Louisiana HOA Foreclosure

Section 1: Overview — How HOA foreclosure works in Louisiana

Louisiana stands apart from every other state in the country. Its substantive law grows out of civil-law codification rather than English common law, and that single distinction reshapes every stage of how an association enforces unpaid assessments.¹ Two statutes supply the framework. The Louisiana Condominium Act, La. R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq., governs condominium regimes, and the Louisiana Homeowners Association Act — now restated as the Louisiana Planned Community Act, La. R.S. 9:1141.1 et seq. — governs planned communities.² To secure unpaid assessments, Louisiana uses a "privilege," the civil-law cousin of a statutory lien, and civil-law doctrine codified in the Louisiana Civil Code dictates how that privilege comes into being, where it ranks, and how a creditor enforces it.³

Enforcement moves through two parallel procedures under the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure. The first, executory process (La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631 et seq.), is an accelerated civil-law procedure. A creditor may use it only when the security instrument is an authentic act importing a confession of judgment, and it ends in a court-ordered seizure and sheriff's sale.⁴ The second, the ordinary proceeding, is the standard civil-law judicial action; it applies whenever executory process is unavailable, which is the usual posture for association privileges.⁵ Federal law layers on top of state procedure — the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay all apply — and whether executory process fits inside the safe harbor the Supreme Court recognized in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP remains genuinely unsettled.⁶ The sections that follow walk through the statutory framework, the procedural sequence, and the most recent legislative and judicial activity. Trial-level disputes run through Louisiana district courts, with appeals to one of five Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal and discretionary review by the Louisiana Supreme Court — all state courts, distinct from the federal Fifth Circuit in which Louisiana sits.⁷

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The Louisiana Condominium Act and the Planned Community Act

The Louisiana Condominium Act, La. R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq., governs residential condominium regimes. The Louisiana Homeowners Association Act — restated effective January 1, 2025, as the Louisiana Planned Community Act, La. R.S. 9:1141.1 et seq. — governs planned communities.⁸ Act 158 of the 2024 Regular Session, which began as Senate Bill 23, grew the planned-community statute from nine sections to fifty and drew on the model of the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.⁹ Louisiana has not adopted UCIOA itself. Both the Condominium Act and the Planned Community Act are bespoke Louisiana statutes, the Planned Community Act applies prospectively to newly formed communities, and it yields to the Condominium Act whenever the two conflict.¹⁰

La. R.S. 9:1123.115 establishes the condominium privilege. It secures every unpaid or accelerated sum the association assesses, along with fines or late fees above $250, interest, and the reasonable attorney fees a collection or enforcement effort runs up.¹¹ When a unit owner misses common-element assessments for three months or more within any eight-month period, the association may — after giving notice — accelerate twelve months of assessments and file a privilege for the accelerated sum.¹¹ To preserve the privilege, the association must evidence it by a claim of privilege, sign and verify that claim by affidavit, and file it for registry in the mortgage records of the parish where the condominium sits; recordation holds the privilege for five years.¹²

For planned communities, La. R.S. 9:1145 grants the association a privilege on the lot covering unpaid charges, expenses, or dues, together with legal interest and reasonable attorney fees, once it files a sworn detailed statement.¹³ La. R.S. 9:1141.9 points to the Part III privilege provisions as an available remedy when an owner fails to pay assessments.¹⁴

One point deserves emphasis: Louisiana grants no UCIOA-style super-priority. Under La. R.S. 9:1123.115(C), the condominium privilege outranks other liens except those recorded before the declaration, those recorded before the privilege itself, immovable property taxes, and governmental assessments.¹⁵ Planned-community privileges rank by time of recordation under La. R.S. 9:1148.¹⁶ Priority, in other words, follows the civil-law first-in-time principle, and a first mortgage recorded before the association's privilege ordinarily comes out ahead.

2B. Executory process and the ordinary proceeding

Executory process, La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631 et seq., lets a creditor seize and sell property without prior citation and judgment — but only to enforce a mortgage or privilege "evidenced by an authentic act importing a confession of judgment."¹⁷ Under art. 2632, an act imports a confession of judgment when the obligor acknowledges the debt and confesses judgment if it goes unpaid at maturity.¹⁸ To proceed, the plaintiff submits authentic evidence under art. 2635, including the note and the authentic act of mortgage or privilege that carries the confession.¹⁹ The court then issues a writ of seizure and sale directing the sheriff to seize the property; art. 2640 makes citation unnecessary, though the sheriff serves a demand for payment before advertising the sale.²⁰ The debtor's defenses are narrow. A defendant may arrest the sale by injunction under art. 2751 only on limited grounds — that the debt is extinguished, that it is legally unenforceable, or that the creditor failed to follow required procedure — and a suspensive appeal demands a bond.²¹

The ordinary proceeding is the standard civil-law judicial action, governed by Book II of the Code of Civil Procedure. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851 provides that the district courts use ordinary proceedings in every case except where the law says otherwise.²² The creditor files a petition; the defendant is cited and served, files an answer, and may raise defenses, offsets, and reconventional demands before judgment.²³ The court then enters a money judgment and executes it against the property.

Which track a creditor takes turns on the security instrument. Most residential mortgage lenders choose executory process, because Louisiana mortgages routinely carry confession-of-judgment language in authentic form.²⁴ Association privileges are a different animal. A condominium or planned-community privilege arises by operation of statute the moment the association records a claim of privilege or sworn statement — not from an authentic act in which the owner confesses judgment.²⁵ Recorded declarations in Louisiana rarely contain confession-of-judgment language strong enough to support executory process, so as a practical matter associations enforce assessment privileges through the ordinary proceeding, often styled as a suit on open account, rather than through executory process.²⁶ A plaintiff may convert an executory proceeding into an ordinary one under art. 2644, but cannot go the other way.²⁷

2C. Sheriff's sale, deficiency, and federal overlays

Both tracks end at a sheriff's sale. Under La. R.S. 13:3852, the initial sale date cannot fall earlier than 60 days after the order, and the sheriff advertises the sale before the public auction.²⁸ Whether the property sells with or without appraisal decides the creditor's deficiency exposure. Under the Louisiana Deficiency Judgment Act, La. R.S. 13:4106 et seq., a creditor who sells without appraisement cannot pursue a deficiency, and the debt stands fully satisfied as a personal obligation.²⁹ La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2771 governs when a deficiency judgment is available, and art. 2772 requires the creditor to seek it either by converting the executory proceeding into an ordinary one or by filing a separate suit.³⁰ At a sale with appraisal, bidding opens at two-thirds of the appraised value; at a later sale without appraisal, bidding opens at the sheriff's costs and fees.³¹ And Louisiana offers no post-sale statutory right of redemption for immovable property — once the sheriff delivers the deed, the former owner cannot buy the property back.³²

Federal law runs in parallel. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., reaches third-party collectors and association counsel acting as debt collectors. In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019), the Supreme Court held unanimously that "a business engaged in only nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings is not a 'debt collector' under the FDCPA," except for the limited purpose of Section 1692f(6).³³ Whether executory process falls inside that safe harbor is ambiguous, because the procedure carries both judicial features — including a court order — and procedural features that resemble security-interest enforcement. Justice Sotomayor's concurrence warned that "enforcing a security interest does not grant an actor blanket immunity from the Act," and pre-sale dunning stays covered no matter what.³⁴ The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq., supplies stays and protections for active-duty servicemembers, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay, 11 U.S.C. § 362, halts a foreclosure the instant the owner files.³⁵

Section 3: The Louisiana HOA foreclosure procedural sequence

A. Privilege creation and recording

For condominiums, the privilege is created under La. R.S. 9:1123.115 and preserved when the association records a claim of privilege, signed and verified by affidavit of an officer or agent, in the mortgage records of the parish where the unit sits.³⁶ The claim must describe the parcel, name the record owner, and state the delinquent or accelerated amount along with the date of delinquency; recordation preserves the privilege for five years.³⁷ For planned communities, La. R.S. 9:1145 establishes the privilege once the association files a sworn detailed statement, and La. R.S. 9:1148 ranks planned-community privileges by time of recordation.³⁸ Both privileges secure unpaid assessments, interest, and reasonable attorney fees, and the condominium privilege also reaches fines and late fees above $250.³⁹ Recorded declarations commonly add to these statutory minimums with interest rates, late-fee schedules, and collection-cost provisions. Priority follows first-in-time principles, with no super-priority over a previously recorded first mortgage.

B. Pre-foreclosure notice and demand

The statutory pre-filing demands differ by regime. For condominiums, La. R.S. 9:1123.115 requires the association to serve the delinquent owner a sworn detailed statement at least seven days before it files the claim of privilege, by personal service or registered or certified mail.⁴⁰ For planned communities, La. R.S. 9:1146 requires a written demand for past-due amounts and gives the owner 30 days to pay before the association files a sworn statement.⁴¹ Recorded declarations frequently pile on additional notice or cure steps. Pre-suit collection conduct by third-party collectors or association counsel triggers FDCPA exposure, and the federal mortgage-servicing framework's 120-day delinquency rule applies to mortgage servicers, not to associations.⁴² Before filing, an association should confirm the owner is not in bankruptcy — where the automatic stay applies — and is not shielded by the SCRA.

C. Election of procedure: executory process or ordinary proceeding

The choice depends entirely on the security instrument. Executory process requires an authentic act importing a confession of judgment, plus authentic evidence under La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 2631, 2632, and 2635.⁴³ Because an association's assessment privilege arises by statute and recordation rather than from an owner-executed authentic act confessing judgment, executory process is generally off the table for associations.⁴⁴ Where it is available to a secured creditor, the steps run in order: petition for executory process with authentic evidence; court order and writ of seizure and sale; service of a demand for payment, with citation unnecessary under art. 2640; seizure by the sheriff; and the sheriff's sale.⁴⁵

The ordinary proceeding is the standard route for associations. The association files a petition — often a suit on open account or a suit to enforce the privilege; the owner is cited and served; the owner may answer and raise defenses; the court renders judgment; and the property heads to a sheriff's sale.⁴⁶ Tactically, executory process moves faster and limits debtor defenses, which is what makes it attractive to mortgage lenders, but its prerequisites rarely fit an association privilege. The ordinary proceeding moves slower and opens the claim to defenses such as improper notice, excessive fees, or accounting disputes — yet it is the procedure associations realistically use. Recent Louisiana appellate decisions involving condominium associations have come out of ordinary suits for past-due assessments, not executory process.⁴⁷

D. Sheriff's sale, deficiency, and post-sale rights

The sheriff conducts a public auction after advertising it, with the initial sale date no earlier than 60 days after the order under La. R.S. 13:3852.⁴⁸ Where the sale proceeds with appraisal, bidding opens at two-thirds of appraised value.⁴⁹ Louisiana provides no post-sale right of redemption for immovable property; title transfers when the sheriff delivers the deed.⁵⁰ Deficiency judgments fall under La. R.S. 13:4106 et seq.: a sale without appraisement bars any deficiency.⁵¹ The sheriff distributes the proceeds first to costs, then to creditors in order of privilege and mortgage ranking, with any surplus returning to the former owner; junior privileges get paid only to the extent money remains.⁵² And if the former owner or an occupant stays in possession after the sheriff's deed, the purchaser may obtain a writ of possession and move forward with eviction.⁵³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two measures from recent sessions bear directly on association collection in Louisiana — one that would have narrowed the homestead exemption and died by veto, and one that rewrote the planned-community statute and became law.

No bill enacted in the 2024 or 2025 Regular Sessions amended the condominium privilege statute, La. R.S. 9:1123.115, or the executory-process articles, La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631 et seq.⁵⁷

B. Recent appellate rulings

Louisiana's appellate courts have recently addressed how associations enforce privileges and how they settle the suits that follow. Two condominium decisions make the point — one upholding an ordinary suit on open account, and one refusing to enforce a settlement that skipped the Civil Code's formalities.

C. Active legislative debates

The vetoed HB 343 signals continued interest in adjusting the balance between an association's collection rights and a homeowner's protections, and a homestead carve-out could well return in a future session.⁶⁰ No active proposal to amend Louisiana's executory-process articles in the association context surfaced.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Louisiana stands alone among the fifty states as a civil-law jurisdiction, and its association-foreclosure regime shows that lineage at every turn. It speaks of a "privilege" rather than a "lien," of a "mortgage" in the civil-law sense, and of two distinct enforcement tracks — executory process and the ordinary proceeding — rather than the judicial-versus-nonjudicial divide familiar in the other 49 common-law states.⁶¹ There is no UCIOA super-priority, no post-sale right of redemption for immovable property, and a deficiency framework that turns on a pre-sale appraisal. For a multi-state operator, the lesson is blunt: common-law foreclosure experience does not carry over, and associations, managers, and lenders working in Louisiana should consult Louisiana counsel before they start any enforcement. Because Louisiana practice diverges so sharply from common-law norms, treat it as a single Louisiana-specific framework, and check any enforcement decision against the current text of the Condominium Act, the Planned Community Act, and the Code of Civil Procedure before acting.

Recommendations

• Stage 1 — Classify the community and confirm the governing statute. At the outset, determine whether the property is a condominium regime under the Louisiana Condominium Act (privilege under La. R.S. 9:1123.115) or a planned community under the Planned Community Act (privilege under La. R.S. 9:1145). For planned communities formed on or after January 1, 2025, apply Act 158's expanded procedural requirements; for earlier communities, confirm whether the new Act reaches a gap the governing documents leave open. Misclassify the community and you take the wrong notice and recordation steps. The threshold that changes the approach: a community organized as a condominium follows the seven-day sworn-statement track, not the 30-day written-demand track.
• Stage 2 — Perfect the privilege before you sue. Record a compliant claim of privilege or sworn detailed statement, serve the pre-filing notice the statute requires, and check the recordation date against the first mortgage to gauge realistic recovery. Because priority is first-in-time and there is no super-priority, an association junior to a first mortgage should ask whether a forced sale will yield any surplus at all. The threshold: if the senior mortgage balance plus costs approaches or tops appraised value, pursue in personam judgment-enforcement remedies — wage garnishment, a judgment-debtor examination — rather than a sheriff's sale.
• Stage 3 — Elect the ordinary proceeding by default. Plan for a suit on open account or to enforce the privilege, because association privileges generally lack the authentic act importing a confession of judgment that executory process demands. Treat executory process as available only when specific instruments unusually supply that prerequisite, and confirm with counsel before you assume it.
• Stage 4 — Preserve deficiency rights and clear post-sale title. If you contemplate a deficiency, make sure the sale proceeds with appraisement, because a sale without appraisement bars one. After the sheriff's deed, secure a writ of possession to finish the eviction if the owner stays. Document the FDCPA, SCRA, and bankruptcy checks at every step.

Caveats

• This page states Louisiana law as of June 15, 2026. Statutes and case law change; verify each citation against the current text on legis.la.gov before you act.
• The conclusion that executory process is generally unavailable to enforce association assessment privileges rests on the statutory prerequisites — an authentic act importing a confession of judgment — and on the pattern of reported association cases proceeding as ordinary suits. It is a doctrinal inference, not a holding squarely on point; Louisiana counsel should review individual declarations or instruments.
• The Obduskey safe-harbor question for executory process remains genuinely unresolved. No controlling Louisiana or Fifth Circuit authority squarely places executory process inside or outside Obduskey, and the procedure's mixed judicial and procedural character cuts both ways.
• HB 343's veto means no homestead carve-out for condominium assessments currently exists. A future session could revisit the issue, so re-verify this page after each regular session.
• The full HB 343 action-history table on legis.la.gov was not independently captured; the veto itself is confirmed by the dated primary-source veto letter and the official résumé digest, though the precise floor-vote tallies were not separately verified.

Footnotes

1. Loyola Pro Bono Desk Manual, Executory Process (Louisiana's civil-law foreclosure tradition) ↩
2. Louisiana State Legislature, La. R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq. (Louisiana Condominium Act); La. R.S. 9:1141.1 et seq. (Louisiana Planned Community Act) ↩
3. La. R.S. 9:1123.115 (condominium "privilege"); La. R.S. 9:1145 (association "privilege") ↩
4. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631, Executory process ↩
5. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851, Modes of procedure (ordinary proceedings used in the district courts in all cases except as otherwise provided by law) ↩
6. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019) ↩
7. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851 (district courts); Louisiana Supreme Court; Louisiana Courts of Appeal ↩
8. La. R.S. 9:1141.1, Short title (Louisiana Planned Community Act, as amended by Acts 2024, No. 158, eff. Jan. 1, 2025); La. R.S. 9:1121.101 et seq. ↩
9. Act 158 of 2024 (S.B. 23), Louisiana State Legislature ↩
10. Steeg Law, Planned Community Act: What Homeowners Associations Need to Know ↩
11. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A), Privilege for assessments (condominium) ↩
12. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(2), (B), Claim of privilege; five-year preservation (as amended by Acts 2016, No. 244) ↩
13. La. R.S. 9:1145, Privilege for assessments (planned community) (as amended by Acts 2022, No. 603, and Acts 2024, No. 158, eff. Jan. 1, 2025) ↩
14. La. R.S. 9:1141.9, Remedies for nonpayment of assessments (as amended by Acts 2024, No. 158, eff. Jan. 1, 2025) ↩
15. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(C), Priority of condominium privilege ↩
16. La. R.S. 9:1148, Privilege ranked according to time of recordation (as amended by Acts 2024, No. 158) ↩
17. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631, Executory process ↩
18. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2632, Act importing a confession of judgment ↩
19. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2635, Authentic evidence required ↩
20. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2640, Citation not necessary in an executory proceeding ↩
21. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2751, Grounds for arresting seizure and sale; Loyola Pro Bono Desk Manual, Executory Process ↩
22. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851, Modes of procedure ↩
23. Loyola Pro Bono Desk Manual, Ordinary Process ↩
24. Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws: Process & Rights ↩
25. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(2) (privilege preserved by recorded claim); La. R.S. 9:1145–1146 (privilege upon sworn detailed statement) ↩
26. Acadian Gardens Condominium Ass'n v. DeForest, 2024 CA 0314 (La. App. 1 Cir. Dec. 27, 2024) (reported association collection action proceeding as an ordinary suit on open account) ↩
27. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2644, Conversion to ordinary proceeding ↩
28. La. R.S. 13:3852 (sale date not earlier than 60 days from order); Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws ↩
29. La. R.S. 13:4106, Louisiana Deficiency Judgment Act ↩
30. La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 2771, 2772, Deficiency judgment; Loyola Pro Bono Desk Manual, Deficiency Judgments ↩
31. Kean Miller LLP, Louisiana Law Blog (bidding opens at two-thirds of appraised value with appraisal; at sheriff's costs and fees without appraisal) ↩
32. Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws: Process & Rights (no post-sale redemption period for immovable property) ↩
33. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019) ↩
34. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019) (Sotomayor, J., concurring) ("enforcing a security interest does not grant an actor blanket immunity from the Act") ↩
35. 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act); 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq. (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act); 11 U.S.C. § 362 (automatic stay) ↩
36. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(2), Claim of privilege recorded in parish mortgage records ↩
37. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(2), (B), Contents of claim; five-year preservation ↩
38. La. R.S. 9:1145; La. R.S. 9:1148, Planned-community privilege and ranking by time of recordation ↩
39. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A) (condominium privilege); La. R.S. 9:1145 (planned-community privilege) ↩
40. La. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(3), Seven-day sworn statement before filing ↩
41. La. R.S. 9:1146, Written demand; 30 days to pay ↩
42. Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws (120-day federal servicing rule applies to mortgage servicers) ↩
43. La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 2631, 2632, 2635, Executory process prerequisites ↩
44. La. R.S. 9:1123.115; La. R.S. 9:1145 (privileges arise by statute upon recordation, not by owner-executed authentic act) ↩
45. La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 2638, 2640, Writ of seizure and sale; citation unnecessary ↩
46. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851, Ordinary proceedings ↩
47. Acadian Gardens Condominium Ass'n v. DeForest, 2024 CA 0314 (La. App. 1 Cir. Dec. 27, 2024) (suit on open account); Louisiana-Annunciation Condominium Ass'n v. Kennedy, 2023 CA 0327 (La. App. 4 Cir. Nov. 16, 2023) (suit for past-due assessments) ↩
48. La. R.S. 13:3852, Initial sale date no earlier than 60 days from order ↩
49. Kean Miller LLP, Louisiana Law Blog ↩
50. Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws (no post-sale redemption) ↩
51. La. R.S. 13:4106, Deficiency barred after sale without appraisement ↩
52. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2373, Distribution of proceeds of sale ↩
53. Nolo, Louisiana Foreclosure Laws (writ of possession after recorded sheriff's deed) ↩
54. HB 343, 2025 Regular Session (Rep. Davis), HLS 25RS-352, Louisiana State Legislature ↩
55. Governor Jeff Landry, Veto Message, HB 343 (2025 R.S.), Louisiana State Legislature résumé digest; veto letter ↩
56. Act 158 of 2024 (S.B. 23), eff. Jan. 1, 2025 ↩
57. La. R.S. 9:1123.115 (last amended Acts 2016, No. 244) and La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2631 (no 2024–2025 amendment) — no enacted change in the 2024 or 2025 Regular Sessions ↩
58. Acadian Gardens Condominium Ass'n v. DeForest, 2024 CA 0314 (La. App. 1 Cir. Dec. 27, 2024) ↩
59. Louisiana-Annunciation Condominium Ass'n v. Kennedy, 2023 CA 0327 (La. App. 4 Cir. Nov. 16, 2023) ↩
60. Governor Jeff Landry, Veto Message, HB 343 (2025 R.S.), Louisiana State Legislature résumé digest ↩
61. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 851, Three modes of procedure: ordinary, summary, and executory ↩