8.2.3 Quieting Title
8.2.3 Quieting Title aetrahan Thu, 07/06/2023 - 13:55After 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.