A Louisiana quitclaim deed, properly called an Act of Quitclaim, transfers whatever interest you hold in a piece of real estate to someone else with no promise that you actually own it or that the title is clean. That makes it a useful tool for family transfers, divorce settlements, and cleaning up cloudy co-ownership, and a risky one for the recipient. To be valid and recordable in Louisiana, the act has to carry specific information, be signed as an authentic act before a notary and two witnesses, and be filed with the Clerk of Court in the parish where the property sits.
What the Deed Must Contain
Start with the full legal names of the person giving up the interest (the transferor) and the person receiving it (the transferee). Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:2721 also requires the document to designate who is responsible for property taxes and assessments going forward and the mailing address where tax notices should be sent. That same information has to be given to the parish tax assessor.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 9 RS 9-2721 – Filing in Office of Parish Recorder
The legal description of the property is the technical piece that trips people up. A street address alone will not do. You need the Section, Township, and Range designation, or the Lot and Block number, depending on how the land was surveyed. Pull it from a prior deed, your mortgage, or the parish assessor’s website.2Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism. Sample Legal Property Descriptions If the description on your quitclaim doesn’t match what’s already in the conveyance records, the Clerk of Court may index the transfer incorrectly or reject the filing outright.
Community Property and the Spouse Problem
Louisiana is a community property state, and that reshapes how a quitclaim works. Under Civil Code Article 2338, property acquired during a marriage through either spouse’s effort, income, or skill belongs to the community no matter whose name is on the title.3Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2338 – Community Property You cannot rely on the deed alone to tell you who owns what.
Article 2347 goes further. Both spouses must agree before community immovable property is sold, donated, or otherwise transferred.4Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2347 – Alienation of Community Property, Concurrence of Other Spouse If one spouse quitclaims community property without the other spouse’s signature, the transfer can be challenged and potentially voided. The deed should state the transferor’s marital status and, when the property is community-owned, carry the non-transferring spouse’s signature or a separate waiver of their community interest. Skipping this step creates title problems rather than solving them.
Signing: The Authentic Act Requirement
Louisiana requires real property transfers to be executed as an authentic act before they can be recorded. Civil Code Article 1833 defines that as a document signed before a notary public, in the presence of two witnesses, with all parties, both witnesses, and the notary each signing.5Justia Law. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 1833 – Authentic Act Missing any part of that formula gets the document rejected at the clerk’s counter.
A few practical points on signing:
- Parties do not all have to sign in the same room on the same day. Each party can execute the act before their own notary and witnesses, as long as every signature meets Article 1833 in full.
- The statute calls for two “competent” witnesses without spelling out detailed rules. Use adults who are not parties to the transfer and have no financial stake in it.
- The notary will verify identity. Bring a current government-issued photo ID.
Louisiana recognizes other document forms for other purposes, but for immovable property the authentic act is what the law prescribes. Treat it as the only reliable option.
Filing with the Clerk of Court
Once the deed is signed, file it with the Clerk of Court in the parish where the property is located. You can submit in person, by mail, or through an electronic recording portal in parishes that offer one. Check with the specific parish before counting on e-recording.
Recording fees vary by parish and depend on the length of the document and the number of names indexed. A typical quitclaim of five pages or fewer runs roughly $105 to $110 at most offices.6Allen Clerk of Court. Allen Clerk of Court – Recording Fees7Washington Parish Clerk of Court. Recording Fees and Land Record Fees Longer documents cost more. A 6-to-25-page filing may run $205 to $210, and anything over 25 pages can reach $305 to $310. Adding more than 10 names to the index brings a per-name charge.
Once the fees are paid, the clerk indexes the transfer in the parish conveyance records. That indexing is what makes the transfer public and protects the recipient’s interest from competing claims. The office returns the original document or a certified copy stamped with the recording date, book, and page.
What a Quitclaim Does Not Do
A quitclaim does not take you off the mortgage. The mortgage is a separate contract with the lender, and transferring your ownership interest does not change who owes the debt. Whoever signed the loan is still personally liable after the deed is recorded. This blindsides people in divorces all the time.
The bigger risk is the due-on-sale clause. Most residential mortgages let the lender demand full repayment if the borrower transfers any interest in the property, and federal law backs up the lender’s right to enforce those clauses.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions Quitclaim a mortgaged property to an unrelated third party and the lender can call the loan.
The same federal statute does protect certain transfers:
- A transfer that makes the borrower’s spouse or children an owner.
- A transfer resulting from a divorce decree, legal separation agreement, or property settlement that makes the borrower’s spouse an owner.
- A transfer to a relative at the borrower’s death, or a transfer by operation of law when a joint tenant dies.
- A transfer into a living trust where the borrower stays a beneficiary and occupancy does not change.
Title insurance is the other quiet casualty. Standard policies tie coverage to the insured party’s ongoing liability through warranty covenants. A quitclaim contains no warranties, so existing coverage effectively ends when the deed is recorded. The new owner starts without title insurance unless they buy a new policy.
Tax Consequences
Louisiana imposes no state real estate transfer tax, so recording the quitclaim itself will not trigger a state bill. Federal taxes are another matter.
If you quitclaim property to anyone other than your spouse for less than fair market value, the IRS treats it as a gift. When the property’s value exceeds $19,000, you have to file a gift tax return (Form 709) for the year of the transfer.9Internal Revenue Service. Gifts and Inheritances That $19,000 annual exclusion applies per recipient for 2026. Filing does not necessarily mean you owe gift tax, since the lifetime exemption absorbs most transfers, but skipping the return creates compliance problems that surface later.
The quieter trap is cost basis. When property is gifted rather than inherited, the recipient takes on the donor’s original cost basis under federal law.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1015 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gifts and Transfers in Trust If your parents bought a house for $60,000 and quitclaim it to you when it is worth $300,000, your basis is $60,000. When you sell, you owe capital gains tax on the difference between the sale price and that $60,000. Had you inherited the same property, you would receive a stepped-up basis at fair market value, potentially saving tens of thousands. This is one of the most expensive mistakes families make with property transfers, and it is worth running past a tax professional before the deed is signed.