Caddo Parish, LA Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

UDC Section 7.3.O.12 is unambiguous: 'Repair and service of any vehicles or any heavy machinery is prohibited as a home occupation.' That single sentence rules out a residential auto repair, detailing, or small-engine shop as a home-based business anywhere the home occupation standards apply, regardless of how limited in scale the work is. The same section separately notes that day care homes are not treated as a home occupation and are regulated elsewhere in the Code, so that use isn't affected by this ban.

The prohibition sits inside a longer list of home-based business standards, and several of the surrounding rules reinforce it. Section 7.3.O.13 bars using or storing tractor trailers, semi-trucks, or heavy equipment such as construction machinery as part of a home-based business, closing off a workaround where someone might store or stage vehicles at home without directly repairing them there. Section 7.3.O.6 separately bars any home-based business from receiving or delivering merchandise, goods, or equipment except by passenger vehicle or standard parcel and mail carriers, which rules out the truck and equipment deliveries an auto shop would need. A resident who wants to do other trade work still has the general home occupation path: a certificate of occupancy, conducted entirely by a resident of the dwelling, with no exterior signage beyond one two-square-foot sign, but vehicle and heavy-machinery repair is carved out of that path entirely rather than merely limited.