collect them. The rewrite began in the constitution. Acts 2024, No. 409 amended Article VII, Section 25 after the statewide election of December 7, 2024, and Acts 2024, No. 774, as amended by Acts 2025, No. 411, rebuilt the statute on the same date. Statutory impositions are due by December 31 and delinquent the next day (La. R.S. 47:2127(A)). Interest then runs at 1 percent a month, noncompounding (La. R.S. 47:2127(B)(1)(a)). Ninety days past delinquency the lien must be offered at auction (La. R.S. 47:2127(D)), advertised on or before May 1 of the year after assessment (La. R.S. 47:2154(A)(1)). Bidders bid the monthly rate down from 1 percent and may not go below 0.7 percent (La. R.S. 47:2154(D)). Until a judgment of court is executed, the auction terminates no ownership interest and no right of possession, and the certificate holder may not evict you or collect your rent (La. R.S. 47:2153(A)). No calendar date ends your right to pay. The holder cannot sue for three years after recording, and then you get thirty days from service (La. R.S. 47:2266.1). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
Find out where you stand in Louisiana
Where are you with the unpaid property taxes?
DocDraft provides document preparation, not legal advice.
Which Louisiana tax sale law applies to me right now?
The tax lien auction law. Acts 2024, No. 774, as amended by Acts 2025, No. 411, took effect January 1, 2026 and applies to taxable periods beginning on or after that date. A tax sale held before then stays on the law in effect December 31, 2025 (La. R.S. 47:2241.1).
What does a Louisiana parish actually sell at a tax lien auction?
The tax lien, meaning the right to be paid the delinquent obligation. The auction price is the face value of the tax lien certificate, and the collector files that certificate in the parish mortgage records in favour of the winning bidder within thirty days (La. R.S. 47:2154(C), (E)(1)).
How much does it cost to clear a Louisiana tax lien?
The termination price. That is the certificate's face value, the 5 percent penalty, the monthly interest set at auction, the cost of recording the termination certificate, post auction notice costs up to 500 dollars, and any later year taxes the holder paid (La. R.S. 47:2243(B)).
How long before a Louisiana certificate holder can go to court?
Three years from recordation of the tax lien certificate, or six months after the required post auction notices, whichever falls later. The suit must be filed within seven years of recordation or the lien is extinguished by peremption (La. R.S. 47:2266.1(A)(1), 47:2155(C)).
Louisiana delinquent property tax rules at a glance
A Louisiana parish now collects back taxes by auctioning the lien that secures them, while the homeowner who owes them keeps the title. Delinquent property taxes are taxes a homeowner missed by the statutory date, after which interest and a penalty build and the collector can force a sale to collect. Three things make this state unusual. The charge is split, a flat 5 percent penalty plus monthly interest that bidders drive down from 1 percent to a floor of 0.7 percent (La. R.S. 47:2127(B)(2), 47:2154(D)). The deadline is not a date but an event, the close of business on the thirtieth day after the last party is served with a petition to enforce (La. R.S. 47:2266.1(D)(1)). And the Constitution now forbids forfeiture outright, leaving the legislature to set both caps and a period when the lien cannot be enforced (La. Const. art. VII, Sec. 25(A)(1)).
A Ouachita Parish ranch whose lien went for 0.8 percent, with nobody able to sue until 2030
Say a brick ranch near Monroe carries 1,840 dollars of 2026 statutory impositions that go unpaid. The bill is delinquent on January 1, 2027 and begins drawing 1 percent a month, noncompounding (La. R.S. 47:2127(A), (B)(1)(a)). The sheriff's tax department mails certified notice by the first Monday of February 2027, giving twenty days (La. R.S. 47:2153(A)). Still unpaid ninety days past delinquency, the lien is advertised and auctioned before May 1 (La. R.S. 47:2127(D), 47:2154(A)(1)). A bidder wins at 0.8 percent a month and the certificate is recorded that June, with the 5 percent penalty assessed (La. R.S. 47:2154(E)(1), 47:2127(B)(2)). No suit is possible until June 2030, and meanwhile the owner keeps possession and any rent (La. R.S. 47:2266.1(A)(1), 47:2153(A)). What the termination price is on a given day is for the collector to certify.
Relevant Laws
La. Const. art. VII, Sec. 25 (no forfeiture, and the four things the legislature must provide)
As amended by Acts 2024, No. 409, effective January 1, 2026, Paragraph (A)(1) provides that there shall be no forfeiture of property for nonpayment of taxes, that the assessment of ad valorem taxes and other impositions on immovable property constitutes a lien and privilege in favour of the political subdivision owed, and that the legislature shall provide by law for the efficient administration of tax sales including at a minimum interest not exceeding one percent per month on a noncompounding basis, penalty not exceeding five percent, a period of time during which the lien cannot be enforced, and a procedure for claiming excess proceeds. The former Paragraph (B) Redemption, with its three year redemptive period, is no longer in the text.
Acts 2024, No. 409 (enrolled Senate Bill No. 119, the amendment and its ballot date)
The joint resolution proposing the amendment to Article VII, Section 25. Section 2 provides that the amendment shall become effective January 1, 2026, and Section 4 submits it to the electors at the statewide election held December 7, 2024. The struck through text in the enrolled instrument shows what was deleted, including the three year redemption after recordation of the tax sale and the eighteen month periods for abandoned or blighted property.
Acts 2024, No. 774 (enrolled Senate Bill No. 505, the statute that replaced the tax sale regime)
Section 2 repeals R.S. 47:2121, 2123, 2128, 2131, 2152, 2157, 2161, 2196, 2197, 2266 and 2271 through 2280 in their entirety. Section 4 provides that the Act applies to all taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026. Section 5 makes it effective and operative on January 1, 2026 conditional on adoption of the Article VII, Section 25 amendment. Further amended by Acts 2025, No. 411, effective the same date.
La. R.S. 47:2122 (definitions, including termination price and tax lien certificate)
Defines the vocabulary the chapter now runs on. Delinquent obligation, face value of a tax lien certificate, tax lien, tax lien auction, tax lien certificate and tax lien certificate holder are all defined here, as is termination price, the amount calculated under R.S. 47:2243 required to extinguish a tax lien. Notably, redemptive period is defined as the period in which a person may redeem property as provided in the law prior to January 1, 2026, and tax sale is defined as the sale or adjudication of tax sale title to property prior to January 1, 2026.
La. R.S. 47:2127 (due date, delinquency, 1 percent monthly interest, 5 percent penalty, the ninety days)
Subsection A sets payment no later than December thirty-first, with delinquency the following day. Subsection B(1)(a) sets interest from the day after the taxes were due at one percent per month or any part thereof on a noncompounding basis. Subsection B(2) assesses a five percent penalty on the statutory impositions if the lien is offered at auction, with no interest on the penalty. Subsection D requires the lien to be offered at auction if impositions, interest and costs remain unpaid ninety days after becoming delinquent. Subsection E sets the annual tax notice and provides that failure to give it does not affect the validity of the auction.
La. R.S. 47:2153 (certified mail by the first Monday of February, and the advertised list)
Requires written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, no later than the first Monday of February, telling the tax notice party that unpaid impositions will see the lien advertised for auction after twenty days. Subsection B(1) requires, if the certified mail is returned, resending by first class mail to the address and to occupant plus at least three of six further steps including posting notice at the property. Subsection C requires publication of the consolidated delinquent tax list in the official journal. The statutory notice form states that until a judgment of court is executed the auction terminates no ownership interest or right to possession, and that the holder may not evict or collect rent.
La. R.S. 47:2154 (the tax lien auction and the bid-down monthly rate)
Requires advertisement of the tax lien for public auction on or before May first of the year following assessment. The auction price is the face value of the tax lien certificate. Subsection D makes the subject of the competitive bidding the monthly rate at which interest will accrue, subject to a maximum bid of one percent per month, bid down in increments of one tenth of one percent, with no bid accepted below seven tenths of one percent. Subsection E requires the certificate to be issued and filed in the parish mortgage records within thirty days, in favour of the political subdivision if there is no bidder. Subsection F sets interest at the winning rate, or one percent monthly for a political subdivision.
La. R.S. 47:2155 (the tax lien certificate and the seven year peremptive period)
Sets the form and contents of the tax lien certificate, including the monthly interest rate and the penalty assessed at auction, and provides that it is prima facie evidence of the validity of the tax lien and of the assignment. Subsection C(1) requires an action to enforce the tax lien under R.S. 47:2266.1 to be brought no later than seven years from the date the certificate is recorded, after which the lien is extinguished and the recorder of mortgages cancels the inscription on written request of an interested party. Subsection C(2) makes the period peremptive. Subsection C(3) suspends it while a political subdivision holds the certificate or a recorded bankruptcy stay bars enforcement.
La. R.S. 47:2156 (post auction notice, six months to one year before suit)
Requires the certificate holder to use reasonable diligence to find each tax lien auction party whose interest an enforcement action would terminate, and to send notice at least six months but no more than one year before bringing the action, by certified or registered mail or commercial courier where the party is a mortgage holder. The prescribed notice tells the owner that the lien may be extinguished by delivering the termination price to the tax collector. Subsection D entitles the holder to recover reasonable and customary costs actually incurred, on an affidavit of costs, not exceeding five hundred dollars.
La. R.S. 47:2160.1 (later year taxes the certificate holder pays)
Provides that after a certificate issues, all subsequent statutory impositions continue to be assessed to and paid by the tax debtor, and that if they remain unpaid by the delinquency date the certificate holder may pay them. Amounts so paid become part of the delinquent obligation owed to the holder, together with a five percent penalty on the impositions and interest on the total at one percent per month computed on a noncompounding basis. If the holder pays after the lien has been extinguished, the collector refunds within thirty days of written demand.
La. R.S. 47:2243 and 2244 (the termination price, and the 300 dollar cost cap)
Section 2243 provides that a tax lien is extinguished by payment of the termination price to the tax collector of the appropriate political subdivision, which must notify the paying party of other outstanding certificates and remit within thirty days. The termination price is the face value of the certificate, any penalty under R.S. 47:2127, the cost of preparing and recording the termination certificate, interest under R.S. 47:2154(F), post auction notice costs up to five hundred dollars on an affidavit, and amounts owed under R.S. 47:2160.1. Section 2244 adds the political subdivision's actual costs for the certificate and the auction and post auction notices, capped at three hundred dollars exclusive of filing and recording fees.
La. R.S. 47:2266.1 (the three year wait, the thirty day window, and the court set price)
Lets a certificate holder petition, on expiry of the later of three years from recordation of the certificate or six months after the R.S. 47:2156 notices, for recognition of the delinquent obligation and the lien. Subsection D(1) allows any person to extinguish the lien by delivering the termination price until close of business on the thirtieth day after the last party was served. Subsection D(2) then bars the collector from accepting payment. Subsection D(3) lets any person holding an interest that enforcement would terminate move the court, before the judicial sale, to fix the termination price. Attorney fees are capped, absent good cause, at the greater of twenty five percent of the amount sought or two thousand five hundred dollars.
La. R.S. 47:2267 and 2268 (judicial sale, the order of proceeds, and what survives)
Section 2267 executes a judgment by writ of fieri facias and ranks the proceeds: costs of sale and commission first, then the plaintiff certificate holder for the judgment plus judicial interest and reasonable costs and attorney fees, then other certificate holders whose rights have not perempted, then holders of recorded mortgages, liens and privileges, then each owner in accordance with their interest. Undeliverable proceeds go into the registry of the court, and surplus unclaimed for one year becomes subject to the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act of 1997. Section 2268 terminates all interests in the property except eight listed categories filed before the certificate, among them mineral rights, predial servitudes and building restrictions.
La. R.S. 47:2241.1 (tax sales held before January 1, 2026)
Provides that redemptions for tax sales shall be made in accordance with the law in effect on December 31, 2025, which keeps every pre-2026 tax sale on the repealed tax sale title rules rather than the tax lien rules. For property adjudicated to the state for tax years 1880 through 1973, redemptions are made through the register of the state land office, and any person may redeem in the name of the tax debtor until the state transfers the property.
La. R.S. 47:2129 and 2130 (refusal of part payment, and the public calamity postponement)
Section 2129 lets the tax collector refuse to accept payment of less than all the outstanding statutory impositions and the processing fee, other than as provided in R.S. 47:2130. Section 2130 is a postponement rather than an instalment plan. Collection must be postponed where an emergency has been declared by the governor or a parish president under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, the assessed property in the designated area has been damaged or destroyed by the calamity, and collection would be onerous because the owner cannot pay without suffering substantial hardship. The supporting sworn financial statement is confidential and not a public record.
La. Const. art. V, Sec. 27 (who the parish tax collector is)
Provides that in each parish a sheriff shall be elected for a term of four years, that he shall be the chief law enforcement officer in the parish except as otherwise provided by the constitution, and that he shall be the collector of state and parish ad valorem taxes and such other taxes and license fees as provided by law. The section expressly does not apply to Orleans Parish. This is why the office that takes a termination payment is, outside Orleans Parish, the sheriff's tax department.
Regional Variances
Louisiana delinquent property tax rules at a glance
Which law is in force
The tax lien auction regime, since January 1, 2026. Acts 2024, No. 409 amended La. Const. art. VII, Sec. 25 after the statewide election of December 7, 2024, and Acts 2024, No. 774, as amended by Acts 2025, No. 411, replaced the tax sale title statutes on the same date and applies to taxable periods beginning on or after it. A tax sale held before that date is still governed by the law in effect December 31, 2025 (La. R.S. 47:2241.1(A)).
Sale mechanism
Tax lien, then a court case. The collector auctions the tax lien, not the property and not tax sale title, and files a tax lien certificate in the parish mortgage records in favour of the winning bidder within thirty days (La. R.S. 47:2154(C), (E)(1)). Reaching the property takes a judgment under La. R.S. 47:2266.1 and then a judicial sale under La. R.S. 47:2267.
Delinquency date
Statutory impositions, meaning ad valorem taxes plus any imposition on the same bill, are payable no later than December thirty-first and are delinquent the following day (La. R.S. 47:2127(A), 47:2122(14)). There is no split instalment date.
Penalty and interest before the auction
Interest at one percent per month or any part of a month, noncompounding, from the day after the taxes were due (La. R.S. 47:2127(B)(1)(a)). A separate flat five percent penalty on the statutory impositions is assessed if the lien is offered at auction, and no interest accrues on that penalty (La. R.S. 47:2127(B)(2)). The constitution caps both figures (La. Const. art. VII, Sec. 25(A)(1)(a), (b)).
Time before the auction
Ninety days. If the impositions, interest and costs on immovable property remain unpaid ninety days after becoming delinquent, the lien shall be offered at a tax lien auction (La. R.S. 47:2127(D)), advertised on or before May first of the year following assessment (La. R.S. 47:2154(A)(1)). Impositions delinquent three years or more may not be included in the auction price (La. R.S. 47:2151.1).
Redemption period and clock
No fixed period and no anniversary date. Any person may extinguish the lien by paying the termination price from the auction until close of business on the thirtieth day after the last party is served with a petition to enforce (La. R.S. 47:2242, 47:2266.1(D)(1)). The holder cannot file that petition until the later of three years from recordation of the certificate or six months after the post auction notices, and must file within seven years of recordation or the lien perempts (La. R.S. 47:2266.1(A)(1), 47:2155(C)). After the thirty days, only a court order under La. R.S. 47:2266.1(D)(3) can fix a price.
Redeemer's charge
A bid-down monthly rate plus a flat penalty, not a statutory annual rate. The subject of the competitive bidding is the monthly interest rate, capped at one percent per month, bid down in increments of one tenth of one percent, with no bid accepted below seven tenths of one percent, running noncompounding on the certificate's face value from issuance (La. R.S. 47:2154(D), (F)). With no bidder the political subdivision takes it at one percent monthly. The flat five percent penalty under La. R.S. 47:2127(B)(2) sits on top and does not grow with time.
Other termination costs
The face value of the certificate, which already carries pre-issuance interest and costs and the clerk's recording cost, the five percent penalty, the cost of preparing and recording the termination certificate, the bid-down interest, the holder's post auction notice costs up to five hundred dollars on an affidavit, and later year impositions the holder paid with their own five percent penalty and one percent monthly interest (La. R.S. 47:2243(B), 47:2122(6), 47:2160.1(B)(2)). The political subdivision's own costs are capped at three hundred dollars exclusive of filing and recording fees (La. R.S. 47:2244). After suit, court costs and attorney fees capped at the greater of twenty five percent or two thousand five hundred dollars absent good cause (La. R.S. 47:2266.1(A)(6), (C)(1)).
Notice to the owner
Certified mail, return receipt requested, no later than the first Monday of February, giving twenty days (La. R.S. 47:2153(A)); on a returned envelope, first class mail to the address and to occupant plus at least three of six further steps including posting at the property (La. R.S. 47:2153(B)(1)); publication of the consolidated delinquent tax list in the official journal (La. R.S. 47:2153(C)(1)(a)); and after the auction, the holder's own notice at least six months but no more than one year before suing (La. R.S. 47:2156(B)(1)). Failure to give the annual tax bill notice does not affect the validity of the auction (La. R.S. 47:2127(E)(3)).
Possession and rent during the lien
The owner keeps both. The statutory notice form states that until a judgment of court is executed the auction terminates no ownership interest or right to possession, that during the termination period the certificate holder may not subject the owner to any eviction proceeding and is not entitled to collect any lease or rental payments, and that attempting it is unlawful and subjects the lienholder to penalty by law (La. R.S. 47:2153(A)).
Where to pay
The tax collector of the political subdivision owed, which issues the termination certificate and files it in the mortgage records (La. R.S. 47:2243(A)(1), 47:2245). In each parish other than Orleans the constitution makes the elected sheriff the collector of state and parish ad valorem taxes, and that section expressly does not apply to Orleans Parish (La. Const. art. V, Sec. 27).
Surplus proceeds
Claimable, and now constitutionally required to exist (La. Const. art. VII, Sec. 25(A)(1)(d)). After a judicial sale the sheriff deducts sale costs and commission, then pays the plaintiff certificate holder, then other certificate holders whose rights have not perempted, then holders of recorded mortgages, liens and privileges, then each owner in accordance with their interest (La. R.S. 47:2267(B)(1)). Undeliverable proceeds go into the court registry, and surplus unclaimed for one year becomes subject to the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act of 1997 (La. R.S. 47:2267(B)(3)).
Payment plan
No general instalment right. The collector may refuse payment of less than all outstanding impositions and the processing fee, other than as La. R.S. 47:2130 provides (La. R.S. 47:2129), and that section is a public calamity postponement requiring a declared emergency, property in the designated area damaged or destroyed, and collection that would be onerous because the owner cannot pay without substantial hardship, on a sworn application with a confidential financial statement (La. R.S. 47:2130(A), (B), (C)).
Frequently Asked Questions
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