Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're taking a scalpel to a really crucial, really high stakes legal document.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: It's one that a lot of people probably handle without thinking enough about it.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Exactly. We're talking about the Louisiana Eviction Notice form, specifically that five day notice to vacate. And whether you manage properties, you're an agent, or you're just, you know, curious about how this stuff actually works, this is essential because getting it wrong means you have to start all over.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: That phrase, starting over, that's the whole ball game right there. This document, this notice, it's the absolute foundation of the entire eviction process in Louisiana.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: It's non negotiable.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: It's completely non negotiable. It's the first step mandated by law, specifically the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, Article 47A1. You can't start without it.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: And that's the immediate risk we need to put right at the top for you. Our goal here is to give you the shortcuts, the key knowledge to avoid the number one reason eviction cases are dismissed, especially in a place like Baton Rouge. It's not some complex legal theory. It's usually, well, a simple mistake on.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: This form or, and this is the big one, a mistake in how it's delivered. And when a judge dismisses the case for that, the landlord doesn't just, you know, get a slap on the wrist. They are forced to restart the entire thing from scratch.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Which means what? In real terms, it means they lose.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Time and almost always they lose another full month's rent before they can even get back to court. So our mission here is to stop that from happening.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Okay, so let's unpack this five day notice to vacate.
We know it's a written document. You give a tenant for breaking the lease. But why five days? I mean, if rent's due on the first and it's late, isn't that just delaying the inevitable?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: That's a great question. And it really gets to the heart of due process.
The notice is your legal proof. It's you, the landlord showing the court you gave the tenant a fair chance to fix the problem or leave voluntarily before you drag them into the legal system.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: So it's mainly for non payment of rent.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: That's its most common use. Yeah, yeah. It acts as a legal trigger. It sets the stage for filing the actual lawsuit, which in Louisiana is called the rule to evict.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: So this is not just some informal warning letter. It's a formal legal stack.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: It absolutely is. It starts a clock, a very Specific clock.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: And since it's called the five day notice, let's talk about that clock because I have a feeling this is where the first mistakes happen. Does five days mean, you know, Monday to Friday?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: It means five calendar days, right?
[00:02:31] Speaker A: That would be my first guess and.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: It would be wrong. This is probably the single most critical detail any landlord in Louisiana needs to get right. The sources are absolutely clear on this.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:02:41] Speaker B: You only count business days, you do not count weekends. So no Saturdays, no Sundays, and you don't count any legal holidays.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Let's walk through a scenario because this is a big deal. If I served the notice on a Friday, I might think, okay, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
They have to be out by Wednesday.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: And if you filed your eviction on that Wednesday, the judge would dismiss it on the spot instantly. If you serve on Friday, business day one is Monday, day two is Tuesday, three is Wednesday, four is Thursday, five is the next Friday.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: So you can't even file the lawsuit until the following Monday.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: That's right. You can't file until the first business day after that fifth day is over.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: So a five day notice served on a Friday is really, I mean, it's effectively an eight day notice at least.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: And that detail is so, so important because if you miscalculate and file early, you've shortened the tenant's legal window. The court sees that as a violation of their rights.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: And the whole case is invalid.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: The whole thing is invalid. And think about holidays. A notice served on a Thursday before, say Thanksgiving weekend, That's not a five day notice. That could easily become a 10 or 11 day notice. Yeah, but you have to have that patience.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Okay, so timing is everything. Let's move to the form itself. This should be the easy part, right? Just filling in the blanks.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: It should be, but judges will still toss a case if the details are fuzzy or wrong.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: So what are the common mistakes there? The mandatory fields?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: The biggest one is a lack of specificity, especially about the money. The form has to be crystal clear. First, you need the full names of all adult tenants on the lease.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Not just the person who usually pays rent.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: No, everyone who signed that lease.
Second, the complete, totally accurate street address.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Of the property and the reason for the notice.
If it's for non payment, I can't just write you owe me money, right?
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Precisely. That's a classic case killing error. You have to state the total dollar amount of rent owed and the specific month or that money is for.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: So not just $1,200 past due?
[00:04:40] Speaker B: No, it has to be $1,200 due for the month of November 2024. That specificity turns a vague complaint into a verifiable fact for the court.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Makes sense. Then you just need the date of delivery and the landlord's signature or their agent's signature.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Yes. And here's another key point of confusion we should clear up. People always ask if this notice needs to be notarized.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Does it?
[00:05:00] Speaker B: The answer is no. The five day notice itself is just signed by the landlord. It does not need a notary. That's going to be really important in a minute.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Okay, this is where it gets really interesting, because our expert sources, people like Scott Frank, they all say the same thing. Filling out the form, that's the easy part.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: That's step one.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: It's step two, the service, the actual delivery of the notice. That's where most landlords in Baton Rouge lose their cases.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: This is the core problem. This is what we're trying to help you avoid. You could have a perfectly filled out form, a work of art, but if you can't prove you delivered it legally, that paper is worthless in court.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: And you mentioned Baton Rouge specifically.
Why is it so strict there?
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Well, because the courts there, we're talking the 19th Judicial District Court, the city court, they handle a massive number of these cases. They've seen every shortcut, every mistake.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: So they hold landlords to a very.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: High standard, an extremely high standard of technical compliance.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: They want ironclad proof that the tenant was properly notified. People think they can just, you know, stick it in the mail or tape.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: A note to the door.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Right. And if you just use standard mail or you tape it on there haphazardly, a judge is very likely to just throw the case out.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: So if standard mail doesn't work, what does Louisiana law actually allow?
What are the only two ways to do this? Right.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: There are only two methods. Method one is the gold standard, but it's often not practical, which is you hand the notice to the tenant personally in their hand.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: That leaves no doubt.
But what if the tenant is avoiding you? Which I imagine happens a lot, all the time.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: So that brings us to the second legal method, which is often called tacking.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Tacking.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: You can legally deliver it by posting it securely on the tenant's front door. And I mean the main entryway door, not a side door or screen door.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: But you said that's risky.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: It is risky. This is where Scott Frank's expertise is so important. He warns that if you don't do it absolutely, perfectly, you're in trouble.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: So what does absolutely Perfectly mean here. What's the difference between winning and losing with a piece of tape?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: It means you have to eliminate any possible excuse a tenant could use. So if you're tacking it, you make sure it's visible it's secured. Well, not with a single piece of tape. That can blow away. And it's right on that main door.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: And you have to prove you did that.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: You have to prove it.
The expert advice is to document everything.
Take a timestamp photo or even a video showing the notice on that specific door and at that specific time.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: So if the tenant says, oh, the wind must have blown it away, you.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Have evidence to counter that. It turns tacking from just, you know, a simple task into a verifiable legal action.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: It sounds like that moment of service. That's the highest leverage point in this entire process.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: It is. Because if the service fails, that five day clock never legally started.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Okay, so the form is perfect. You've delivered it perfectly using one of those two methods. How do you prove that to the judge? You can't just walk in and say, I swear I did it.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Exactly. And this brings us to the third piece of paper in this puzzle, and it's the key to winning. It's called the Affidavit of Service.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: The Affidavit of Service.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: This is your required proof. Without this document, the judge has zero evidence that you followed the law and that the clock ever started ticking.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Let's pause here because this is critical. We have the five day notice, which is the warning.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Then the rule to evict, which is the actual lawsuit.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: And now the Affidavit of Service.
We said the notice itself doesn't need to be notarized. Which of these does?
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Excellent clarification. The Affidavit of Service absolutely does need to be notarized.
It has to be a sworn statement from the person who served the notice detailing when, where, and how it was delivered. That notarized document is the powerful evidence the judge is looking for.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: This is making it very clear why using a professional process server like the ones operating as Baton Rouge process servers, is probably the safest bet.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: It's the ultimate insurance policy against getting your case dismissed on a technicality.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Because they handle both the delivery and the paperwork.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Exactly. A professional server knows the specific rules for their area. They know how strict the 19th JDC is. They know the difference between sloppy tacking and perfect provable delivery. And most importantly, they give you that legally required notarized affidavit of service.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: So they basically take on the whole burden of proving due process was followed.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Which is the exact hurdle where hundreds of landlords stumble, costing them thousands of dollars in lost rent and having to file over and over again.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Think about it this way.
Your case should be about the lease violation, not about whether you use the right kind of tape on a door.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: A professional service makes sure the case is about the facts, not a procedural.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Mistake that really connects all the dots. So for a Louisiana eviction to even get off the ground, you need three things.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Perfect three things.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: An accurate five day notice, legally compliant service, either personal or perfect tacking.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: And that service has to be backed up by that critical notarized affidavit of service.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: It transforms the whole act of service from just, you know, administrative chore into a certified legal step that satisfies the court.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Now, before we wrap, we do have to state the necessary legal disclaimer. Of course, this information is just for general informational purposes. It is not legal advice. Every situation is different. And you should always talk to a qualified Louisiana attorney about your specific case. So let's end on a final thought.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Okay? So if the entire success of this whole legal process hangs on the perfect delivery of one piece of paper, that moment of service, we have to ask, what does that very tight legal requirement incentivize? Does it inadvertently protect a tenant who just decides not to answer their door for five business days? What stands out to you?
