Louisiana Warranty Deed

A Louisiana warranty deed prepared for one individual seller carries the strongest title promise Louisiana law supplies: full warranty of title, with transfer and subrogation of the seller's own warranty rights against everyone who owned the property before. This form prepares that act of sale for one individual grantor conveying Louisiana immovable property to one grantee, executed in the state's authentic act form before a notary public and two witnesses.

A warranty that reaches back through the chain

Louisiana writes its warranty into the Civil Code rather than into deed captions, and in local practice the same instrument is often titled an act of sale or an act of cash sale. Article 2475 binds the seller to warrant ownership and peaceful possession. Article 2500 extends the warranty against eviction to encumbrances that existed at the time of the sale and were not declared, and article 2503 makes the warranty against eviction part of every sale unless the parties limit or exclude it. This deed states the warranty at full strength and adds the customary subrogation clause, so the grantee also steps into the grantor's own rights and actions of warranty against preceding owners and vendors. A dedicated section of the form declares existing matters of record, the article 2500 mechanism that separates declared encumbrances from undeclared ones.

The instrument is a sale under article 2439: one grantor, one grantee, a price in money stated in words and figures, and a conveyance of the property in full ownership forever. An instrument that transfers only the seller's right, title, and interest without warranty presents the opposite pattern, the one Louisiana courts characterize as a quitclaim; this form recites the full warranty posture expressly.

One ceremony: the Louisiana authentic act

The form is arranged for execution as an authentic act under Civil Code article 1833. The grantor, the grantee, two competent witnesses, and a Louisiana notary public sign at one time; the typed or printed name of each signer appears beneath the signature; and a single Thus Done and Passed certificate recites the ceremony, its venue reading State of Louisiana with the parish where the act was passed. The certificate carries the notary identification number or Louisiana bar roll number that R.S. 35:12 makes recording data on notarized instruments, and the ceremony happens in person, since R.S. 35:623 excludes authentic acts from remote online notarization.

The grantor and grantee entries carry the full name, marital status, domicile, and permanent mailing address information that Civil Code article 3352 lists for the parish registry. The form recites one grantor signature, the pattern of a conveyance the grantor may make alone, such as separate property of a married owner or the property of an unmarried owner; where the property is community, Civil Code article 2347 calls for the concurrence of both spouses, a two signature pattern this form does not recite. The guide walks through the separate and community property rules with their citations.

Recording in the parish conveyance records

The completed act is filed for registry with the clerk of court of the parish where the property is located, and under Civil Code articles 3338 and 3347 it affects third persons only from the time of filing. The form follows the R.S. 13:844 layout standards: a caption on the first page, a two inch top margin on page one, one inch margins elsewhere, and letter size pages that stay inside the statute's flat fee schedule, which starts at one hundred dollars for an act of one to five pages before the add on fees individual parishes publish. Louisiana levies no statewide transfer tax on deeds; Orleans Parish collects its local documentary transaction tax at recording.

The purchase delivers the fillable warranty deed form, a completed example showing the act filled in for an East Baton Rouge Parish fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through each numbered section, the authentic act ceremony, and parish recording practice. The materials describe Louisiana law in general terms and are not legal advice.