Louisiana Stopped Selling Tax Titles on 1 January 2026: What the New Tax Lien Certificate Pays

Anything written about Louisiana tax sales before 2026 now describes a system that no longer exists. On 1 January 2026 the state replaced tax sales with tax lien auctions, and the change runs deeper than vocabulary. A Louisiana investor used to acquire a tax sale title with a possessory dimension and a redemption period attached to it. Today they acquire a certificate evidencing a lien, and the statute that governs payment is headed "Extinguishment of Lien." For anyone whose business is maintaining property, the consequence is immediate: there is now nothing in Louisiana law that pays a certificate holder for work on the building.

What Changed, and When

The sections now in force carry their own evidence of the change. R.S. 47:2241, R.S. 47:2155 and R.S. 47:2243 each close with the same history line: "Acts 2024, No. 774, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2026; Acts 2025, No. 411, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2026." The 2024 act built the new regime; the 2025 act amended it before it took effect.

R.S. 47:2241 is the hinge, and it is one sentence: "All redemptive periods provided in the Constitution of Louisiana shall be peremptive." Peremption, in Louisiana law, destroys the right itself rather than merely barring the remedy - it cannot be interrupted or suspended except where a statute says so.

What the Winning Bidder Gets

Under R.S. 47:2155(A) the tax collector authenticates and files a tax lien certificate in favour of the winning bidder - or in favour of the political subdivision if there is no bidder - relating in substance a brief history of the proceedings, describing the property, and stating the face value of the certificate including the statutory impositions, interest and costs in the auction price, the monthly interest rate, the penalty assessed at auction, and the payment made.

The section then requires the collector to conclude the auction with a specific statement: that the statutory impositions, together with interest, penalties and costs, "may be paid at any time prior to the expiration of thirty days after service of a petition to enforce the tax lien." That is a long runway for the tax debtor. Payment remains possible not just until enforcement is filed, but until thirty days after the petition has been served.

A certified copy of the certificate "shall be prima facie evidence of the regularity of all matters regarding the tax lien auction and the validity of the tax lien auction" (subsection (B)). The holder's position is evidentiary and financial. It is not possessory.

Seven Years, Peremptive

R.S. 47:2155(C)(1) sets the outer limit: an action to enforce the tax lien under R.S. 47:2266.1 "shall be brought no later than seven years from the date that the tax lien certificate is recorded in the mortgage records of the parish in which the property is located. Upon the expiration of this time period, the tax lien shall be extinguished and, upon written request of an interested party, the recorder of mortgages shall cancel the inscription of the tax lien certificate."

Paragraph (2) makes that period peremptive and allows a court to dismiss a late enforcement action on its own motion. Paragraph (3) suspends it in two situations only: while the certificate is held by the political subdivision, and while a bankruptcy stay prohibiting enforcement is pending with a notice of pendency recorded in the parish mortgage records.

The Termination Price, Line by Line

R.S. 47:2243 is where the money is settled. Subsection (A)(1): except as provided in subsection (C), "a tax lien shall be extinguished by payment of the termination price to the tax collector of the appropriate political subdivision." On receipt the collector must notify the terminating party of any other outstanding tax lien certificates within the collector's authority, and remit the termination price to the certificate holder within thirty days.

Subsection (B)(1) lists what the termination price includes:

Two of those lines are conditional in a way that rewards paperwork and punishes its absence. The five-hundred-dollar notice allowance requires an affidavit under R.S. 47:2156 submitted before the termination payment is made. And on other liens the holder cleared, R.S. 47:2243(B)(2)(b) is blunt: a certificate holder who fails to notify the tax collector of their status as certificate holder at the time of payment "shall not be entitled to recover as part of the termination price the amounts specified." Not reduced - not entitled.

Subsection (B)(3) handles partial payment: the collector is not required to accept partial payment of the termination price due for a given certificate, but may not refuse payment of one certificate on the ground that other certificates or unsold statutory impositions remain outstanding on the property.

Nothing for the Building

Read the termination price against the Texas definition of "costs" and the gap is the whole story. Texas adds "the amount reasonably spent by the purchaser for maintaining, preserving, and safekeeping the property," and names insurance, code-required repairs and municipal hazard liens inside it. Alabama adds the value of "preservation improvements" at eight per cent, with a statutory definition. Louisiana's list, as of 2026, contains face value, a penalty, a recording cost, interest, five hundred dollars of notice costs and other tax payments.

That is not an oversight. A Louisiana certificate holder has no possession, no right to rents and no duty to the property, so there is no work for the statute to price. The building remains the tax debtor's, with the tax debtor's obligations - including whatever the parish or municipality imposes. Where a Louisiana property genuinely needs someone else to take hold of it and be paid for fixing it, the mechanism is the blighted housing receivership under R.S. 40:600.33 and following, not the tax lien; that is covered in the Louisiana blight receivership page.

What This Means If You Do the Work

• Discard anything written about Louisiana tax sale titles before 2026 - the regime in force auctions liens and settles them at a termination price
• There is no preservation cost line to invoice against; the certificate earns interest and a capped notice allowance
• File the R.S. 47:2156 affidavit with the tax collector before any termination payment, or the five-hundred-dollar notice allowance is unavailable
• If you pay off another tax lien on the property, tell the tax collector you are the certificate holder at the time of payment - R.S. 47:2243(B)(2)(b) forfeits the recovery otherwise
• Diary seven years from the date the certificate is recorded; the period is peremptive and a late enforcement action can be dismissed by the court on its own motion
• Expect the tax debtor to be able to pay up to thirty days after service of a petition to enforce, so an enforcement filing does not close the window
• Where someone must actually take hold of a derelict Louisiana building and be paid for the work, that is the blighted housing receivership, not the tax lien

For the states that reimburse the work, see Texas, where only itemised costs are allowed and Alabama, which defines preservation improvements and pays eight per cent. For the other states that sell a lien or extinguish redemption entirely, see Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, whose answer depends on which statute the sale ran under. Louisiana's other regimes over a building someone else owns: the consent-based blighted housing receivership, a succession representative's duty to preserve property and a chapter 7 trustee and the $35,000 homestead. On the municipal side see New Orleans blight remediation and Shreveport's registration. Field capability is on our Louisiana page.