Free Louisiana Commercial Lease Agreement Template

A Louisiana commercial lease agreement rents non-residential property — a storefront, an office, a warehouse, a restaurant space — to a lessee who will run a business there. Louisiana calls the parties lessor and lessee, and governs the relationship through Title IX of the Civil Code rather than through the landlord-tenant statutes every other state uses.

That difference is not cosmetic. Concepts like reconduction have no counterpart elsewhere, and they change what happens when a tenant simply stays put.

Two mechanisms do most of the work: how a fixed term ends, and what happens if nobody acts.

Reconduction After a Fixed Term

Civil Code Art. 2720 provides that a lease with a fixed term ends when the term expires, without need of notice, unless it is reconducted or extended.

Art. 2721 then sets out when reconduction happens. Where the term expires and, without notice to vacate or terminate or other opposition by either party, the lessee remains in possession, the lease is reconducted after 30 days for an agricultural lease, after one week for other leases with a fixed term longer than a week, and after one day where the fixed term is a week or shorter.

One week is a short runway for a commercial tenancy. Art. 2723 fixes the new term: a reconducted nonagricultural lease runs from month to month where the original term was a month or longer, and from day to day where it was at least a day but shorter than a month. Under Art. 2724 every other provision of the lease continues on that new term.

Notice Periods for an Indeterminate Term

Art. 2727 applies to a lease with an indeterminate term, including a reconducted one. Art. 2728 sets the timing: 30 calendar days before the end of the period where the term is measured by a period longer than a month; ten calendar days before the end of the month in a month-to-month lease; five calendar days where the period is a week or longer but shorter than a month; and at any time before expiry where the period is shorter than a week.

Art. 2729 requires the notice to be in writing where the leased thing is an immovable. Surrender of possession at the time notice would be due counts as the lessee’s notice.

Not in advance. Civil Code Art. 2718 covers a lease in which one or both parties have reserved the right to terminate early. Such a lease may be terminated by giving either the notice specified in the contract or the notice in Arts. 2727 through 2729, whichever period is longer — and the article states plainly that the right to receive this notice may not be renounced in advance.

Two further rules matter for a business tenant. Art. 2717 provides that a lease does not terminate on the death of the lessor or lessee, or on the cessation of existence of a juridical person that is a party to it, so a corporate restructuring does not end the lease by itself. And under Art. 2719, where a party fails to perform its obligations, the other may obtain dissolution under the rules on conventional obligations.

1. Settle the rent, the escalation basis, the term, and where insurance, tax, and repair duties sit.
2. Diary the expiry date and the week that follows it, because that week is what triggers reconduction.
3. If you want the tenancy to end cleanly, give notice to vacate or terminate before the term runs out.
4. Where you reserve an early-termination right, set a notice period at least as long as Art. 2728 would require.
5. Sign the lease in writing, and keep the notice provisions somewhere you will actually look at them.

The Civil Code supplies default rules, and a Louisiana commercial lease agreement displaces most of them. Cover:

• Legal names of lessor and lessee, and the entity behind each signature.
• A description of the leased thing, including any shared or common areas.
• Rent, when it is payable, and the basis for increases.
• A fixed term with a stated expiry date.
• What happens at expiry, including whether either side intends reconduction.
• Allocation of taxes, insurance, utilities, and repairs.
• Any reserved right to terminate early, with its own notice period.