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

If you do not make a necessary repair within a reasonable time after the tenant demands it, the tenant may have it made and either demand immediate reimbursement or deduct the cost from rent, to the extent the repair was necessary and the cost reasonable (La. Civ. Code art. 2694).

• If the home is partly destroyed or its use is substantially impaired without the tenant's fault, the tenant may get a rent reduction or dissolution of the lease, whichever fits the circumstances, and damages if you were at fault, but only dissolution when the cause is outside the home, and a total loss without either side's fault ends the lease with no damages owed (La. Civ. Code art. 2715; La. Civ. Code art. 2714).
• When a tenant has been constructively evicted and the home was made uninhabitable through no fault of the tenant, you must mitigate your damages (La. R.S. 9:3260).

Unless the lease expressly prohibits it, the tenant has the right to sublease the home or assign the lease. A lease clause that bans subleasing, assigning or encumbering is treated as banning all three unless the lease shows a different intent, and any other limit of that kind is read strictly against you (La. Civ. Code art. 2713).

• A subtenant or assignee gets no greater right to use the home than the tenant has, unless legislation provides otherwise (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).

Return the deposit within one month after the lease ends. You may keep only what is reasonably necessary to remedy the tenant's default or unreasonable wear to the home. If you keep any part, send the tenant an itemized statement of what you kept and why within one month after the tenancy ends, or within fifteen days after that one-month date (La. R.S. 9:3251).

• The tenant must give you a forwarding address when the lease ends so the statement can be sent there. The one-month clock runs from the end of the lease, not from receiving the address (La. R.S. 9:3251).
• These return rules do not apply when the tenant abandons the home without giving the required notice or before the lease ends (La. R.S. 9:3251).
• A willful failure to follow the return rules lets the tenant recover the amount wrongfully kept plus $300 or twice that amount, whichever is greater. Failing to pay within thirty days after the tenant's written demand for a refund counts as willful (La. R.S. 9:3252).
• The tenant may sue in the parish where you are domiciled or where the property is, and the court may award costs and attorney fees to whichever side wins (La. R.S. 9:3252; La. R.S. 9:3253).