Can a Louisiana affidavit transfer a house?

Yes. Both movable and immovable property can be transferred by affidavit, and the immovable property does not have to be the decedent's residence or even residential at all.

What is the 20-year rule?

A succession involving Louisiana property may qualify regardless of value when the decedent died at least twenty years before the affidavit is executed. Act 293 left that rule unchanged.

Who signs the small succession affidavit?

The surviving spouse, if there is one, plus at least one competent adult heir, or two adult heirs if the decedent was unmarried. It is sworn before a notary, and no judicial approval is required.

Is there a waiting period in Louisiana?

Yes, when the succession includes immovable property. The heirs must wait 90 days from the date of death before filing the affidavit.

Louisiana Small Succession Affidavit: The 2026 Increase

General information, not legal advice. Louisiana succession law differs fundamentally from the probate law of other states, and the threshold changed in August 2026. Consult a Louisiana succession attorney for anything beyond a simple case.

Louisiana is its own legal world: there is no probate here, there are successions, and the small succession affidavit is a civil law instrument rather than a common law one. Two things set it apart from every other state on this site. It can transfer a house directly, and as of August 1, 2026 the threshold rose from $125,000 to $200,000.

Check the Louisiana threshold ↓

Why the vocabulary is different

Louisiana is the one state whose private law descends from the French and Spanish civil codes rather than English common law, and estate matters carry that inheritance. The estate is a succession. Property is not real and personal but immovable and movable. Heirs may be forced heirs, a concept with no common law equivalent. So a family arriving with advice picked up in Texas or Mississippi will find the terminology does not map, and neither do the procedures. The small succession affidavit lives in Code of Civil Procedure articles 3421 and following, and it is the most common way modest Louisiana estates are settled.

Act 293 and the new $200,000 figure

The 2026 Regular Session changed the arithmetic for a great many families. Act 293 amended article 3421(1) to raise the gross value threshold from $125,000 to $200,000 for a person who died domiciled in Louisiana, effective August 1, 2026. Consider an estate of $175,000, a home plus a little else: under the old figure it was excluded outright, and now it may qualify. Two limits on the change are worth noting precisely. It does not touch the separate $125,000 threshold that applies to certain ancillary successions of people who died domiciled outside Louisiana, and it leaves the twenty-year rule untouched.

The affidavit reaches immovable property

This is the feature that most distinguishes Louisiana from the states covered elsewhere on this site. Both movable and immovable property can be transferred by affidavit, meaning the house itself moves without a judicial proceeding. The immovable does not have to be the decedent's primary residence, and it does not even have to be residential; a camp, a lot, or farmland can pass the same way. Where immovable property is involved, the heirs must wait ninety days from the date of death before filing. Since 2024, the affidavit route is also available where the person left a valid will meeting certain requirements, which widened access considerably from the older intestate-only framing.

Who signs, and what qualifying really buys you

The affidavit is signed by the surviving spouse, if there is one, together with at least one competent adult heir, or by two adult heirs where the decedent was unmarried, and sworn before a notary. No judicial approval is required and it takes effect on filing. But qualifying as a small succession is only the first step, not an automatic exemption from court. Article 3431 sets out the circumstances in which judicial opening is unnecessary, and heirs who disagree, unresolved creditor issues, or a title that must be cleared for a sale can each pull the matter back into a judicial succession. Even then, qualifying as a small succession substantially reduces court costs, so the classification is worth establishing either way.

Louisiana small succession questions

What is the threshold?: Effective August 1, 2026, Act 293 raised it from $125,000 to $200,000 gross for a person who died domiciled in Louisiana, under C.C.P. art. 3421.
Can it transfer a house?: Yes. Both movable and immovable property can pass by affidavit, and the immovable need not be a residence.
What is the 20-year rule?: A succession may qualify regardless of value when the decedent died at least twenty years before the affidavit is executed. Act 293 left it unchanged.
Who signs it?: The surviving spouse, if any, plus at least one competent adult heir, or two adult heirs if unmarried, sworn before a notary. No judicial approval is needed.
Is there a waiting period?: Ninety days from the date of death, but only when the succession includes immovable property.

Written by the Trámites Notariales US editorial team, based on La. C.C.P. arts. 3421 and 3431 and Act 293 of the 2026 Regular Session. Louisiana succession law is distinct; consult a Louisiana attorney.