Ad valorem taxes are real obligations or in rem obligations on the land itself,1 which means that a client cannot not be sued personally for delinquent real estate taxes. Rather, a lien on the property is sold at a tax sale subject to a right of redemption. If no person bids on the property at tax sale, the tax lien will be adjudicated to the taxing authority.

Tax sales in Louisiana are authorized by Section 25 of Article VII of the Louisiana Constitution. In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature comprehensively amended and restated the law governing the payment and collection of property taxes, tax sales, and redemptions.2  Under the reforms, tax sales switched from a “tax sale deed” to a “tax sale title.”3  The tax sale title is sold as a tax sale certificate, which is redeemable for three years (or eighteen months if the property is blighted) from the date of tax sale certificate recordation. Redemption is made by making a combined payment of a 5% penalty plus a simple interest rate of 1% per month.

• 1La. C.C. art. 1763; see Eagle Pipe & Supply, Inc. v. Amerada Hess Corp., 2010-2267 (La. 10/25/11), 79 So. 3d 246; Ducote v. City of New Orleans, 176 So. 2d 198, 201 (La. App. 4. Cir. 1965).
• 2See La. R.S. 47:2121, et seq. These amendments became effective January 1, 2009.
• 3La. R.S. 47:2121(A)(1).

If the tax sale certificate is not redeemed, it “transfers to its holder ownership of the tax sale property, free of the ownership and other interests, claims, or encumbrances held by all duly notified persons.”1  Importantly, a tax sale certificate only converts to ownership once both the redemption period has expired and the interested parties are duly notified. The expiration of the redemption period does not automatically mean that the tax sale purchaser owns the property.2  The key in any tax sale defense is to determine that your client was not “duly notified.”

A party can be “duly notified” by anyone, i.e., the tax collector or the tax sale purchaser, either before or after the tax sale occurred. The tax sale party can be duly notified even without actual receipt of notice.3  If a tax sale party is “duly notified” after the expiration of the redemptive period, a tax title will convert to ownership 6 months after the tax sale party is duly notified.4  To prevent the tax sale purchaser from becoming the owner, the debtor must file a nullity action within that 6-month prescriptive period.5

• 1La. R.S. 47:2121(C)(1).
• 2See La. R.S. 47:2121(B) (providing that a tax sale has no effect on non-duly-notified interested parties).
• 3La. R.S. 47:2122(4).
• 4See generally Cent. Props. v. Fairway Gardenhomes, LLC, 2016-1855 (La. 6/27/17), 225 So. 3d 441.
• 5La. Const. art. VII, § 25(C) (“Annulment. No sale of property for taxes shall be set aside for any cause, except on proof of payment of the taxes prior to the date of the sale, unless the proceeding to annul is instituted within six months after service of notice of sale.”).

After the redemption period expires, the holder of the tax sale certificate may bring an action to quiet title. A tax title can be quieted under any manner provided by law.1  Several statutes provide protocols for a tax sale purchaser to quiet title and cancel interests: La. R.S. 47:2266 (Quiet Title action), La. R.S. 47:2271, et seq. (Monition action), and La. R.S. 47:2157 (Affidavit procedure). Under each procedure, the 6-month prescriptive period begins on a different date.

A Quiet Title action is a lawsuit filed under ordinary procedure, whereby the tax sale party’s right to file a nullity action prescribes 6 months after the date of service.2

A Monition action for tax sales is a lawsuit filed in district court, but reflects more of a summary or executory proceeding in nature. There are no defendants, and no service is required. Tax sale monitions mirror monitions for judicial sales under La. R.S. 13:4941, except that in tax sale monitions the tax sale purchaser must mail notices to the tax sale parties and present an affidavit of noticing efforts in court.3  For tax sale monitions, the 6-month prescriptive period to bring a nullity action commences on the date of first advertisement.4

Quieting Title by Affidavit under La. R.S. 47:2157 is similar to the affidavit required in the monition proceeding, except that the 6-month prescriptive period to file a nullity action commences on the date the notice was mailed, not the date of publication. Quieting Title by Affidavit does not require a judicial confirmation of title. Under this statute, the recorder of mortgages and conveyances is directed to cancel the interests of all named parties named in the affidavit recorded by the tax sale purchaser.

• 1La. Const. art. VII, § 25(D).
• 2La. R.S. 47:2266(A)(1).
• 3La. R.S. 47:2277.
• 4La. R.S. 47:2275.