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Louisiana tax lien & tax deed sales

Louisiana is a tax lien state, and since January 1, 2026 it is a different one than it used to be. Read more…

Act 774 of 2024 and Act 411 of 2025 rewrote Chapter 5 of Title 47, and the voters amended La. Const. art. VII, sec. 25 to match, so the old tax sale that handed a bidder tax sale title to the parcel no longer exists. What a Louisiana tax collector sells now is the tax lien itself. The price is fixed at the face value of the tax lien certificate, and the only thing bid is the monthly interest rate the certificate will earn: bidding opens at the statutory ceiling of 1 percent per month, falls in steps of one tenth of one percent, and stops at a floor of seven tenths of one percent. The winner receives a tax lien certificate recorded in the parish mortgage records, not a deed and not a share of ownership, and the owner keeps title and possession throughout. Three years after the certificate is recorded the holder may sue to have the lien recognized, and only a judicial sale on that judgment moves the property.

Rules verified Aug 24, 2026 against Louisiana Statutes.

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Sale type: Tax lien
Maximum rate: 12%
Auction method: judicial foreclosure
Over-the-counter: Available

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Tax lien certificates

You pay the overdue taxes and receive a certificate that earns interest until the owner redeems. The rate is bid down at auction, so the winning bid is usually a proxy bid down to your floor. Compare bidding methods to see how that changes what you earn.

Bidding method: Bid down interest
Maximum rate: 12% per year, bid down in 1.2% steps to an 8.4% floor
Minimum return: 5% floor at redemption
Next expected: advertised for auction by May 1, 2027 (window; exact dates post per county)
Certificate life: Expires 7 years after issuance

Sale timingNo statute fixes an auction date. R.S. 47:2127(D) requires the lien to be offered once the taxes have gone 90 days past delinquency, which falls around April 1, and R.S. More…

47:2154(A)(1) requires the tax collector to advertise the auction on or before May 1 of the year following the year of assessment, or as soon after that as possible. R.S. 47:2153(A) starts the chain earlier, with a certified mail notice of delinquency to every tax notice party no later than the first Monday of February. The auction runs on a weekday with bidding opening no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and closing no later than 8:00 p.m.; an online auction may run over several days so long as all bidding closes inside those hours on a weekday. Confirm the date with the tax collector, because none of these dates is the auction date.

Zero-bid ruleNo Louisiana certificate can be bid to zero. More…

R.S. 47:2154(C) fixes the auction price at the face value of the tax lien certificate, and (D)(1) makes the monthly interest rate the only subject of the bidding. Bidding opens at the statutory ceiling of 1 percent per month and falls in increments of one tenth of one percent, which is 12 percent a year falling in 1.2 percent steps, and (D)(2)(b) refuses any bid that would take the rate below seven tenths of one percent per month. The worst rate a winning bidder can accept is therefore 8.4 percent a year. Where several bidders reach the same lowest rate, the first bid submitted wins, so at a competitive parcel the contest is decided on speed rather than on price. A lien nobody bids on is not passed over: the tax collector records the certificate in favor of the political subdivision, and that certificate earns the full 1 percent per month.

Redemption, delinquency, and over-the-counter at a glance

Redemption

How longLouisiana replaced redemption with extinguishment of the lien, and the shape is different from a redemption clock. More…

There is no date on which the owner's right lapses by itself. Any person may pay the termination price to the tax collector at any time. The holder cannot even start the enforcement suit until the later of three years from recordation of the certificate or six months after the R.S. 47:2156 notices went out, and once suit is filed the right to pay survives until the close of business on the thirtieth day after the last party was served. After that the tax collector stops accepting payment, and the lien can be extinguished only by the holder's own act or by court order: a party holding an interest may still file a contradictory motion before the judicial sale and ask the court to set the termination price, which the court fixes within 30 days and which must then be paid within 30 days more. The pressure on the holder comes from the other end. R.S. 47:2155(C) makes the right to sue peremptive at seven years from recordation, suspended while a political subdivision holds the certificate or a recorded bankruptcy stay is pending, after which the lien is extinguished and the inscription cancelled. Redemption periods that the constitution used to provide remain peremptive under R.S. 47:2241, but the amended constitution no longer provides any.

What the owner paysThe termination price under R.S. 47:2243(B) is the face value of the tax lien certificate, plus the 5 percent penalty assessed under R.S. More…

47:2127, plus interest on the face value at the monthly rate the certificate carries, plus the cost of preparing and recording the termination certificate, plus the certificate holder's post-auction notice costs on an affidavit filed with the tax collector, capped at 500 dollars, plus anything owed to the holder under R.S. 47:2160.1 for subsequent parish or municipal impositions with their own penalty and interest. R.S. 47:2244 adds the political subdivision's actual costs of preparing the certificate, giving notice of the auction and any post-auction notice, and recording, capped at 300 dollars exclusive of filing and recording fees. Where the tax collector cannot deliver a full payoff, partial payment need not be accepted, and where several certificates encumber one parcel a payment short of clearing them all is applied as the payer directs, or otherwise to the oldest lien. The tax collector remits the termination price to the certificate holder within 30 days and issues a termination certificate that the recorder uses to cancel the inscription.

Delinquency

How it startsLouisiana statutory impositions, meaning ad valorem taxes plus anything else billed on the same tax notice, are payable as soon as the tax roll reaches the tax collector and are due no later than December 31. More…

Anything unpaid is delinquent the next day and draws interest of 1 percent per month, or any part of a month, on a noncompounding basis. A 5 percent penalty on the statutory impositions is assessed once the lien is offered at auction, and no interest ever runs on that penalty. The delinquent obligation is secured by a lien and privilege that ranks ahead of every other mortgage, lien, privilege and encumbrance on the property, and all tax liens rank concurrently with one another regardless of when they arose or were recorded. If taxes, interest and costs on immovable property are still unpaid 90 days after becoming delinquent, which lands around April 1, the tax lien is offered at a tax lien auction.

Over-the-counter

How to buyWhen a lien draws no bidder, R.S. 47:2154(E)(1) has the tax collector record the tax lien certificate in favor of the political subdivision, and that certificate earns the full 1 percent per month. More…

R.S. 47:2246 then lets any person buy that lien from the political subdivision on the terms and conditions the political subdivision sets, and the buyer takes exactly the same rights as any other certificate holder. R.S. 47:2201(A)(3) is the enabling half: a political subdivision may adopt an ordinance governing the public sale of the tax liens it holds, and R.S. 47:2207.1 has it execute the sale and file the act of sale in the mortgage records. A political subdivision may sell for less than the full delinquent obligation without that counting as a donation of public property. There is no statewide list, no statewide price and no fixed discount. Ask the tax collector and the parish or municipal governing authority which certificates are held and what their ordinance requires.

What is availableLouisiana keeps no lands available list in the Florida sense. More…

Its nearest equivalent is adjudicated property: parcels whose tax sale title passed to a political subdivision before January 1, 2026 under the now repealed R.S. 47:2196. Those are still sold and donated under Part IV of Chapter 5, and R.S. 47:2201(B) lets a political subdivision convert adjudicated title into a tax lien certificate issued to itself, with the period of adjudication counting toward the three years a holder must wait before suing. Where a tax sale party or tax lien auction party acquires an interest through one of these sales or donations, R.S. 47:2209 treats it as a redemption or extinguishment rather than a purchase, so prior mortgages, liens, privileges and encumbrances survive with their original rank.

All 64 Louisiana counties

Sales are organized by county. Search your city or county, or filter by whether the tax deed sale runs online or in person. Each row shows the certificate-sale platform for quick comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Does Louisiana sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax liens, and only tax liens. Since January 1, 2026 a Louisiana tax collector sells the tax lien itself at a tax lien auction and records a tax lien certificate in favor of the winning bidder. There is no tax deed auction. The pre-2026 tax sale, which conveyed tax sale title to the bidder, was repealed by Act 774 of 2024.

What is bid at a Louisiana tax lien auction?

The monthly interest rate, and nothing else. The price is fixed at the face value of the tax lien certificate, so no premium is possible. Bidding opens at the statutory ceiling of 1 percent per month, falls in increments of one tenth of one percent, and no bid below seven tenths of one percent per month is accepted. Ties at the lowest rate go to whoever bid first. Until December 31, 2025 Louisiana bid down the undivided ownership interest instead; that method is gone.

What does a Louisiana tax lien certificate actually pay?

Between 8.4 and 12 percent a year, plus a one time 5 percent penalty. Interest runs on the face value at the bid monthly rate, noncompounding, from issuance of the certificate, and the 5 percent penalty on the delinquent taxes is added when the lien is offered at auction and is paid over to the holder as part of the termination price. Because the price is fixed at face value, the rate applies to every dollar paid. Subsequent taxes the holder advances earn the full 1 percent per month regardless of the bid rate.

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State guide8 min read

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