Free Louisiana 5-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit

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The Louisiana notice to vacate is the notice a lessor must deliver before filing a rule for possession for nonpayment of rent. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4701 requires a written notice allowing the lessee not less than five days from delivery to vacate. Louisiana is a civil-law state with no statutory cure period, and the lease may waive the notice entirely. Build a compliant notice below.

5-Day Notice to Vacate La. C.C.P. art. 4701 Civil-Law Terms Free PDF

A Louisiana 5-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit is, in Louisiana’s own civil-law terms, a five-day notice to vacate for nonpayment of rent. It is the written notice a lessor must deliver before filing a rule for possession (an eviction) when the lessee has not paid rent. It is governed by La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4701, with delivery rules at art. 4703, the eviction procedure at art. 4731, and the substantive ground – dissolution of the lease for nonpayment – at La. Civ. Code art. 2704. Unlike common-law “pay-or-quit” states, Louisiana provides no statutory cure period: the notice is a demand to leave, though many lessors accept payment before filing. The form below produces a compliant notice to vacate; our Louisiana eviction notice laws guide covers the full process, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable tenants in the first place.

The Louisiana notice to vacate is the written notice a lessor must deliver to a lessee who has not paid rent, before the lessor may bring an eviction. In Louisiana the eviction lawsuit is a rule for possession under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4731. Without a properly-worded, properly-delivered notice to vacate – or a lease that validly waives it – no Louisiana court will order the lessee to give up possession.

The notice does three things in one document. First, it states the ground. Here the ground is nonpayment of rent. Under La. Civ. Code art. 2704, a lessee’s failure to pay rent is a ground to dissolve the lease. The notice tells the lessee, in plain terms, that the tenancy is being terminated for nonpayment and that the lessee is required to vacate.

Second, it fixes the vacate deadline. Art. 4701 requires the notice to allow the lessee not less than five days from delivery to vacate the premises. Those five days are a floor, not a cure window: Louisiana has no statutory right to pay and stay, so the deadline is the date by which the lessee must be out, not a date by which the lessee can save the tenancy by paying. In practice many Louisiana lessors will accept the past-due rent before filing, but the notice itself does not promise that.

Third, it identifies the parties and the premises precisely. The notice names the lessor (or authorized agent), names the lessee, and describes the leased premises with enough specificity that the same description can be carried into the rule for possession. Because the notice becomes the foundation of the eviction record, the identifications should be consistent with the lease and with the court caption. The form on this page assembles all three elements and prints the past-due amount and period for the lessee’s information, while wording the operative demand as a notice to vacate.

The Louisiana notice to vacate for nonpayment sits inside a civil-law framework that differs materially from the common-law “pay-or-quit” model used in most states. The core notice statute is La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4701, which requires a lessor who wants to end a tenancy – whether the lease term has expired or the lease is being terminated for cause such as nonpayment – to deliver a written notice to vacate allowing the lessee not less than five days from delivery to vacate.

The waiver provision is inside art. 4701 as well: the article expressly permits the lessee to waive the notice to vacate by written provision in the lease. Most Louisiana form leases include this waiver, and when they do the lessor may proceed directly to the rule for possession once the lessee’s right of occupancy has ended, without first delivering a five-day notice. This waiver is the single most important thing to check before you rely on the five-day timeline.

Delivery rules are at La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4703. The notice is delivered to the lessee, or to a person of suitable age and discretion residing on the premises; and where the lessee is absent from the premises, the notice may be affixed to a door of the premises. This door-affixing option is Louisiana’s answer to an absent lessee and does not require the elaborate substituted-service-plus-mail sequence some common-law states use.

The substantive ground – what actually entitles the lessor to end the lease – is at La. Civ. Code art. 2704, which makes a lessee’s failure to pay rent when due a basis for the lessor to obtain dissolution of the lease. A companion article, La. Civ. Code art. 2719, addresses dissolution for other lessee breaches. Nonpayment is the classic ground, and it does not carry a statutory cure period.

The eviction procedure begins with a rule for possession under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4731 and the articles following it. The lessor files a rule to show cause why the lessee should not be ordered to deliver up possession; the court sets a hearing not earlier than the third day after service; and if the lessor prevails, a judgment of eviction issues, enforced by a sheriff, constable, or marshal. One rule binds all of this together: the notice must fit Louisiana law. A notice that promises a cure Louisiana does not grant, that counts fewer than five days, or that cites another state’s pay-or-quit statute invites a defense at the rule for possession and can cost weeks.

Because Louisiana is the one U.S. state built on the civil-law tradition rather than the English common law, its landlord-tenant vocabulary and procedure differ from every other state. Understanding the translation prevents the most common errors.

Parties. Louisiana statutes call the property owner the lessor and the renter the lessee; the agreement is the lease and the rented property is the premises or the leased thing. The words landlord, tenant, and rental agreement are used colloquially and are understood by courts, but the operative instruments should track the Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure vocabulary.

The pre-eviction demand. In common-law states the demand is a “notice to pay rent or quit” that gives the tenant a set number of days to cure by paying or else surrender possession. Louisiana’s instrument is a notice to vacate under art. 4701. It is not a cure notice: it does not offer the lessee a statutory right to pay and stay. The five-day period is time to leave, not time to fix the default.

Why the slug still says “pay or quit.” Renters and small lessors overwhelmingly search for a “Louisiana 5-day notice to pay rent or quit,” using the familiar common-law phrase. This page is titled to meet that search, but the body, the form, and the generated PDF all use Louisiana’s correct term – a five-day notice to vacate for nonpayment. Using the correct instrument is what protects the eviction; the common-law label is only how people find it.

Art. 4701 requires the notice to allow the lessee not less than five days from delivery to vacate. Five days is a minimum; a lessor may allow more, and allowing more never hurts the notice. The counting mechanics come from the general computation rule in La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 5059.

The art. 5059 rule. When a period is expressed in days, the day of the act, event, or delivery that starts the period is not counted, while the last day of the period is counted. If the last day falls on a legal holiday, the period runs until the end of the next day that is not a legal holiday. Applied to a notice to vacate, this means you start counting the day after delivery and, if the fifth day lands on a legal holiday, the deadline rolls forward.

Worked example. A notice to vacate delivered by hand on a Monday, in a week with no holiday, does not count Monday; the five days run Tuesday through Saturday, and the lessee must vacate by the end of the fifth counted day. The lessor should not file the rule for possession until that day has fully passed.

Worked example with a holiday. If the fifth counted day falls on a Louisiana legal holiday – for example a day on which the clerk’s office is closed – art. 5059 rolls the deadline to the next non-holiday day. A notice that treats the holiday as the deadline is short by at least a day.

Why to count conservatively. Louisiana authorities are not uniform on every wrinkle of counting a short notice-to-vacate period – in particular, whether weekend days are excluded the way court-filing deadlines sometimes are, and exactly how the day of a door-affixed delivery is treated. Because a rule for possession filed too early is dismissed, the safe practice is to allow more than the bare five days: build in a cushion of a few calendar days beyond the fifth counted day. The extra time works in the lessee’s favor and creates no procedural defect, while protecting the lessor against any dispute over the count. The generator on this page computes a suggested vacate date five clear days after delivery and rolls off Louisiana legal holidays; treat the printed date as a floor and add cushion if you are near a weekend or holiday cluster.

Complete the form below to generate a compliant Louisiana notice to vacate for nonpayment. The form fixes a suggested vacate date at least five days after delivery, states the ground, prints the past-due amount and period for the lessee’s information, and records the delivery method under art. 4703. Confirm your lease’s waiver status before relying on the five-day timeline.

La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4703 sets out how a Louisiana notice to vacate is delivered. Louisiana does not require the multi-step substituted-service-plus-mail sequence of some common-law states; it provides a short list of practical methods and a door-affixing option for when the lessee is absent.

Record of delivery

Although Louisiana’s notice to vacate is less formal than a common-law proof of service, the lessor should keep a clear record of delivery: who delivered the notice, the date and time, the leased premises, and the method used (in person, to a person of suitable age, or affixed to the door). If the notice was affixed to a door, keep the date-stamped photograph. This record supports the rule for possession and answers any later dispute about whether and when the five-day period began.

Documentation retention

Retain the signed original notice, the delivery record, any photographs of a door-affixed posting, and a copy of the lease showing whether the notice to vacate was waived. If the rule for possession is filed, the notice and the delivery record become part of the court record. If the lessee pays before the filing and the lessor accepts, the documentation supports the resolution of the matter.

The most consequential feature of Louisiana’s notice-to-vacate rule is that it can be waived. Art. 4701 expressly allows the lessee to waive the notice to vacate by a written provision in the lease, and most Louisiana form leases include exactly such a clause. The waiver reshapes the timeline in two directions, so it must be checked before you rely on any five-day count.

If the lease waives notice. The lessor may file the rule for possession immediately once the lessee’s right of occupancy has ended – here, once the lease has been terminated for nonpayment. No five-day notice to vacate is required, and delivering one anyway does not hurt but is not necessary. A lessor with a waiver who nevertheless waits five days is simply giving the lessee time the law does not require.

If the lease does not waive notice. The five-day notice to vacate is mandatory. Skipping it, or counting fewer than five days from delivery, gives the lessee a defense at the rule for possession that can get the eviction dismissed and force the lessor to start over. Read the lease before assuming either path.

Once the five-day notice to vacate has expired – or immediately, if the lease waived it – the lessor’s next step is to file a rule for possession under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 4731. This is the Louisiana eviction lawsuit, and it is the only lawful way to remove a lessee.

Where it is filed. The rule for possession is filed in the court with jurisdiction over the parish where the premises are located – a justice of the peace court, a city court, or a district court, depending on the parish and the amount in dispute. The rule asks the court to order the lessee to show cause why possession should not be delivered up to the lessor.

The hearing. The court sets a hearing not earlier than the third day after the rule is served on the lessee. At the hearing the lessor proves the lease, the ground (nonpayment), and either proper delivery of the notice to vacate or a valid waiver. If the lessor prevails, the court renders a judgment of eviction.

Enforcement. A judgment of eviction is carried out by an officer of the court – a sheriff, constable, or marshal. A lessee who does not comply within the time the judgment allows faces a warrant of possession authorizing the officer to remove the lessee and the lessee’s belongings. The lessor may not perform the removal personally, change the locks, or shut off utilities; doing so breaches the duty to protect the lessee’s peaceful possession under La. Civ. Code art. 2682 and exposes the lessor to damages.

• Using a common-law pay-or-quit form. A form that promises a cure period, counts three days, or cites another state’s statute does not match Louisiana law. Use a notice to vacate under art. 4701 worded in civil-law terms.
• Ignoring the lease waiver. If the lease waives the notice to vacate, the lessor may file immediately; if it does not, a five-day notice is mandatory. Guessing wrong in either direction wastes time.
• Counting fewer than five days. Art. 4701 requires not less than five days from delivery. A short count gives the lessee a defense at the rule for possession.
• Mishandling an absent-lessee delivery. Where the lessee is absent, affix the notice to a door of the premises under art. 4703 and photograph it. Do not assume a mailing alone satisfies the article.
• Filing the rule for possession too early. Filing before the five-day period expires (absent a waiver) defeats the rule. Wait until the period has fully run.
• Self-help eviction. Changing locks, removing belongings, or cutting utilities is not lawful eviction in Louisiana and can make the lessor liable in damages under art. 2682. Only a court judgment and an officer may remove a lessee.
• Inconsistent party or premises identification. Name every lessee on the lease and describe the premises the same way in the notice and the rule for possession, so the record is clean.

Louisiana lessees served with a notice to vacate for nonpayment have meaningful rights, and understanding them explains why procedural precision protects the lessor.

Right to require lawful process. A lessee cannot be removed except by a judgment of eviction from a court and enforcement by an officer. If a lessor resorts to self-help – locking out the lessee, removing belongings, or cutting utilities – the lessee has a claim for breach of the duty of peaceful possession under La. Civ. Code art. 2682 and may recover damages. Right to contest the notice or waiver. At the rule for possession the lessee may argue that no valid notice to vacate was delivered, that fewer than five days were allowed, or that the lease did not in fact waive notice.

Right to be heard at the rule for possession. The lessee is entitled to a hearing set not earlier than the third day after service and may appear and raise defenses – for example that the rent was in fact paid, that the amount is disputed, or that the premises were uninhabitable. Practical opportunity to pay. Although Louisiana grants no statutory cure period, many lessors accept the past-due rent before filing the rule for possession; a lessee who can pay promptly should ask, because a lessor who accepts payment and drops the matter avoids the cost and delay of court.

Right against retaliatory or discriminatory conduct. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits eviction decisions based on protected characteristics, and Louisiana lessors remain bound by it. Right to habitability. A lessor’s obligations to maintain the leased thing are set by the Civil Code and the lease; a lessee facing eviction who has a genuine habitability dispute should raise it at the rule for possession rather than simply withholding rent, since Louisiana does not recognize a self-help rent strike as a defense in the same way some states do.

Local courts across Louisiana’s parishes apply these articles with some procedural variation in filing and hearing practice. Always verify the current text of the cited articles and confirm local rule-for-possession practice with the clerk of the applicable justice of the peace, city, or district court, and see our guide to Louisiana eviction procedure for the full process.

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