Louisiana HOA Governing Statute

1. Overview — How HOAs are governed in Louisiana

Louisiana stands alone. It is the only state that runs on a civil law tradition instead of common law, and its community association practice carries that difference all the way through. Two state statutes sit on top of a Civil Code chapter on building restrictions, and together they build a three-layer framework that looks nothing like the comprehensive HOA codes common law states have adopted.

The first statute is the Louisiana Condominium Act, codified at La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1121.101 et seq. The Legislature enacted it through Acts 1979, No. 682, and it governs how residential condominium regimes are created, run, and ended.¹ The second statute began as the Louisiana Homeowners Association Act. Lawmakers passed it through Acts 1999, No. 309, effective June 16, 1999, and codified it at La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.1 et seq. Acts 2024, No. 158 then rewrote it from top to bottom and renamed it the Louisiana Planned Community Act, effective January 1, 2025.² Beneath both statutes, La. Civ. Code arts. 775 to 783 govern building restrictions as a distinct civil law concept. They treat subdivision restrictions as incorporeal immovables, likened to predial servitudes, rather than as common law restrictive covenants.³

Louisiana is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state. Act 158 of 2024 borrowed from the 2008 UCIOA, but both Louisiana statutes remain bespoke. Do not assume that provisions from Florida Chapter 718, California's Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, or any UCIOA jurisdiction carry over.⁴

Common law terms that show up constantly in HOA practice elsewhere — "fee simple," "easement," "equitable servitude," the common law "restrictive covenant" — do not translate cleanly into Louisiana civil law. Louisiana practitioners work the same factual problems through ownership, predial servitudes, and building restrictions under the Civil Code, with the Condominium Act and the Planned Community Act supplying the association-specific overlay.

2. The statutory framework

Start with the Louisiana Condominium Act, La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1121.101 et seq. It is a bespoke Louisiana statute, and it applies to condominium regimes that someone establishes by recording a condominium declaration.¹ Section 9:1121.101 sets the short title, and the Act runs through Section 9:1124.117. Sections 9:1124.116 and 9:1124.117 sit reserved as blank placeholders, which makes § 9:1124.115 — compliance with the condominium declaration, bylaws, and administrative rules — the last substantive provision. The Act breaks into subparts: general provisions and definitions, creation of the regime and the declaration, management and powers of the unit owners' association, and the rights and obligations of unit owners.⁵

The Act reaches only property submitted to a condominium regime. Under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.101, the owner of the immovable establishes a regime by executing a condominium declaration, and that declaration takes effect against third parties once it is filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish where the property sits.⁶ La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.105 spells out what the declaration must contain: a statement submitting the property to a condominium regime, identification of each unit, a description of unit boundaries and any limited common elements, the undivided interest in common elements that belongs to each unit, the proportions for sharing common expenses and surpluses, and proportionate voting rights.⁷

The defined terms track civil law, not common law. "Immovable property" replaces "real property." "Common elements" describe the co-owned portions of the regime, and "limited common elements" are those reserved for the exclusive use of one or more units but fewer than all. When owners stop paying, the association enforces its claim through a "privilege" on the unit under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.115, not through a common law lien doctrine.⁸ Under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.101, the unit owners' association may organize as a for-profit corporation, a nonprofit corporation, or an unincorporated association.⁹

The declaration and the bylaws govern the regime together. The declaration sets the property allocations, voting rights, and percentage interests that Section 9:1122.105 requires, while La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.106 directs the bylaws to handle the association's administration — electing the board, running meetings, and adopting administrative rules.¹⁰ La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.103 says to read the declaration and bylaws together, and when they conflict, the declaration controls.¹¹

Now turn to the Louisiana Planned Community Act, the statute that started life as the Louisiana Homeowners Association Act. Lawmakers enacted the original through Acts 1999, No. 309, effective June 16, 1999, at La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.1 et seq. Acts 2024, No. 158 rewrote it and renamed it the Louisiana Planned Community Act, with most provisions effective January 1, 2025.² The original 1999 Act ran nine sections, from 1141.1 through 1141.9. Act 158 expanded it to fifty, from 1141.1 through 1141.50. The Louisiana State Law Institute helped draft Act 158, and it draws in significant part on the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.¹²

The Act covers residential planned communities. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.2 defines them as real estate developments used primarily for residential purposes, in which the owners of separately owned lots are mandatory members of an association. The Act expressly excludes condominium property that the Louisiana Condominium Act already governs.¹³ When they conflict, the Condominium Act and the Louisiana Timesharing Act supersede the Planned Community Act.¹⁴

The Act ties directly back to the Civil Code building restrictions. La. Civ. Code art. 783, as amended by Act 158 of 2024, provides that the Louisiana Condominium Act, the Louisiana Timesharing Act, and the Louisiana Planned Community Act supersede the building restriction articles of Title V of the Civil Code when they conflict.¹⁵ The Planned Community Act then supplies association-specific rules on declarations under Section 1141.5, allocations of common expense liabilities and voting interests under Section 1141.6, declarant development rights under Section 1141.7, and association powers and duties under Sections 1141.20 through 1141.21, among others.¹⁶

For practitioners, the takeaway is that neither the 1999 Act nor the rewritten 2025 Act sweeps civil law principles aside. Under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.3, as rewritten, the Act gap-fills only where a planned community's community documents stay silent, and it does not force existing associations to amend their documents or change how they calculate assessments.¹⁷ So CC&R interpretation in Louisiana moves in order: first the recorded community documents, then the Planned Community Act for matters the documents do not address, then the Civil Code articles on building restrictions to the extent they do not conflict with the statutes.

The Civil Code itself anchors the bottom layer. La. Civ. Code arts. 775 through 783 govern building restrictions, which Article 775 defines as "charges imposed by the owner of an immovable in pursuance of a general plan governing building standards, specified uses, and improvements" that must be "feasible and capable of being preserved."¹⁸ Article 777 classifies building restrictions as "incorporeal immovables and real rights likened to predial servitudes," governed by the rules for predial servitudes to the extent compatible with their nature.¹⁹ Article 778 allows affirmative duties on owners, such as maintenance or architectural conformity, where they are reasonable and necessary for the general plan, while it bars transfer fees triggered by alienation, lease, or encumbrance.²⁰

These articles stand doctrinally apart from common law restrictive covenant analysis. A predial servitude is a real right that burdens one immovable, the servient estate, in favor of another, the dominant estate. Louisiana courts apply that servitude framework to building restrictions where compatible, rather than the common law touch-and-concern or horizontal-privity tests. Article 781 sets a two-year liberative prescription on actions for injunction or damages, running from the commencement of a noticeable violation — a far shorter exposure window than the statutes of limitation common elsewhere.²¹

So the order of precedence in a Louisiana community runs this way: the statutes first — the Condominium Act, the Timesharing Act, and the Planned Community Act, which supersede conflicting Civil Code building restriction provisions under Article 783 — then the Civil Code, then the community documents (the declaration and recorded CC&Rs, subject to the statutory amendment rules), then the bylaws, then board-adopted rules.¹⁵ Article 783 adds one more default: "doubt as to the existence, validity, or extent of building restrictions is resolved in favor of the unrestricted use of the immovable," a rule that cuts against reading ambiguous CC&Rs broadly.²²

The practical lesson is plain. Louisiana HOA practitioners should not import common law restrictive covenant analysis. Drafting and enforcement work proceeds from civil law concepts: ownership, predial servitudes, building restrictions, usufruct where it applies, and the prescriptive periods under Article 781 and its related Civil Code articles.

3. Compliance obligations created by the statutory framework

Governance obligations

Condominium associations under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.101 must organize as a for-profit corporation, a nonprofit corporation, or an unincorporated association when the regime is created, and the bylaws that La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.106 requires must address electing directors, giving notice and running meetings, and adopting administrative rules.^9,10 The association must also keep records under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.108.²³ These obligations are mandatory. The declaration and bylaws may add to the statutory minimum, but they cannot displace it.

For planned communities, La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.19 requires newly formed associations to organize as Louisiana nonprofit corporations registered with the Secretary of State, and La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.21 sets out the powers and duties of the board and officers. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.38 governs notice to lot owners, which the association may deliver by U.S. mail, electronic mail, hand delivery, or another method that gives reasonable notice. Section 1141.39 lets a majority vote remove officers and directors.²⁴ Associations that existed before 2025 do not have to change their organizational structure or their community documents under Section 1141.3.¹⁷

Financial obligations

Condominium associations assess common expenses against each unit in proportion to its percentage interest, as the declaration sets under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.105, and unpaid assessments are secured by a privilege on the unit under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.115.^7,8 Planned community associations adopt budgets, levy assessments, and collect fees under La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.20, and unpaid assessments are likewise secured by a homeowners association privilege that the 2025 Act carries forward.²⁵ Neither the Condominium Act nor the Planned Community Act mandates reserve studies; reserve practice is governed by the community documents and by fiduciary duty principles.

Disclosure obligations

The Louisiana Residential Property Disclosure Act, La. Rev. Stat. § 9:3198, requires the seller of residential real property to deliver a property disclosure document and to tell the purchaser whether the property carries mandatory HOA membership and whether it sits within a common interest community. The statement must inform the purchaser that HOA information is summary in nature, that building restrictions and recorded covenants are a matter of public record, and how to obtain the governing documents.²⁶ Under the Planned Community Act, La. Rev. Stat. §§ 9:1141.41 through 9:1141.50 add a public offering statement obligation for declarants, a purchaser's right to cancel, and warranty provisions.²⁷

Dispute resolution obligations

Associations may enforce building restrictions under La. Civ. Code art. 779 through mandatory and prohibitory injunctions, without regard to the limitations of Article 3601 of the Code of Civil Procedure — a procedural advantage for associations seeking enforcement.²⁸ But actions for injunction or damages over a building restriction must be brought within two years from the commencement of a noticeable violation under Article 781, a Louisiana distinctive that has repeatedly extinguished enforcement rights against long-tolerated violations.²¹ The Planned Community Act, La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.13, bars arbitrary or capricious enforcement and directs the board to set up a reasonable way for lot owners to get a hearing before fines are imposed.²⁹ Civil actions in Louisiana follow the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure rather than the common law procedural rules used elsewhere, and the state runs no mandated arbitration regime for HOA disputes. Louisiana also does not require state Community Association Manager licensing.

4. Louisiana's recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

Louisiana's legislative attention has centered on one major rewrite: the 2024 act that overhauled and renamed the planned community statute.

Recent court rulings

Louisiana's appeals courts are not rewriting HOA law from the bench. Two recent rulings show how panels apply the Civil Code prescriptive rules and the Condominium Act in routine disputes.

Active legislative debates

The main thing to watch is technical cleanup: conforming cross-references and any follow-on amendments to Civil Code Title V after the 2024 rewrite.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Louisiana occupies a position no other state holds. It is the only state whose private law rests on a civil law tradition, and its community association practice is built from the Civil Code articles on building restrictions outward, with the Condominium Act of 1979 and the statute first enacted in 1999 as the Louisiana Homeowners Association Act — rewritten and renamed the Louisiana Planned Community Act effective January 1, 2025 — layered above. Appeals run from the district courts through the five Louisiana Courts of Appeal, organized geographically as the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Circuits, with discretionary review by the Louisiana Supreme Court. For multi-state operators, Louisiana compliance means reading statutes and recorded documents through civil law concepts — ownership, predial servitudes, building restrictions, privileges — that do not exist in the same form anywhere else in the country.

6. Closing note

HOA Weekly updates its Louisiana Governing Statute coverage every quarter to track Civil Code amendments, Planned Community Act revisions, and appellate decisions from the five Louisiana Courts of Appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court. Federal frameworks apply to Louisiana associations alongside the state framework too — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the federal flag and antenna statutes.

Footnotes

1. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1121.101 (short title; "This Part shall be known as the Louisiana Condominium Act"; Acts 1979, No. 682). ↩
2. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.1 (short title; Acts 1999, No. 309, § 2, eff. June 16, 1999; amended by Acts 2024, No. 158, § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2025, renaming the statute the Louisiana Planned Community Act). ↩
3. La. Civ. Code arts. 775 to 783 (Title V, Building Restrictions). ↩
4. Act 158 of 2024 (S.B. 23), La. Legis., Reg. Sess. 2024 (modeled on the 2008 UCIOA but enacted as a bespoke Louisiana statute). ↩
5. La. Rev. Stat. §§ 9:1121.101 to 9:1124.117 (Subparts A through C; §§ 9:1124.116 and 9:1124.117 reserved as blank placeholders; § 9:1124.115 final substantive provision on compliance with the declaration, bylaws, and administrative rules). ↩
6. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.101 (creation of condominium regimes; condominium declaration; recordation). ↩
7. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.105 (contents of the condominium declaration). ↩
8. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.115 (privilege on immovables). ↩
9. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.101 (organization of the unit owners' association). ↩
10. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.106 (bylaws). ↩
11. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1122.103 (construction and validity of the declaration and bylaws). ↩
12. Act 158 of 2024 (S.B. 23) Enrolled (expanding La. R.S. § 9:1141 from nine to fifty sections; drafted with the participation of the Louisiana State Law Institute). ↩
13. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.2 (definitions; "planned community" excludes condominium property subject to the Louisiana Condominium Act). ↩
14. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.3 (applicability; Condominium Act and Timesharing Act supersede in the event of conflict). ↩
15. La. Civ. Code art. 783 (matters of interpretation and application; Acts 2024, No. 158, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 2025). ↩
16. Act 158 of 2024, La. R.S. §§ 9:1141.5, 9:1141.6, 9:1141.7, 9:1141.20 to 9:1141.21 (declaration; allocations; development rights; association and board powers). ↩
17. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.3 (applicability; existing associations not required to amend documents or alter assessment methods). ↩
18. La. Civ. Code art. 775 ("Building restrictions are charges imposed by the owner of an immovable in pursuance of a general plan governing building standards, specified uses, and improvements. The plan must be feasible and capable of being preserved."). ↩
19. La. Civ. Code art. 777 ("Building restrictions are incorporeal immovables and real rights likened to predial servitudes."). ↩
20. La. Civ. Code art. 778 (affirmative duties; prohibition on transfer fees). ↩
21. La. Civ. Code art. 781 (termination; liberative prescription; two-year period from commencement of a noticeable violation). ↩
22. La. Civ. Code art. 783 ("Doubt as to the existence, validity, or extent of building restrictions is resolved in favor of the unrestricted use of the immovable."). ↩
23. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1123.108 (association records). ↩
24. La. Rev. Stat. §§ 9:1141.19, 9:1141.21, 9:1141.38, 9:1141.39 (organization; board powers; notice; removal). ↩
25. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.20 (powers and duties of the association). ↩
26. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:3198 (duties of the seller; property disclosure document; HOA and restrictive-covenant disclosures). ↩
27. La. Rev. Stat. §§ 9:1141.41 to 9:1141.50 (consumer protections; public offering statement; warranties). ↩
28. La. Civ. Code art. 779 (injunctive relief). ↩
29. La. Rev. Stat. § 9:1141.13 (enforcement; not arbitrary or capricious; hearing). ↩
30. Louisiana S.B. 23, 2024 Reg. Sess., enacted as Act 158 (signed May 23, 2024, eff. Jan. 1, 2025). ↩
31. Lake at the Bluffs Prop. Owners Ass'n & Rasti v. Hill, No. 2024 CA 0200 (La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. Sept. 20, 2024) (appeal from the 20th Judicial District Court, Parish of West Feliciana; complaint filed May 25, 2023; ruling for the homeowners' association on the building restrictions claim). ↩
32. Stella Maris Condo. Ass'n v. Trautenberg, No. 2022-CA-0696 (La. Ct. App. 4th Cir. Apr. 12, 2023). ↩