Art. 2293.Notice to Judgment Debtor; Appointment of Attorney

When the sheriff seizes immovable property, the first step is public notice. The sheriff files a notice of seizure in the mortgage records of the parish where the property sits, identifying the case's title and docket number, the court where it is pending, and a description of the property. That filing warns title examiners, prospective buyers, and other creditors that the property is caught up in an execution proceeding.

The sheriff then has to serve the judgment debtor, promptly, by personal or domiciliary service, the same methods used to serve citation, with written notice of the seizure and a list of what was seized. That notice includes the sale's time, date, and place, or, if the sale will run through an online auction under Article 2344, the auction's date, the time bidding opens, and the platform's electronic address. If the seizure involves residential property, the notice must also mention the availability of housing counseling services. When the debtor and any attorney of record cannot be found for service, the court appoints an attorney whose role is to receive service on the debtor's behalf, so the case does not proceed to sale with the debtor left entirely out of the loop.

Notice to the debtor is not the whole picture. The sheriff must also notify whoever occupies the seized property, who may be tenants rather than the debtor, that it has been seized, either by service directed to the occupants or, if that fails, by posting notice on the property's main entrance. Skipping this step does not undo the sale, but it does keep the eventual buyer from using the faster eviction procedure against occupants other than the debtor. For larger residential properties with more than ten units, the creditor may substitute a large posted sign, meeting specific size and wording requirements, supported by an affidavit confirming it was posted, in place of notifying each occupant individually. None of these occupant-notice rules apply to hotels, campgrounds, and similar transient lodging.

The sheriff must also notify certain other interested persons and file an affidavit naming who received notice and where it was sent, which the clerk treats as presumptively correct once filed. And the recorded notice of seizure does not last forever: it prescribes ten years after recordation unless reinscribed the same way a mortgage must be, and once that period runs, or once the underlying mortgage is cancelled and the required costs are paid, any interested party can have the notice of seizure cancelled from the public record.