Louisiana Property Law Is Different from Every Other State
If you own property in Louisiana, the rules governing your boundaries, your rights over adjacent land, and your options when a dispute arises are not the same as in neighboring Mississippi, Texas, or Arkansas. Louisiana is the only U.S. state governed by Civil Law, a system rooted in the French and Spanish legal traditions that shaped the colony before it became a state in 1812.
That legal distinction is not an abstraction. It shapes how property descriptions are written, how boundary disputes are resolved, and what a licensed Professional Land Surveyor must understand to do their job correctly in Louisiana.
The Civil Law Tradition and What It Means for Property
Common law, used in every other U.S. state, developed from English legal tradition and relies heavily on case law, precedent, and doctrines like adverse possession and fence line acquiescence to resolve property disputes over time. Louisiana's Civil Law system is codified in the Louisiana Civil Code, a direct descendant of the Napoleonic Code. Courts in Louisiana look primarily to the code text and Civil Law scholarship, not to common law precedent.
For property owners, the most important practical difference is how boundary disputes are handled. In a common law state, a fence in place for decades might eventually be recognized as the legal boundary through acquiescence or adverse possession. In Louisiana, the mechanism for fixing a disputed boundary is a formal legal process called a boundary action, governed by Louisiana Civil Code Article 784. A boundary action requires the parties to have the boundary determined and fixed, either by agreement with the help of a surveyor or by court judgment. Informal agreements, long-standing fences, and physical occupation do not automatically create legal title in Louisiana the way they can in common law states.
Louisiana Civil Code Art. 784 and the Boundary Action
Louisiana CC Art. 784 provides that every owner has the right to compel their neighbor to fix the boundary between their estates. This is a positive right: either party can initiate a boundary action, and the court can appoint a surveyor to determine the true line if the parties cannot agree. The surveyor's determination, confirmed by the court, establishes a legally binding boundary that is recorded in the parish conveyance records.
This process is meaningfully different from a common law fence dispute. A property owner in Louisiana who believes a neighbor has encroached on their land does not simply file a lawsuit claiming adverse possession. They initiate a boundary action, which leads to a formal survey and a recorded judgment fixing the line. A licensed PLS who understands this process can document their survey in a way that supports that legal outcome.
The Arpent System in Louisiana Surveys
Louisiana was surveyed during the French and Spanish colonial periods using measurement systems different from the Township and Range system used to survey most of the continental U.S. The arpent, roughly 192 feet, was the basic unit of linear measurement. Colonial lots were often laid out as long, narrow strips running back from a river, bayou, or road, with frontage measured in arpents.
The French long-lot pattern is still visible in aerial views of the river parishes along the Mississippi and along Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Teche. Deeds for properties in these areas, some of which date back to the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, describe boundaries in arpents of front and depth. A licensed PLS researching one of these descriptions must translate the historic measurements into modern coordinates, cross-check them against recorded plats, and reconcile any gaps or overlaps with adjacent deeds.
Parishes where arpent descriptions are most commonly encountered include St. Charles, St. James, Assumption, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and portions of Lafayette and St. Martin. Properties in these areas require surveyors with specific experience in historic Louisiana land records.
The Role of LAPELS
The Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board (LAPELS) licenses all Professional Land Surveyors practicing in Louisiana. Under Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 37, only a LAPELS-licensed PLS can legally establish, describe, or monument property boundaries in the state. Signing or sealing a survey plat without a PLS license is a violation of state law.
LAPELS sets the education, examination, and continuing education requirements for licensure, investigates complaints against licensees, and can revoke or suspend licenses for cause. If you have questions about whether a surveyor is currently licensed, the LAPELS website provides a public license lookup. All surveyors listed in our Louisiana directory are sourced from active LAPELS records.
Surveying in Coastal and Wetland Areas
South Louisiana presents surveying conditions unlike any other part of the country. Large areas of Terrebonne, Plaquemines, Lafourche, and St. Mary parishes are actively subsiding and losing land to coastal erosion and sea-level rise. Wetland boundaries shift with changes in hydrology, storm damage, and saltwater intrusion. Surveying in these areas requires specialized equipment, often including GPS systems capable of working in open marsh, and sometimes requires boat access to reach property corners.
For properties near the Gulf Coast or in active wetland systems, a licensed PLS with specific coastal survey experience is not just preferable but often essential. The technical and legal complexity of establishing corners in these environments is significantly greater than in upland areas.
Property Lines Near Waterways
The Louisiana Civil Code governs property rights adjacent to waterways, and the rules vary depending on whether the water body is navigable. For navigable waterways, the state owns the bed, and private ownership runs to the bank or shore. For non-navigable waterways, adjacent landowners may own to the centerline. Accretion (land added by gradual water deposit) and erosion (land lost the same way) affect where the boundary lies over time, and surveying these boundaries requires knowledge of both the physical changes and the applicable Civil Code provisions.
The Mississippi River corridor is the most prominent example, but these rules apply along bayous, lakes, and coastal waters throughout the state. If your property borders any body of water in Louisiana, hire a PLS with specific experience in Louisiana riparian and littoral boundary law.
Find a Licensed Surveyor in Louisiana
Hiring the right professional makes a real difference in Louisiana's complex property environment. Our Louisiana surveyor directory lists LAPELS-licensed professionals by parish, so you can find an experienced local surveyor equipped to handle Louisiana's Civil Law system, historic arpent descriptions, and coastal survey conditions.