Louisiana Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the Right Parish Clerk of Court

A Louisiana act transferring land is filed in the conveyance records of the parish where the property is located, and the Civil Code says it has no effect against anyone but the parties until it is filed there. Louisiana has 64 parishes rather than counties, and in 63 of them the recorder is the clerk of court. In Orleans Parish the land records are kept by the Clerk of Civil District Court's Land Records Division, at 1340 Poydras Street in New Orleans.

The Secretary of State keeps a list of the clerk of court in every parish, with the office's street address, mailing address and phone number. One caution: for Orleans it lists the criminal court's clerk, so use the Land Records Division address above instead.

Step 2: Decide What the Act Is: a Quitclaim, a Sale, or a Donation

Louisiana has no statute called "quitclaim deed", but its Civil Code allows exactly what a quitclaim does: a person may transfer to another whatever rights to a thing they then have, without warranting that any such rights exist. The transferee gets no refund if the title fails, and a title the transferor acquires afterward does not pass along. That is the act to use to clear a cloud on a title, to release an interest you may or may not hold, or to convey your share to a co-owner.

What the act is called matters less than what it does, and the Code sorts transfers by whether anything is paid. A transfer for a price is a sale, and a sale of land may be made by authentic act or by an act under private signature. A transfer for nothing is a donation, however the paper is titled, and a donation of land must be made by authentic act under penalty of absolute nullity. So a parent quitclaiming a house to a child for love and affection is making a donation, and it has to be signed before a notary and two witnesses, in person, or it is void.

Two more things about a donation. Louisiana still has forced heirship: a child who is 23 or younger, or who is permanently unable to care for themselves, is entitled to a share of a parent's estate, and a donation that cuts into that share can be reduced after the parent's death. If the donor has such a child, that is a question for the notary before anything is signed. And in Orleans Parish a donation is taxed at recording where a quitclaim is not; see Step 9.

Step 3: Lay Out the First Page the Way the Fee Statute Requires

The statute that sets the clerks' recording fees also sets the paper rules. Every document filed for recording is captioned as to the type of act on the first page, so the top of the page says what it is: "Act of Sale", "Act of Donation", "Quitclaim", "Transfer Without Warranty". The first page has a two-inch margin at the top and one-inch margins at the bottom and sides, the type is no smaller than eight points, and the paper is letter or legal size; any other size costs $20 a page more.

Leave room at the end for the signatures of the parties, the two witnesses and the notary, each with the name typed or printed beneath it, and for the notary's identification number. Louisiana clerks may refuse an act that lacks those.

Step 4: Name the Parties the Way the Recording Law Asks

The Civil Code lists what a recorded act contains, and the notary statutes add to it. For each party: the full name, which the notary statute says means a given name and the surname, not initials alone; the domicile, meaning the parish and state where the person lives; and the permanent mailing address. For each party who is an individual, the marital status, with the full name of the present spouse, or a declaration that the party is unmarried. A customary form is "John Smith, married to and living with Mary Jones Smith" or "a single man", and a widow or widower is described as such.

For the person transferring, one more declaration: whether their marital status has changed since they acquired the property, and if so, when and how. That is how a later title examiner knows whether the property became community property, or stopped being it, between the two acts. The recorder will not refuse an act that omits these items, but they are the record a buyer relies on, and the notary statute lets a false declaration of status be attacked later.

Step 5: Add the Property Description and the Tax-Notice Address

Copy the legal description word for word from the act by which the transferor acquired the property, and add the property's municipal number or postal address if it has one; the Code asks for both. A recital of how and when the transferor acquired the property, with the recording reference, is customary.

A separate statute requires an act of conveyance filed for registry to name the person responsible for the property taxes and give the address where tax and assessment notices are to be mailed. Put that in its own paragraph. The person named also has to give that information to the parish assessor.

Step 6: Check Whether Your Spouse Must Concur

Louisiana is a community property state, and the rule is about the property, not the title. Things in a spouse's possession during the marriage are presumed to be community property unless proved separate, and the Civil Code requires the concurrence of both spouses to alienate a community immovable. A transfer of community land by one spouse alone is relatively null, meaning the other spouse can have it set aside, unless that spouse had renounced the right to concur.

So if the property was acquired during the marriage, both spouses sign the act, whatever name the last act put it in. If the property is one spouse's separate property, acquired before the marriage or by inheritance or donation to that spouse alone, the other spouse's concurrence is not required, and the act says why: it recites that the property is separate and how it was acquired. The marital status declarations in Step 4 are where that showing is made.

Step 7: Say How Co-Owners Will Hold the Property

If two or more people will own the property, the act states each one's share. The Civil Code's form of shared ownership is ownership in indivision: each owner holds an undivided share of the whole, and the shares are presumed equal unless the act provides otherwise. Write the fractions out, "an undivided one-half interest each", or whatever the shares are.

The Civil Code has no joint tenancy with right of survivorship; an owner's undivided share passes at death under that owner's will or the law of successions. If the aim is for a survivor to end up with the whole property, that is done by will, by a usufruct, or by another arrangement the notary can explain, not by the wording of a quitclaim.

Step 8: Sign Before a Notary and Two Witnesses

For a donation, and for any act you want to be authentic, the parties sign before a notary and in the presence of two witnesses, and the witnesses and the notary sign too. The typed or printed name of every signer goes immediately beneath the signature. The act need not be signed at one sitting; a party who is elsewhere can sign before another notary and two witnesses, and the act is still authentic. A party who cannot sign affixes a mark, which the notary must see to. The notary's identification number, or bar roll number for an attorney-notary, goes beside the notary's printed name, and the clerk may refuse an act without it and the printed names. Our Louisiana notarial act and witness page goes through the whole ceremony.

For a sale, an acknowledged act under private signature is enough to transfer the property. The Code's own form of acknowledgment is also before a notary and two witnesses, so the signing looks the same; the difference is that the act is not authentic, and an acknowledgment taken in another state under that state's law is accepted for recording here. That is also the kind of act Louisiana allows to be notarized online. A Louisiana notary, physically in Louisiana, may take a signer's acknowledgment over audio-video from anywhere, with any witnesses physically beside the signer, after checking identity by personal knowledge or by a government identification card with credential analysis and identity proofing; the act says it is a remote online notarial act, and the notary keeps the recording for ten years. Remote notarization cannot be used for a donation or for any authentic act, so a gift is signed in person. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page explains how a session runs.

Step 9: Record the Act

Take or mail the signed act to the clerk of court of the parish where the property is located, with the recording fee: $100 for a document of one to five pages, which includes one certified copy back. There is no transfer tax to pay anywhere in Louisiana except Orleans Parish, where a $30 building fund fee is added and the city's documentary transaction tax falls on a sale or a donation, at $325 for a document of up to twenty-five pages and $300 for the sale of a single-family residence. The city's ordinance exempts quitclaims and acts of correction, so an act that is a quitclaim in substance pays only the recording charges.

Recording is what makes the transfer good against the world. An instrument involving immovable property has effect against third persons only from the time it is filed for registry in the parish where the property is located, and until then a later buyer or creditor who records first can defeat it. There is no deadline, and no reason to wait.

Where do I record a Louisiana quitclaim deed?

In the conveyance records of the parish where the property is located, kept by the parish clerk of court. The Secretary of State's website lists the clerk of court in each of the 64 parishes with address and phone number. In Orleans Parish, land records are with the Clerk of Civil District Court's Land Records Division at 1340 Poydras Street in New Orleans, not the clerk the state list shows for Orleans, who serves the criminal court.

Does a Louisiana quitclaim deed need two witnesses?

It depends on whether anything is paid. A transfer for nothing is a donation, and the Civil Code says a donation must be made by authentic act, before a notary and two witnesses, or it is absolutely null. A transfer for a price can be an authentic act or an acknowledged act under private signature, and the Code's own acknowledgment is also before a notary and two witnesses. A family quitclaim for no price is a gift, so plan on the notary and two witnesses, in person.

Does my spouse have to sign a Louisiana quitclaim deed?

If the property is community property, yes. Things possessed during a marriage are presumed community, and both spouses must concur in the transfer of a community immovable, whatever name is on the title; a transfer by one spouse alone can be set aside by the other. If the property is your separate property, acquired before the marriage or by inheritance or donation to you alone, your spouse's signature is not required, and the act recites that the property is separate and how you acquired it.

Is there a transfer tax in Louisiana?

Not statewide. The parish clerk charges a recording fee of $100 for a document of one to five pages, set by statute for every parish. Orleans Parish is the exception: the City of New Orleans levies a documentary transaction tax when an act transferring real estate is recorded, $325 for a document of up to twenty-five pages or $300 for the sale of a single-family residence, paid by the transferor or donor. The city's ordinance exempts quitclaims and acts of correction, so a true quitclaim pays only the recording fee and the clerk's $30 building fund fee. But a transfer for nothing is a donation under the Civil Code, even when the act is titled a quitclaim, and the city taxes donations.

Can I sign a Louisiana deed online?

Only if it is a sale, or another act that does not have to be authentic. Louisiana's remote online notarization law lets a Louisiana notary who is in Louisiana notarize for a signer anywhere, after credential analysis and identity proofing, but it says remote notarization may not be used for a donation or to execute an authentic act. A gift of land is a donation and must be an authentic act, so it is signed in person before the notary and two witnesses.

Where do I get a Louisiana quitclaim deed form?

Louisiana has no statutory form, and a form written for a common-law state will be missing what the clerk and the Civil Code expect: the marital status declarations with the spouse's full name, the declaration of any change in status since acquisition, the domiciles and permanent mailing addresses, the tax-notice paragraph, lines for two witnesses, and the notary's number. In Louisiana the notary customarily drafts the act. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.