Breaking a lease in Louisiana

A fixed-term lease ends when its term expires, without notice. If the tenant stays on for one week after the term without a notice to vacate or other objection, the lease is reconducted month to month on the same terms. Louisiana gives servicemembers and some victims of abuse or sexual assault a right to end a lease early.

La. Civ. Code art. 2720 La. Civ. Code art. 2721 La. Civ. Code art. 2723

• An active or reserve servicemember (including the National Guard and Coast Guard), or the member's spouse, may end the lease on orders to move 35 miles or more, temporary duty orders of more than three months, discharge or retirement, orders to live in government quarters, or a service injury needing more than fifteen days in hospital, among other listed grounds. Written notice must take effect at least thirty days after it is served. La. R.S. 9:3261
• Before the termination date the servicemember must give you a copy of the official orders or a confirming letter from the commanding officer (or the listed proof of a hospitalization or death), and a lessor who violates this section owes $200 in damages on top of other remedies. La. R.S. 9:3261
• The servicemember then owes no more than one month's rent if under six months of the lease are complete, or half a month's rent otherwise, and gets the full deposit if the lease was otherwise followed. These rights cannot be waived. La. R.S. 9:3261
• A qualifying victim of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault may end the lease on an agreed date within thirty days of a written request. La. R.S. 9:3261.1 La. R.S. 9:3261.2 See Protections for victims of abuse and sexual assault on the Louisiana page
• A lease does not end when either party dies. La. Civ. Code art. 2717
• A reconducted lease is ended by the month-to-month notice. La. Civ. Code art. 2724 See Ending a month-to-month lease on the Louisiana page
• Unless the lease expressly prohibits it, the tenant may sublease or assign, a ban on one is treated as a ban on the others unless the lease says otherwise, a ban is read strictly against you, and a subtenant gets no greater rights than the tenant. La. Civ. Code art. 2713 La. Civ. Code art. 2713.1

Either side ends a month-to-month lease with written notice given at least ten calendar days before the end of a monthly period. The lease then ends at the end of the period named in the notice or, if none is named, at the end of the first period for which the notice was timely.

La. Civ. Code art. 2727 La. Civ. Code art. 2728 La. Civ. Code art. 2729

• A lease of a home with no agreed term is month to month. La. Civ. Code art. 2680
• For a lease measured by a period longer than a month, the notice is due thirty calendar days before the end of the period; for a weekly lease, five calendar days. La. Civ. Code art. 2728
• A tenant who surrenders possession by the notice deadline has given notice of termination. La. Civ. Code art. 2729
• If the lease reserves a right to end it early, the longer of the lease's notice and the Civil Code notice applies, and that right to notice cannot be given up in advance. La. Civ. Code art. 2718