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LouisianaSB 552025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

TAX/AD VALOREM: Provides relative to the assessment, payment, and allocation of ad valorem taxes. (1/1/26) (EN SEE FISC NOTE LF RV)

Sponsored By: Gregory A. Miller (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Ways and MeansRevenue and Fiscal Affairs

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

29 provisions identified: 12 benefits, 5 costs, 12 mixed.

Homeowners gain eviction and rent protections

Beginning January 1, 2026, certificate holders cannot bring eviction cases against tax debtors who still own and live in the property. Certificate holders also cannot charge owners or occupants rent or make improvements, except for authorized repairs. People acquiring tax-sale property face the same rent and improvement limits until the debtor's rights end and legal possession is granted.

Older tax properties keep redemption paths

Beginning January 1, 2026, anyone can redeem property adjudicated to Louisiana for unpaid taxes from tax years 1880 through 1973. Redemption goes through the register of the state land office, in the tax debtor's name, before the state transfers it. Encumbrances placed by the state remain. Separately, redemptions involving tax sales held or certificates issued before January 1, 2026, follow the law in effect December 31, 2025.

Property owners gain chances to pay

Beginning January 1, 2026, owners and co-owners can pay taxes, interest, and costs until a tax lien auction begins. An owner or other property-interest holder buying the lien counts as paying the debt, unless already a certificate holder. That purchase creates no new lien. After receiving notice of a Louisiana Tax Commission assessment correction, debtors have 15 days to pay without interest or penalties. Collectors can also extend a 15-day charge-free period when an assessor's incorrect address prevented timely notice.

Judicial tax sales end ownership rights

Beginning January 1, 2026, judicial tax sales generally end property interests, including ownership. Still-effective instruments recorded before the certificate survive for building restrictions, common-ownership systems, public dedications, factory-built-home immobilization, coastal, levee or drainage projects, mineral rights, pipelines, and land-use servitudes. After sale costs and commissions, proceeds pay the plaintiff's judgment, interest, qualifying sale costs and attorney fees, then other unexpired certificates, recorded claimants, and owners. Surplus disputes do not delay the plaintiff's payment or sheriff's deed. Undeliverable funds enter the court registry; surplus unclaimed after one year follows state unclaimed-property law.

Property sales set floors, end interests

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments must set minimum bids when selling real estate to enforce their tax liens. The minimum must be at least two-thirds of the property's value under the assessor's current assessment. After the sale and satisfaction of terms imposed by the authorizing ordinance, the government must give the winning bidder an act of sale. The sale generally ends all property interests, subject to the exceptions in R.S. 47:2268(B). Local governments may also set minimum bids when selling the tax liens themselves.

More notice before tax enforcement sales

Beginning January 1, 2026, returned certified delinquency mail requires first-class notice to “occupant” and at least three additional notice methods. Before selling property to enforce its lien, a local government must provide written and published notice so affected parties can pay. Written notice must come 60 days before sale if the certificate was recorded at least five years earlier; otherwise, six months. Returned sale notices require at least three search steps, mailing to reasonably believed valid addresses, and filing notice in mortgage records. These property-sale notice rules do not apply when the government sells its tax-lien certificate.

Owners can claim excess sale money

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments must hold excess adjudicated-property sale money for people with property interests. Excess means money left after the specified tax charges, government liens, sale costs, and property holding and maintenance costs. Governments must notify tax-lien auction parties within 30 days after sale. Interested people can claim a share by affidavit proving their interest and share. Money without a timely claim returns to the selling government after one year from the notice date.

Owners gain penalties for unlawful interference

Beginning January 1, 2026, resident owners are protected from eviction before completion of the required judicial sale. Certificate holders and acquiring persons cannot charge occupants rent before judicial possession. Violators owe the tax debtor 5% of the tax-sale or lien-auction price, plus 5% of rent or lease payments the debtor paid. The penalty accrues from the first violation until redemption, lien payoff, or the end of the debtor's interest, including redemption rights. Violators also lose recovery rights for amounts beyond delinquent taxes and similar charges included in the redemption or lien payoff price.

Owners gain tax lien lawsuit safeguards

Beginning January 1, 2026, holders must diligently identify affected auction parties and send notice six months to one year before suit. Mortgage-holder notices require certified mail, registered mail, or commercial courier; additional notices outside that window are allowed. Enforcement suits must start within seven years after certificate recording, or the lien ends and an interested party can request cancellation in writing. That clock pauses during local-government ownership and enforcement-blocking bankruptcy stays with notice recorded in parish mortgage records. Recoverable attorney fees cannot exceed the greater of 25% of the amount sought or $2,500, unless good cause supports more.

Owners get notice before tax-property transfers

Beginning January 1, 2026, sales or donations of adjudicated property require written and published notice to affected tax-sale parties. Redemption or court challenges remain available until the later of transfer recording or the applicable notice period. That period is 60 days if the tax-sale certificate was filed more than five years earlier, or six months otherwise. Returned mail requires at least three listed search steps and remailing to reasonably valid addresses; recording notice protects against later-filed claims until redemption or transfer. After the period ends and ordinance conditions are satisfied, buyers or successors can request authentication within 10 days, or as soon afterward as practicable.

Tax lien buyers face conflict safeguards

Beginning January 1, 2026, tax collectors, assessors, and people assessing or collecting local property taxes cannot acquire liens directly or indirectly. A prohibited acquisition can support a challenge to void the auction, except after transfer to a good-faith buyer for value. A violating certificate holder must forfeit the price paid and give profits to the tax debtor. Liens can be assigned only to eligible buyers; assignments take effect against third parties upon filing in mortgage records. The tax collector must also receive notice of the assignment.

Homeowners face claims for required repairs

Beginning January 1, 2026, certificate holders can claim costs for repairs required by an authorized property-standards notice or court order. They must record the claim within 15 days after completing the required work and send the debtor a copy. The claim lasts five years and generally ranks ahead of later-recorded rights. Holders can enforce it with the tax lien. If the tax lien ends before suit, they must wait at least six months after notice to enforce the repair claim.

Tax-property buyers bear defects and fees

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments selling or donating property under these rules provide only a limited warranty. It protects against eviction caused by the government's earlier transfer of that property. Warranties against defects or unsuitability are excluded, even if the transfer papers omit the exclusions or the recipient was not told. Recipients must file the sale or donation document and pay all filing fees.

Unpaid property taxes trigger lien auctions

Beginning January 1, 2026, unpaid property taxes and similar charges trigger a required tax-lien auction. The lien must be offered for auction when taxes, interest, and costs remain unpaid 90 days after becoming delinquent. This step sells the tax lien, not the property itself.

Homeowners get payoff rules and cost caps

Beginning January 1, 2026, people can end an auctioned lien before enforcement suit by paying its full termination price. This includes face value, the 5% auction penalty, noncompounding bid-rate interest up to 1% monthly, allowed costs, and holder-paid later taxes with penalties and interest. Reasonable, actual notice costs, including title research, postage, and administration, are capped at $500; an affidavit must reach the collector before payoff. Local preparation and notice costs are capped at $300, excluding filing and recording fees; termination-certificate costs also enter the payoff. Qualifying payments clearing other liens whose enforcement deadlines have not expired also count, with noncompounding interest, if the holder notifies the collector of its status when paying.

Local governments can convert tax-seized property

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments can convert property taken for unpaid taxes into tax lien certificate property. Time since adjudication can count toward the required three-year certificate period, potentially bringing a sale closer. Conversion more than three years after adjudication recording requires post-tax-lien notices before sale. A local government already holding a certificate can keep another delinquent obligation on that property out of auction. The collector then issues and records another certificate for the government; the debt remains owed.

Owners face firm lien payoff deadlines

Beginning January 1, 2026, anyone can pay the tax collector to end a lien through close of business on the 30th day after the last party is served. A legal holiday moves that deadline to the next non-holiday; afterward, the collector cannot accept the payment. Before a judicial sale, someone whose property interest is at risk can ask the court to set the payoff price. That price includes amounts secured by the related legal payment priority under R.S. 47:2158. The full amount must reach the court registry or certificate holder within 30 days after the order is signed.

Tax claims rank ahead of mortgages

Beginning January 1, 2026, delinquent tax obligations secured by tax liens rank ahead of mortgages and other property claims. Tax liens rank together regardless of due or recording dates, subject to the judicial-sale exception in R.S. 47:2267. The law removes a separate provision that stated certificate liens had priority and equal rank. A recorded judgment for a certificate holder covers only the property named in the lawsuit. That judgment outranks other claims regardless of recording date, except the protected interests listed in R.S. 47:2268(B).

Tax-property transfers change which claims survive

Beginning January 1, 2026, filing the required affidavit for an adjudicated-property sale clears listed local tax charges, government liens, and recorded claims. For donations, the affidavit clears the donor government's charges and other listed claims. Government liens and tax charges from subdivisions other than the receiving subdivision remain excepted under the donation rule. An acquisition by a tax-sale or tax-lien auction party instead counts as redemption: the party pays redemption taxes and costs, ending the tax lien. Earlier mortgages, liens, and other claims then retain their validity and priority.

Later taxes add charges and refund rights

Beginning January 1, 2026, tax debtors remain responsible for later property taxes and similar charges after certificate issuance. If those charges become delinquent, the certificate holder can pay them. Those payments increase the debtor's obligation, with a 5% penalty and noncompounding interest of 1% per month. If the holder pays after the lien was extinguished by payment, the collector must refund the holder within 30 days after written demand.

Movable property faces final tax sales

Beginning January 1, 2026, movable property sold for unpaid taxes goes immediately into the buyer's possession, without a redemption right. The collector can seize the property to deliver it. Collectors cannot conduct the sale once three years have passed from December 31 of the year the charges were due. Time during which a lawsuit prevents collection does not count toward those three years.

Tax debt earns interest within limits

Beginning January 1, 2026, unpaid property taxes and similar charges earn 1% noncompounding interest per month, including partial months. That interest stops at payment, certificate issuance, or a qualifying movable-property sale. Auctions charge the certificate's face value; the lowest interest-rate bid wins, from 0.7% to 1% monthly in 0.1% steps. Certificate interest does not compound, and certificates issued to local governments earn 1% monthly. Charges delinquent at least three years cannot enter the auction price; collection-blocking lawsuits pause that clock, and separate local-government lien sales remain allowed.

Buyers can acquire government-held tax liens

Beginning January 1, 2026, people can buy tax liens backed by certificates issued to and held by local governments. The local government sets the purchase terms, and buyers receive the same rights as other tax-lien certificate holders. After receiving payment and satisfaction of terms imposed by the authorizing ordinance, the government must execute the sale. It must also file the certificate's act of sale in the mortgage records of the parish where the property lies.

Owners can clear individual tax liens

Beginning January 1, 2026, collectors cannot reject full payment for one lien because other liens or unsold tax charges remain. They need not accept partial payment for an individual certificate. When a payment cannot clear every lien, collectors follow the payer's directions or apply it to the oldest lien. Collectors must disclose other certificates and send the payoff to the holder within 30 days, subject to R.S. 47:2243(C). Except where the law provides otherwise, paying the appropriate tax collector the full termination price extinguishes the lien.

Local governments gain tax-property sale authority

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments can adopt ordinances consistent with the law for selling or donating adjudicated property. Their ordinances can also govern property sales enforcing government-held tax liens and public sales of tax liens with certificates. They can authorize lien certificates for delinquent obligations on property whose tax-sale title was adjudicated to them before January 1, 2026. The law also repeals R.S. 47:2153.1, enacted in 2024; the supplied text does not explain that section's requirements.

Owners pay added local notice costs

Beginning January 1, 2026, ending a local government's tax lien requires paying its actual costs for specified notices and services. The same rule applies when redeeming property previously adjudicated to the local government through tax enforcement. These costs are added to the applicable lien payoff or redemption price. Covered expenses include certified mail, commercial-carrier delivery, published notices, and personal service used for required party notices.

Tax-lien holders face creditor status limits

Beginning January 1, 2026, holding a tax-lien certificate does not qualify someone as a creditor in specified debtor proceedings. The same restriction applies to someone who causes the lien to be extinguished. It covers estate proceedings after death, business reorganizations, liquidations, and receiverships. An exception applies only as needed to treat the lien payoff price as a debt of a bankruptcy estate.

Buyers can request sales with deposits

Beginning January 1, 2026, anyone can request a public sale of adjudicated property or property covered by a government-held lien certificate. The request must be written and include a deposit covering sale expenses, in an amount set by the local government. The sale must still meet all other legal requirements. The deposit is returned if the requester is not the highest bidder. If bidding fails to reach the applicable minimum price, sale expenses come from the deposit and the remainder is returned.

Tax-property buyers gain options with limits

Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments can sell adjudicated property to the highest bidder without a minimum bid or appraisal. If they set a minimum bid, it must cover tax charges, government liens, and sale costs. If an appraisal is required, the minimum is at least two-thirds of appraised value at the first sale and one-third at the second. Governments can also allow adjoining owners who maintained the property for one year to buy without public bidding. The government sets that price, and the purchase occurs at a public meeting.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Gregory A. Miller

    Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 271 • No: 1

House vote • 6/12/2025

Conference Committee Report read, roll called, yeas 93, nays 0. The Conference Committee Report was adopted.

Yes: 93 • No: 0

Senate vote • 6/12/2025

Conference Committee Report read; adopted by a vote of 37 yeas and 0 nays.

Yes: 37 • No: 0

House vote • 6/3/2025

Read third time by title, amended, roll called on final passage, yeas 92, nays 0. Finally passed, ordered to the Senate.

Yes: 92 • No: 0

House vote • 5/27/2025

Reported with amendments

Yes: 14 • No: 0

Senate vote • 4/30/2025

Senate floor amendments read and adopted. Read by title and passed by a vote of 35 yeas and 1 nays; ordered reengrossed and sent to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

Yes: 35 • No: 1

Actions Timeline

  1. Signed by the Governor. Becomes Act No. 411.

    6/20/2025Senate

  2. Effective date 1/1/2026.

    6/20/2025Senate

  3. Conference Committee Report read; adopted by a vote of 37 yeas and 0 nays.

    6/12/2025Senate

  4. Conference Committee report received. Lies over under the rules.

    6/12/2025House

  5. Notice of Senate adoption of Conference Committee Report.

    6/12/2025House

  6. Rules suspended.

    6/12/2025House

  7. Conference Committee Report read, roll called, yeas 93, nays 0. The Conference Committee Report was adopted.

    6/12/2025House

  8. Notice House adopted the Conference Committee Report.

    6/12/2025Senate

  9. Signed by the Speaker of the House.

    6/12/2025House

  10. Sent to the Governor by the Secretary of the Senate on 6/13/2025.

    6/12/2025Senate

  11. Enrolled. Signed by the President of the Senate on 6/13/2025.

    6/12/2025Senate

  12. Notice of Senate conferees appointed.

    6/11/2025House

  13. House conferees appointed: Glorioso, Emerson, and Henry.

    6/11/2025House

  14. Notice House Conference Committee members appointed.

    6/11/2025Senate

  15. Senate conference committee members appointed: Miller, Foil, and Wheat.

    6/10/2025Senate

  16. Notice of Senate rejecting House amendments.

    6/9/2025House

  17. Received from the House with amendments.

    6/4/2025Senate

  18. Read third time by title, amended, roll called on final passage, yeas 92, nays 0. Finally passed, ordered to the Senate.

    6/3/2025House

  19. Scheduled for floor debate on 06/03/2025.

    6/2/2025House

  20. Read by title, amended, passed to 3rd reading.

    5/29/2025House

  21. Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments.

    5/28/2025House

  22. Reported with amendments (14-0). Referred to the Legislative Bureau.

    5/27/2025House

  23. Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

    5/6/2025House

  24. Received in the House from the Senate, read by title, lies over under the rules.

    5/5/2025House

  25. Senate floor amendments read and adopted. Read by title and passed by a vote of 35 yeas and 1 nays; ordered reengrossed and sent to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

    4/30/2025Senate

Bill Text

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