In Louisiana, deeds (usually called acts of sale), mortgages, liens, and other recorded acts affecting land are kept by the clerk of court of the parish where the property is located, because every clerk also serves as that parish's recorder of conveyances and mortgages. You can search those records at the clerk's office for free, through the clerks' eClerks LA portal, or through a parish subscription system. Property values come from the parish assessor, and outside Orleans the sheriff collects the property tax.
The clerk of court is the parish recorder
The Louisiana Constitution makes each parish's clerk of the district court "ex officio notary public and parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts" (art. V, §28). State law sets up, in every parish, one office for recording mortgages and privileges and one for conveyances and transfers of immovable property, and names the district clerks as the ex officio recorders (La. R.S. 44:71). So the same office that keeps court cases also keeps the land records, usually in a separate recording or mortgage department.
The Civil Code sorts what gets recorded into two sets of books. Instruments that create or relate to a mortgage or privilege over immovable property go in the mortgage records of the parish where the property is located, and all other instruments go in that parish's conveyance records (art. 3346(A)). That is why a title search checks two indexes: conveyances show who has owned the land, and mortgages show what debts and liens attach to it. When a sale is recorded, the act must also name the person responsible for property taxes and the address for tax notices (La. R.S. 9:2721(A)).
Recorded originals generally stay with the clerk. The Grant Parish clerk's recording page says original documents sent to the recorder are not returned to the sender because they become part of the parish archives, and the Orleans clerk keeps recorded documents for binding into books. Either office can sell you a certified copy.
Clerk, assessor, or sheriff: who has what
Property questions in Louisiana often involve three different elected offices. Knowing which one holds what saves a trip.
| You need | Office | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A deed, act of sale, donation, mortgage, lien, or cancellation | Clerk of court (parish recorder) | Recorded instruments are filed in the conveyance and mortgage records (R.S. 44:71; C.C. art. 3346) |
| The assessed value of a property | Parish assessor | Each assessor determines the fair market value of taxable property in the parish (Const. art. VII, §18) |
| To pay or check a property tax bill outside Orleans | Sheriff | The sheriff is ex officio collector of state and parish taxes, except in Orleans (Const. art. V, §27; R.S. 13:5539) |
| To pay a property tax bill in Orleans | City of New Orleans Bureau of Treasury | Payments go to City Hall, 1300 Perdido Street, Room 1W40, according to the city |
The homestead exemption is a good example of the split. The constitution exempts a bona fide homestead from state, parish, and special property taxes "to the extent of seven thousand five hundred dollars of the assessed valuation" (art. VII, §20), and in Orleans the City of New Orleans says the assessor approves exemptions, including the homestead exemption, before certifying the tax roll to the city's treasurer. Assessments can be reviewed first by the parish governing authority, then by the Louisiana Tax Commission, and finally by the courts (art. VII, §18(E)). The Louisiana courts overview covers the courts that review assessments last. For more on those offices, see Louisiana tax assessors, Louisiana sheriff's offices, and Louisiana parish government.
Searching land records online
eClerks LA. The Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority runs eClerks LA under La. R.S. 13:754. eClerks LA says its Statewide Portal "debuted on November 9, 2015 with Land Record indices" and now lets users search all 64 parishes at once. The portal search is free but requires an account login. Viewing and printing document images usually requires a subscription to an individual parish's system, bought through eClerks LA's Parish Search. eClerks LA also offers a free "eClerks Alert" service that it describes as monitoring for land and criminal records.
Parish systems. Coverage and prices differ by parish. As posted on the clerks' sites in October 2026:
| Parish | Online land records | Price listed |
|---|---|---|
| Rapides | RAPID E-Search: conveyance and mortgage indexes and images from January 1984, older recording indexes and documents from January 1865, tax roll from tax year 1987 | $20.00 per day, $60.00 per month, $600.00 per year, plus printing |
| Avoyelles | eSearch (Cott Systems): mortgages, conveyances, and other recorded documents | $20.00 day pass, $75.00 monthly, $800 annual, $1.00 per page printed |
| Vernon | Cott Systems: mortgages, judgments, and conveyances (the clerk's page gives start years of both 1961 and 1971) | $20.00 per day, $100.00 per month, $1,000.00 per year, $1.00 per copy plus a card service charge |
| Natchitoches | Clerk Connect: conveyances from December 2, 1949; mortgages and oil and gas from January 1, 1986 | Fees shown on the Clerk Connect site |
| LaSalle | Moved its online land records to eClerks LA, live August 8, 2022 | Through eClerks LA |
The parish pages for the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court, Avoyelles Parish Clerk of Court, and Vernon Parish Clerk of Court link each office's system. For any other parish, start from the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Searching at the courthouse and ordering copies
Online systems often do not reach back as far as the paper. The Grant Parish clerk's Research Department, for example, says property transactions, mineral leases, chattel records, UCC filings, and subdivision maps are accessible through a written index and on computer, dating back to 1843, and that staff are available to help. The Orleans clerk has public search computers and older mortgage books in its office. The Vernon clerk offers genealogy research at the office, where most records begin in 1871. The Grant Parish Clerk of Court page has that office's details.
Some practical rules apply in every parish. Examining a public record is free; only copies cost money (R.S. 44:32(C)). Clerks set their own reproduction procedures, and placing your own imaging or photocopying equipment in a clerk's office is prohibited unless a court orders it (R.S. 44:32(C)(1)(b), (c)). The Orleans Land Records Division says photographic and scanning equipment is strictly prohibited there.
Certifying a recorded document can cost more than certifying a court record. The Rapides clerk listed recording copies at $1.00 per page plus $10.00 for certification, and the Avoyelles clerk listed copies at $1.00 per page and certified copies at $10.00 plus the copy fee (both October 2026). If you need a certified copy of your deed, bring or send the names of the buyer and seller, the approximate date, and the book and page or instrument number if you have it.
Mortgage certificates are a separate product. The Orleans clerk describes them as providing lien information for up to the past 30 years for a requested property and names. The Grant clerk requires certificate requests in writing (fax or email accepted), asks for the names to check and the legal property description, and notes that a mortgage certificate is not a title opinion and does not say who actually owns the property. In Orleans, the clerk's Land Records FAQ says a title company has prepared certificates on the office's behalf since February 5, 2018.
Recording a document
Recording is how a sale, mortgage, or cancellation becomes part of the public record. You can usually record in person, by mail, or electronically:
- eRecording. The Avoyelles clerk has accepted eRecordings since July 1, 2021. The Rapides clerk lists CSC eRecording on its eRecording page, and its home page announced an eClerks LA eRecording partnership in March 2026. The Vernon clerk lists four eRecording vendors. LaSalle publishes an eClerks LA eRecording quick start guide.
- Fees. Each clerk posts its recording fees. The Avoyelles clerk's schedule, which it says follows Act 173 of 2017, listed $105 for 1 to 5 pages, $205 for 6 to 25 pages, and $305 for 26 to 50 pages, including up to 10 names, a certified copy, and the LCRAA portal fee (October 2026).
- Cancellations. The Orleans Land Records FAQ (updated August 21, 2026) explains that removing a paid-off mortgage from the public records means bringing the lender's release paperwork to the Land Records Division. It lists $50.00 to release a mortgage and $13.00 more for an optional Certificate of Cancellation, and says a cancellation request cannot be recorded electronically.
Orleans Parish property records
Orleans once had three separate offices for land records: the Recorder of Mortgages, the Register of Conveyances, and the Custodian of Notarial Archives. The clerk of court for the parish of Orleans says consolidation took effect on January 1, 2009, and that it has completed the process; its unified index runs from February 18, 2014 forward. All Orleans land records, including sales, mortgages, building contracts, and judgments of possession, are now recorded in the Land Records Division at 1340 Poydras Street, 4th floor. The clerk's FAQ lists office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, while its home page announces 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours starting November 9, 2026.
What the Orleans clerk's pages say about searching:
- Public search computers on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors cover the mortgage, conveyance, and unified indexes. You can search by name, municipal address, filing date, document type, or legal description (district, square, lot).
- Electronic mortgage indexes run from September 1, 1987; older mortgage records are in books at the office.
- The Online Records subscription includes the land records index from February 18, 2014 with images from 2005, plus older mortgage and conveyance indexes. It cost $20.00 for 24 hours, $100.00 for 30 days, or $700.00 for a year in October 2026.
- Certification of a recorded document costs $30.00 per document plus copies, and an ID is required only to get a copy of a military discharge.
- To learn who owns a property, the clerk suggests searching by address or legal description, or checking the assessor's website.
Historical research in Orleans reaches into the colonial era. The Notarial Archives Research Center at 1340 Poydras Street, Suite 360, holds notarial records from 1735 to July 1970, and the conveyance indexes run back to 1827. Orleans also has a city documentary transaction tax on documents affecting property there, which the clerk's FAQ explains. Property taxes in Orleans are paid to the City of New Orleans, not the sheriff. See the Orleans Parish Clerk of Court page for current contacts.