Free tool · New Orleans
What does a squatter cost you in Louisiana?
Change the numbers to match your property. The rent is Louisiana's own, from HUD; how long it drags on is your call; everything else is yours to overwrite.
Louisiana estimate
$32,926
Your numbers.
These are national starting points, not claims about your property. The one figure that drives the total — how long it drags on — is yours to set. Nobody can source it, so we do not pretend to.
How long before you get it back?
6 months
Your assumption, not ours — courts do not publish how long this takes. A contested removal runs in months, not weeks, almost everywhere; how it goes in Louisiana is in the guide.
How many bedrooms?
Sets the rent from HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for New Orleans — $1,701/mo.
Mortgage / loan payment — per month
$
Only you know this one. The placeholder is roughly a $300k loan at current rates.
Lost rent or delayed sale — per month
$
HUD's Fair Market Rent for this metro, at the bedroom count you picked. It is the 40th percentile of recent-mover rents, so on a renovated or market-rate property it is a floor, not a valuation.
Attorney fees — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate — nothing published backs it. No state bar and no court in any of these markets publishes fee data for an ejectment. Get a written quote and put it here.
Property taxes — per month
$
Your bill, divided by twelve. The placeholder is roughly a $250k property at Philadelphia's 1.3998% — Newark runs 1.845%, Los Angeles 1.187%.
Insurance — per month
$
No public data exists. Our estimate. Vacant cover genuinely does cost more, but the published figures for how much more disagree by a factor of five — anywhere from +25% to 5x. Use your own premium.
Utilities — per month
$
A national placeholder, unless your state overrides it below — Philadelphia's is the Water Department's own published bill. Whoever is inside, you are the ratepayer of record.
Damage and clean-out — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate, and we want to be blunt: NO government body in the United States publishes squatter-damage data. Every figure you have seen quoted traces to one news story or to a lobby survey that counted houses, not dollars. We are not going to launder a number we cannot stand behind — put yours here.
If it happens in Louisiana
$32,926
at 6 months— and every extra month adds $4,071.
Against a $0–$120k range, so the bar means something as you drag.
Carrying it, empty ($4,071/mo × 6 mo)
$24,426
One-off costs (attorney, damage)
$8,500
What ruins you is the carry — the months. On top of this you will pay to file, for the sheriff to serve and remove, and for a lawyer. Those are set locally and we do not print a number we cannot cite — but next to the months, they are a sliver.
Can you get any of it back? NO (for a squatter). Louisiana follows the American Rule. The eviction articles (C.C.P. arts. 4731-4735) contain no provision shifting attorney's fees to a prevailing owner, and the residential fee remedies that do exist hinge on a written lease or a statutory rent demand — neither of which a squatter is party to.. This is an inference from statutory silence plus Louisiana's default American Rule, not an affirmative fee bar. Where a written lease provides for fees, or in a residential rent-nonpayment case, a prevailing landlord may recover reasonable attorney's fees — but a squatter has neither a lease nor a rent obligation, so those paths do not reach him. Not attorney-reviewed; confirm with Louisiana counsel.
Why Louisiana costs what it does
Louisiana removes squatters through a summary court eviction, not a sheriff acting on the owner's sworn word. The owner first serves a five-day written notice to vacate, then files a "rule to show cause" in court. The judge hears it no sooner than three days after service and, if the owner wins, signs a judgment of eviction that same day. Only after 24 hours pass does the court issue a warrant sending the sheriff to remove the occupant.
How you must remove them
summary
“The court shall make the rule returnable not earlier than the third day after service thereof, at which time the court shall try the rule and hear any defense which is made. B. If the court finds the lessor or owner entitled to the relief sought, or if the lessee or occupant fails to answer or to appear at the trial, the court shall render immediately a judgment of eviction ordering the lessee or occupant to deliver possession of the premises to the lessor or owner.”
Louisiana removes through a summary court proceeding (C.C.P. arts. 4731-4733), not a sheriff acting on the owner's affidavit. One unresolved wrinkle: whether a pure squatter (no permission) is an 'occupant' under C.C.P. art. 4704, which defines the term around a person occupying 'by permission or accommodation of the owner.' R.S. 14:63(C)(2)(a)(i) assumes an occupant can be served under arts. 4702/4703, but no Louisiana appellate decision resolving it was found. If a squatter falls outside 'occupant,' an owner could be pushed toward a possessory/ordinary action instead. Not attorney-reviewed.
The statute
La. R.S. 14:63 — criminal trespass. Since Acts 2024, No. 652 (SB 466), the statute names and defines a 'squatter' and makes remaining after a lawful possessor's direction to vacate a crime — but only a misdemeanor (up to 30 days, no hard labor, on a first offense).
“"Squatter" means any person who remains in or upon property to which the person lacks a right of possession, ownership, occupancy, or a lease interest.”
The definition is scoped 'For purposes of this Subsection' (the criminal trespass subsection); it does not itself declare a squatter is not a tenant for eviction purposes. The offense is a misdemeanor, and Louisiana limits warrantless misdemeanor arrest (C.Cr.P. art. 213(A)(1) vs. (A)(3)) — the arrestability question is unsettled on the statute's face. Not attorney-reviewed.
Rent, by bedroom
1 bed $1,113 · 2 bed $1,331 · 3 bed $1,701 · 4 bed $1,996
FY2026 (effective Oct. 1, 2025)
All four figures confirmed verbatim against HUD's own FY2026 FMR Documentation System table for the New Orleans-Metairie, LA HUD Metro FMR Area (Efficiency $964 / 1BR $1,113 / 2BR $1,331 / 3BR $1,701 / 4BR $1,996). This is the metro-wide FMR covering Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, and St. John the Baptist parishes; zip-level Small Area FMRs run higher and are not what is cited here. The entry cited the FY2026_FMR_Schedule.pdf, which was not directly fetchable; verification was performed against HUD's Documentation System page, which displays the identical table.
Do you get your legal fees back?
NO (for a squatter). Louisiana follows the American Rule. The eviction articles (C.C.P. arts. 4731-4735) contain no provision shifting attorney's fees to a prevailing owner, and the residential fee remedies that do exist hinge on a written lease or a statutory rent demand — neither of which a squatter is party to.
This is an inference from statutory silence plus Louisiana's default American Rule, not an affirmative fee bar. Where a written lease provides for fees, or in a residential rent-nonpayment case, a prevailing landlord may recover reasonable attorney's fees — but a squatter has neither a lease nor a rent obligation, so those paths do not reach him. Not attorney-reviewed; confirm with Louisiana counsel.
Is there a fast sheriff route?
NO. Louisiana has no sheriff-on-affidavit removal. The sheriff acts only on a warrant the court issues after it has rendered a judgment of eviction — there is no route where the owner's sworn page alone puts anyone out of a building.
“If the lessee or occupant does not comply with the judgment of eviction within twenty-four hours after its rendition, the court shall issue immediately a warrant directed to and commanding its sheriff, constable, or marshal to deliver possession of the premises to the lessor or owner.”
A judge signs before the sheriff moves, so Louisiana does not commoditize the verification problem — the owner still must prove ownership. Read the full statute set (arts. 4731-4735) in full on 2026-07-14; no affidavit-only bypass of the Florida/Texas/Georgia kind was found. No survey of pending legislation was undertaken.
This is the bill for finding out too late.
Nothing on this page will get an occupant out, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. What DeedProof does is earlier and duller: it verifies you own the property, structures the statement you swear before a notary, and files it — so that if someone does break in, the officer at the door has something to work from instead of a lease they cannot check.
The decision still belongs to the officer. Our job is to make it an easy one.
This page is the money. The law behind it is on Louisiana’s guide — whether police can arrest, whether a sheriff can act on your affidavit alone, and how long occupation takes to become a claim. Every answer quoted from the statute.