The Real Estate Commission: the words are not in its rules

The Louisiana Real Estate Commission is the agency most people assume covers association management. It does not, and its own code says so by omission.

A full-text search of the current Louisiana Administrative Code Title 46, Part LXVII — which covers the Real Estate Commission, the Real Estate Appraisers Board and the Home Inspectors Board, last amended August 2026 — returns zero occurrences of “condominium,” zero of “subdivision,” zero of “homeowners association” and zero of “community association.” “Timeshare” appears twenty-two times.

The Commission is midway through a top-to-bottom rewrite of those rules, noticed in the Louisiana Register of April 20, 2026 at page 591 under Executive Order 25-038, and the rewrite keeps the position unchanged. Its property-management chapter is bounded by definition:

“§2601. Definitions A. Residential Real Property—real property consisting of one or not more than four residential dwelling units, which are buildings or structures each of which are occupied or intended for occupancy as single-family residences. B. 'Property management' and 'property manager' shall have the meanings ascribed to those terms in R.S. 37:1431.”

One to four units. A condominium tower is not that, and neither is a five-hundred-lot subdivision association. The only association-adjacent registration the Commission runs is the timeshare chapter:

“§5701. Timeshares; Requirements A. This Chapter regarding timeshares shall be interpreted and implemented in accordance with the Louisiana Real Estate License Law (R.S. 37:1430 et seq) and the Louisiana Timesharing Act (R.S. 9:1131.1 et seq).”

The Commission's own site lists its credential types — broker, broker company, salesperson, reciprocal, instructor, education provider, school, vendor, unlicensed assistant, Welcome Home Act, timeshare. There is no association-management credential. Its published fine and citation schedule has eighteen violation categories, none about condominium, subdivision or association management. As of the Register of August 20, 2026 the rewrite was still shown as a proposed rule with no Rule adopted.²

The Secretary of State: no registry exists

Louisiana has no register of community associations. The Secretary of State's Business Services offerings are filing business documents, filing financing statements, searching business filings, service of process, starting a business, beneficial-ownership information (informational only), small-business protection, appointments, FAQ and contact. An association appears in the Commercial Database only as whatever corporate form it took. Declarations are recorded in the parish conveyance records, not filed with the state, and there is no state list of associations at all.

What that leaves an owner is genuinely useful, though, and free: the Commercial Database shows the registered agent, the officers and the annual-report history. The corporate-status point has teeth. Under R.S. 12:262.1, where a corporation “has failed to file an annual report for three consecutive years, according to the records of the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall revoke the articles of incorporation and franchise of such corporation” — with thirty days' notice to the registered agent first, and reinstatement available on application filed “within three years from the effective date of the revocation.” A board acting in the name of a revoked corporation has a problem worth knowing about.³

Filing fees rise on October 1, 2026 under Act 921 of 2026. The Secretary of State's published schedule states: “Effective October 1, 2026, the fees for the Commercial Division of the Secretary of State will increase in accordance with Act 921 of the 2026 Regular Legislative Session.” For a nonprofit association, articles of incorporation and articles of reinstatement go from $75 to $95, and a change of registered office or agent from $25 to $30. The nonprofit annual report stays at $10.

The one AG opinion that reaches an association's file

It is not about associations, and it changes a Louisiana collection assumption anyway. Opinion 25-0140, released January 16, 2026, addresses the tax-lien regime that replaced Louisiana tax sales on January 1, 2026:

“Question: Does the new tax lien collection method enacted by Act 774 of the 2024 Regular Session and Act 411 of the 2025 Regular Session apply to delinquent ad valorem taxes from taxable periods prior to 2026 that remain delinquent/outstanding on January 1, 2026?”

“In December 2024, voters approved an amendment to La. Const. art. VII, § 25, removing language requiring mandatory tax sales for the nonpayment of ad valorem taxes and replacing it with language requiring the Legislature to establish new collection procedures by law, effective January 1, 2026.”

“The Acts repealed the existing tax sale framework and replaced it with a lien-based collection system for delinquent ad valorem taxes.”

The opinion answers yes: from January 1, 2026 the lien procedures reach delinquencies from earlier taxable periods that were still outstanding on that date. The practical consequence for an association is documentary — any Louisiana collection letter, payoff statement or resale package that recites “tax sale title,” a tax-sale certificate or the three-year redemptive period is describing repealed machinery. Redemptions of sales actually held before January 1, 2026 remain under the prior law, per the newly enacted R.S. 47:2241.1.

We are not going to say how any particular association privilege would rank against any particular tax lien. That is a statutory-priority question that turns on filing dates and on the new statutes' own ranking provisions.

So where does a Louisiana owner go?

To the association's own complaint procedure, which is now mandatory — R.S. 9:1141.20(A)(1)(c) requires the association to “[e]stablish reasonable procedures for addressing and resolving written complaints from lot owners” — and then to court. The Planned Community Act's enforcement provision, R.S. 9:1141.48, lets a declarant, association, lot owner “or any other person who has suffered actual damages” bring an action to enforce a right granted or obligation imposed by the Subpart. There is no administrative alternative, and no Louisiana statute mandates pre-suit mediation or arbitration for association disputes.

What to watch next

Final adoption of the Real Estate Commission rewrite, which as of the August 2026 Register had not happened. And HB 817's proposal for an Attorney General complaint database — “[t]he attorney general shall collect, track, and publish data on homeowner complaints against associations” — which died in committee on April 7, 2026 and is the closest Louisiana has come to creating a regulator.