Louisiana Property Records: How to Find Out Who Owns a Property (2026)

Louisiana has no county recorder of deeds. Each of its 64 parishes routes deeds, called acts of sale under the state's civil-law vocabulary, and mortgages through the elected Clerk of Court, who serves as ex officio recorder under a public records doctrine unlike any other state's.

Information last verified on 2026-07-16. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How Property Records Work in Louisiana

Louisiana has no county Recorder of Deeds and no county government at all. The state is divided into 64 parishes, and in each one the elected Clerk of Court serves as ex officio recorder of conveyances and mortgages, maintaining the Conveyance Records for property sales, called acts of sale in Louisiana's civil-law terminology, and the Mortgage Records for mortgages and liens (Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court, Mortgage & Conveyance Records). Orleans Parish is the one exception: instead of a general parish Clerk of Court, recording there is handled by a separately elected Clerk of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans.

For decades, each of the 64 parishes ran its own separate recording system, with no way to search across parish lines. That changed after the Louisiana legislature created the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority (LCRAA) in 2014 and required every parish clerk of court to participate (Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority, LCRAA Overview). The LCRAA's Statewide Portal, branded eClerksLA, lets users create one free account and search conveyance, mortgage, marriage, and civil-suit records across all 64 parishes instead of visiting 64 separate parish websites (eClerksLA, Statewide Portal). The portal is funded by an authorized $5 fee added to each new recording, and while the search index itself is free, whether full document images are free to view or require a small per-page charge varies by parish. Many individual parish clerks also maintain their own separate online search tools alongside the statewide portal.

How to Find Out Who Owns a Property in Louisiana

The fastest free way to find a property's current owner in Louisiana is the parish assessor's office, not the Clerk of Court. Louisiana does not run one unified statewide assessor database, but the Louisiana Tax Assessors portal links out to each parish's own parcel search tool (Louisiana Tax Assessors, Parish Assessor Directory). Most of these let a reader search by owner name, situs address, or assessment number at no cost and return the current owner of record, mailing address, and assessed value.

Start With the Parish Assessor

Every one of Louisiana's 64 parishes runs its own assessor's office, and coverage is uneven, from polished GIS parcel viewers to a simpler name or address search. St. James Parish, for example, runs a Property Viewer searchable by owner, address, or assessment number, and Calcasieu Parish runs a separate GIS parcel-mapping tool. If you don't know which parish a property sits in, the Louisiana Tax Assessors directory is a reasonable starting point, since it links to each parish's individual site.

Search Across All 64 Parishes With eClerksLA

To trace a chain of title, confirm every document recorded against a specific name, or search a parish without its own free public index, eClerksLA is usually the fastest route, since it covers Conveyance and Mortgage Records in all 64 parishes with one login. Create a free account, then search by grantor or grantee name, property description, or instrument number.

Getting a Certified Copy

A certified copy of a recorded act of sale must come from the parish Clerk of Court where the document was originally filed. Fees are set parish by parish rather than statewide, but a base certification charge around $10, plus a per-page copying fee commonly running $1 to $2 per page, is typical, so a short document often totals $11 to $15 certified. Before paying for a fresh certified copy, it's worth checking whether one was already issued: many parishes' original recording fees include one certified copy at the time of filing, which can make buying a second copy unnecessary.

Readers comparing how this process looks outside Louisiana can see Property Records by State for the recorder, assessor, and portal structure used in other states.

Louisiana's Civil-Law Public Records Doctrine

Louisiana is the only U.S. state operating under a civil-law property system, and that heritage shows up directly in how strictly it treats recording. Louisiana Civil Code article 3338 provides that an instrument transferring immovable property, or creating a mortgage, lien, lease, or option on it, has no effect against third parties until it has been filed for registry in the parish where the property is located (Louisiana Notary Association, Registry and Recordation: The Public Records Doctrine). Louisiana calls this the public records doctrine, and it is stricter than the notice or race-notice statutes that govern most common-law states: an unrecorded transfer isn't just unprotected against a later, competing claim; the law treats it as though it does not exist at all for anyone outside the original transaction.

That doctrine has practical consequences for anyone researching Louisiana property. Because an unrecorded sale is void as to third parties, the Conveyance and Mortgage Records at the parish Clerk of Court's office are the definitive record of who owns what and what liens or mortgages encumber a property, not any private agreement or unfiled paperwork. The doctrine is also why Louisiana's civil-law notary, an office rooted in the state's French and Spanish colonial legal heritage, plays a larger role than a notary public elsewhere. A Louisiana notary, frequently an attorney, is authorized to draft and execute acts of sale, mortgages, and other authentic acts affecting "immovable property," Louisiana's civil-law term for real estate, carrying evidentiary weight closer to a court judgment than a simple notarized signature in a common-law state.

Orleans Parish's separate recording structure is its own quirk within this system. While every other parish routes recording through its general Clerk of Court, New Orleans splits the function off to a separately elected Clerk of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, so anyone researching property in New Orleans needs to know they're dealing with a distinct office from the parish's other court functions.

Deed Scam Mailers and Property Fraud Alerts in Louisiana

Louisiana property owners, like homeowners nationwide, are targeted by mailers designed to look like official government notices offering to sell a "certified copy of your deed" for a steep fee, commonly upwards of $90 (Minnesota Attorney General, Real Estate Deed Solicitation). These mailers often use language like "official" or "certified" and include real details, such as the address and parcel number, pulled from public records to look legitimate, while burying a disclaimer that it is not a government bill. The actual document costs far less directly from the parish Clerk of Court, and most homeowners already received their original deed for free at closing.

A more serious risk is deed fraud, where someone files a forged deed to sell or borrow against a property they don't own, often targeting vacant land, rental property, or homes with no mortgage. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a public service announcement in 2026 warning about this pattern nationwide, describing schemes where fraudsters use stolen identity information to impersonate a true owner and divert sale or loan proceeds to accomplices (FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Protect Your Property from Illegal Sales Through Parcel Owner Impersonation). Louisiana residents have a genuine, free defense: recording-notification services that alert an owner by email or text the moment a document is recorded in their name, including eClerksLA Alert statewide and parish versions like Jefferson Parish's JeffWatch Property Alert System (Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court, JeffWatch Property Alert System).

Not a Substitute for a Title Search

A free parish assessor or eClerksLA lookup is useful for general research, confirming an owner's name, or monitoring for fraud, but it is not the same as a licensed title company's full title search and title insurance policy. Title professionals cross-reference deeds, mortgages, court judgments, and liens together, and industry sources estimate that roughly one in four residential transactions turns up a title issue that needs resolving before closing. Anyone buying property in Louisiana should still engage a title company or real estate attorney rather than relying on a public-records search alone.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how public property records work in Louisiana. It is not legal advice and does not substitute for professional title, real estate, or legal services. Louisiana's parish-based recording system and its civil-law public records doctrine described here reflect the law as of 2026-07-16 and may change. Anyone buying, selling, or resolving a dispute over Louisiana property should consult a licensed Louisiana attorney or a title company licensed to do business in Louisiana.

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Last updated: 2026-07-16. Figures and program details reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-16.

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