Louisiana Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 2, 2026

Louisiana at a glance

Rule	Louisiana	Cited to
Max security deposit	No statutory cap	La. R.S. 9:3251 +8 more
Deposit return deadline	1 month	La. R.S. 9:3251 +8 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	La. Civ. Code art. 2728 +4 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	La. Civ. Code art. 2728 +4 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	La. Civ. Code art. 2005 +2 more
Entry notice	No fixed statutory period	La. Civ. Code art. 2693 +2 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	5 days	La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4701 (Termination of lease; notice to vacate; waiver of notice) +25 more
Application fee cap	No dollar cap, but a lessor may not require payment of an application fee unless, before accepting the payment, the lessor gives the applicant written notice of the fee amount and of the screening factors the lessor considers.	La. R.S. 9:3258.1 +14 more
Interest owed on deposits	No — no statute addresses it	La. Rev. Stat. § 9:3251 (lessee's deposit; retention; itemized statement) +3 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	No statutory count	La. Civ. Code art. 2691 (lessor's obligation for repairs) +16 more
Repair and deduct	Yes — authorized by statute	La. Civ. Code art. 2691 (lessor's obligation for repairs) +16 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	10 days, to the end of a rental period	La. C.C. art. 2727 +23 more
Owner and agent identity disclosure	No duty	La. Civ. Code art. 2681 (Form) +14 more
In-force state hazard disclosures beyond the federal lead-paint rule	None in force	La. Civ. Code art. 2681 (Form) +14 more
Pet deposit	No statute, no cap	La. R.S. § 9:3251 +30 more
Assistance animals: the state instrument	Documentation statute or rule	La. R.S. § 9:3251 +30 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Louisiana Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/louisiana/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Louisiana statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in Louisiana

No Louisiana statute expressly addresses local rent control. The constitution bars a parish or municipality from enacting, except as provided by law, an ordinance governing private or civil relationships (La. Const. art. VI, § 9(A)(2)), and a lessor's rights under the Civil Code's lease title may not be altered, abridged or diminished except by state law, subject to the reasonable exercise of the police power (R.S. 9:3258). The codes of New Orleans, Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Shreveport, Jefferson Parish and Lafayette contain no general rent regulation; New Orleans requires units created under its inclusionary zoning program to be offered at an affordable rent (New Orleans Code of Ordinances, sections 26-641 and 26-646).

Cited to La. R.S. 9:3258 (lessor-rights statute; does not mention rent regulation or local governments) , La. Const. art. VI, § 9 · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Louisiana rent-increase rules →

Louisiana landlord-tenant laws by topic

Louisiana security deposits

Louisiana sets no limit on how much a landlord can charge as a security deposit, but the deposit must be returned within one month after the lease terminates, minus only what is reasonably necessary to remedy the tenant's default or unreasonable wear.

Louisiana rent increase notice

Louisiana has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase; for month-to-month tenancies the operative rule comes from the Civil Code's termination article, and it is short — ten calendar days before the end of the month.

Louisiana late fees

Louisiana has no statute capping residential late fees and no mandatory grace period — a late fee is enforceable only if the lease provides for it, and the amount is policed solely by the Civil Code's stipulated-damages rule, under which a court may not touch the fee unless it is so manifestly unreasonable as to be contrary to public policy.

Louisiana entry notice

Louisiana has no statute requiring a landlord to give any advance notice — 24 hours or otherwise — before entering a rental unit; entry rights come from the lease.

Louisiana eviction process

In Louisiana a landlord must hand the tenant a written notice to vacate giving at least five days to move out before filing for eviction, and those five days skip weekends and legal holidays, so in practice it runs about a week.

Louisiana application & screening fees

Louisiana regulates the notice that must come before a rental application fee rather than the amount of the fee.

Louisiana deposit interest

Louisiana requires no interest on a residential security deposit and imposes no duty about the account the money sits in — the two claims that circulate about Louisiana are wrong on both counts.

Louisiana habitability & repairs

Louisiana's landlord duty comes from the Civil Code: during the lease the lessor must make all repairs needed to keep the property suitable for the purpose it was leased for, and warrants that it is free of vices or defects that prevent that use.

Louisiana lease termination

Ten calendar days before the end of the month ends an ordinary Louisiana month-to-month tenancy, and the same period serves both the landlord and the tenant.

Louisiana lease disclosures

A Louisiana lease may be oral, no statute sets a length above which it must be written, and nothing requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of a written one.

Louisiana pets & assistance animals

Louisiana has no pet-deposit, pet-rent or pet-fee statute and no general deposit cap, so a landlord may charge what the lease says.

Louisiana mobile home park laws

Louisiana has no manufactured-home community tenancy act, so a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it is an ordinary lessee under the Civil Code lease articles, arts. 2668 and following.

Louisiana Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Louisiana metro area and county.

Editable Louisiana deposit kit · Editable Louisiana disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Louisiana rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, October 2, 2026 — Louisiana (correction): the deposit page had shown the return deadline as 30 days. The statute says within one month after the lease terminates (R.S. 9:3251(A)); the page and the deposit letter tool now show one month, and the tool counts a calendar month where it had added 30 days. The eviction page had shown the deadline for an appeal that suspends the judgment as 1 day; the article says within twenty-four hours of the judgment of eviction (C.C.P. art. 4735), and the page now shows 24 hours. The rent increase page had said no city or parish regulates rents: New Orleans requires units created under its inclusionary zoning program to be offered at an affordable rent (New Orleans Code sections 26-641 and 26-646), and the codes of nine other cities and parishes contain no rent regulation. Also corrected: notice to end the lease of a home must be in writing whether or not the lease itself is written (C.C. art. 2729); the 30-day notice in art. 2728 applies to a lease with no fixed term that runs by a period longer than a month, and a fixed-term lease ends without notice (art. 2720); the owner of land with three or more lots rented for factory-built homes may collect a $25 fee when lot rent is 60 days late and notice has gone to the home's secured parties (R.S. 9:3259.1(D)); taking possession without a judgment after an abandonment still requires the notice to vacate (C.C.P. art. 4731(B)); the self-help repossession statute sometimes cited against landlords belongs to the law on leases of movables (R.S. 9:3329); a court's power to refuse to dissolve a lease rests on C.C. arts. 2013 and 2014; the tenant's duty to allow urgent repairs is art. 2693. Comparisons with other states that no official source supports were removed.

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Louisiana Legislature site (legis.la.gov Law.aspx section pages) for La. R.S. 9:3251-3254 and 9:3258 and Civil Code arts. 2005, 2011, 2012, 2680-2683, 2693, 2695, 2727, and 2728. Enrolled text of 2026 Act No. 63 (HB 292) read in full from the legislature's document server, plus the bill-status page confirming signature 5/11/2026 and 8/1/2026 effective date. Cross-checked against the Louisiana Attorney General's official guide 'A Guide to Louisiana Landlord & Tenant Laws' (La. DOJ Consumer Protection Section), noting that the guide's deposit-penalty figure ($200/actual damages) is stale — superseded by Acts 2018, No. 416. The other 2026 acts on leases (Act 64 on early termination, Act 240 on the Civil Code's lease title, Acts 40 and 113 on legal holidays, Act 127 on notice of a justice of the peace court's judgment and Act 950 on the East Baton Rouge justice courts) change no figure on the deposit, rent increase, late fee or entry pages. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — Civil Code art. 2701, Acts 2026 No. 382 and No. 765, and R.S. 51:911.26 and 51:911.41 on legis.la.gov; the earlier reads stand as recorded. On October 1, 2026 every provision the deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry and eviction answers rest on was read again on legis.la.gov, whose text includes the acts of the 2026 Regular Session: R.S. 9:3201 to 9:3261.2, the Civil Code's lease title (arts. 2668 to 2729) and arts. 2000 to 2014, Code of Civil Procedure arts. 4701 to 4735, 4832 to 4925, 5001 to 5003 and 5059, R.S. 1:55 and La. Const. art. VI, § 9, with the 2025 and 2026 act lists and, for rent regulation, the codes of New Orleans, Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Shreveport, Jefferson Parish, Lafayette, Kenner, Lake Charles, Bossier City, Monroe and Alexandria.