Louisiana Gives 30 Days to Cure Before an HOA Privilege, and Kills It in One Year for Fines

The demand step is formal and the delivery methods are enumerated, so an association cannot start the clock informally. R.S. 9:1146(A) allows United States mail postage paid or a commercial courier as defined in Code of Civil Procedure Article 1313(D) sent to the mailing address the owner designated, electronic mail to the address the owner designated, hand delivery to the physical location of the lot or unit where the owner has designated neither a mailing nor an email address, mail or courier to the mailing address of each lot or unit, or any other method reasonably calculated to provide notice.

The payment waterfall in R.S. 9:1146(B)(2) matters to an owner trying to clear a lien with a partial payment, because it is not the owner's choice. Sums paid after the written demand are applied first to unpaid assessments, then late charges, then reasonable attorney fees, costs and other collection charges, and only last to all other unpaid fees, charges, fines, penalties and interest. An owner who pays exactly the assessment figure can therefore still be left with a live balance made of fees the payment was diverted to.

Once the thirty days expire, R.S. 9:1146(B)(3) permits the filing, and R.S. 9:1147(A) sets what the sworn detailed statement must contain: it must be signed and verified by an officer or agent of the association, filed for registry in the mortgage records of the parish where the lot or unit is located, and must state a complete property description, the record owner's name, the date the assessment became delinquent, the amount assessed for periodic dues including any accelerated amount, the amount assessed for fines and late fees, and the date written demand was made. R.S. 9:1147(B) then requires the association to deliver a copy to the delinquent owner by any of the R.S. 9:1146(A) methods.

The two peremption periods in R.S. 9:1148(A) are the provision most worth knowing, because they split by what the debt is for. If the assessment was imposed for alleged violations of the community documents, the recorded privilege ceases as to third persons unless a notice of pendency of action under Code of Civil Procedure Article 3752 is filed in the parish mortgage records within one year of the statement of privilege. If it was imposed to enforce the duty to pay monthly or periodic dues or fees, or assessments for particular expenses or capital improvements reasonable for maintenance, improvement or safety, the period is five years. In either case the notice must carry a reference to the recorded statement of privilege, and when the period lapses the recorder of mortgages must cancel the recordation on a written signed application. Under R.S. 9:1148(B) the privilege ranks from the date of filing and, except as the Private Works Act at R.S. 9:4801 provides, outranks mortgages and other rights that become effective against third persons after that date, so an existing first mortgage is not primed. R.S. 9:1148(C) gives competing associations equal priority regardless of filing dates unless an intervening encumbrance exists.

Condominiums run on a separate section with different limits. R.S. 9:1123.115(A)(1) secures unpaid or accelerated assessments and "any fines or late fees in excess of two hundred fifty dollars," which is the one dollar threshold in Louisiana association lien law. That same paragraph permits acceleration: if a unit owner fails to timely pay common element assessments for three months or more during any eight-month period and the notice in paragraph (3) is given, the association may accelerate twelve months of assessments and file a privilege for the accelerated sums. Paragraph (3) requires service of a sworn detailed statement on the delinquent unit owner at least seven days before the privilege is filed, by personal service or registered or certified mail. Paragraph (4) supplies a wrongful-lien remedy the planned community sections do not: if the association files for an amount not owed, in whole or in part, and an owner or interest holder sues for release, the association is liable for the expenses of obtaining that release including reasonable attorney fees and all costs. R.S. 9:1123.115(B) preserves a recorded condominium claim for five years and perempts it unless a notice of filing of suit is recorded, and (C) makes the privilege superior to other liens except encumbrances recorded before the declaration, encumbrances recorded before the privilege, immovable property taxes, and governmental assessments in which the unit is specifically described.

The planned community sections in this Part were rewritten by Acts 2024, No. 158, Section 2, effective January 1, 2025, so the demand, waterfall and split peremption described here are recent law. R.S. 9:1147 also carries an earlier amendment by Acts 2022, No. 603. The Louisiana Legislature's law site states that its statutes are updated through the 2025 First Extraordinary Session.

S. 9:1145(E) requires board approval before the association commences an action to enforce a privilege. The cost consequences run both ways. S. S. 9:1146(D) allows the court to award the prevailing party costs of court, reasonable attorney fees and other related costs, so an owner who wins is not automatically bearing the association's fees. S. 115(A)(4), an association that files a privilege for an amount not owed is liable to an owner or interest holder who sues for release for the expenses of obtaining that release, including reasonable attorney fees and all costs.

The lien can also simply expire. S. 9:1148(A) allows, the effect of recordation ceases, the privilege is extinguished as to third persons, and the recorder of mortgages must cancel the recordation on a written signed application. S. 9:1145(D) requires the association to furnish a statement of the amount of unpaid assessments within ten business days of a request made in a record, and that statement is binding on the association, which gives an owner or a closing agent a way to fix the payoff figure.