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Rent-to-Own Rights

Rent-to-Own Laws in Louisiana: Your Rights

Louisiana's Rental-Purchase Agreement Act bars a store from entering your home or breaching the peace to repossess, gives you reinstatement rights that grow once you've paid two-thirds or more, and enforces violations as civil unfair-trade practices. Missing payments isn't a crime.

What Louisiana's rental-purchase law generally provides

Can you be charged with a crime?
Not for the debt, but keeping the item and refusing to return it can be charged as theft.
Can they enter your home?
No home entry without your permission
Getting it back (reinstatement)
Yes
Paid enough to own it?
You acquire ownership by completing the disclosed total of payments. Louisiana requires fees such as late, default, pickup, and reinstatement charges to be separately disclosed in your contract (La. R.S. §9:3355).
Fee caps
Louisiana requires late, default, pickup, and reinstatement fees to be separately disclosed in the contract (La. R.S. §9:3355); the sections reviewed don't set a single fixed dollar cap, so read your agreement's fee terms closely.
Owe a balance after repossession?
Not allowed

These describe what the statute says. Your own contract and the facts of your situation can affect how they apply.

Verified against Louisiana Rental-Purchase Agreement Act (La. R.S. §§ 9:3351–9:3362) on .

Louisiana’s rent-to-own rules live in its Rental-Purchase Agreement Act, which sets clear limits on what a store can do when you fall behind.

Can the store come into my home?

No. A rental-purchase agreement in Louisiana can’t authorize the store to enter your premises without your contemporaneous permission or commit a breach of the peace in repossession (La. R.S. §9:3356). The same section bars confessions of judgment, wage assignments, security interests, and clauses that make you waive your claims or defenses. A store that can’t repossess peacefully has to use the courts.

Can I be arrested for not paying?

No. Falling behind is a civil matter. Louisiana treats violations of its rental-purchase law as civil prohibited practices under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act (La. R.S. §9:3361), aimed at the store, not at customers who miss payments.

Can I be charged with theft for keeping the item?

Keeping the item is a separate question. Louisiana makes it a crime for a lessee to intentionally fail to return a leased movable after the lease ends (La. R.S. §14:220.1). Not returning the item within 15 calendar days (or the lease term, whichever is less) after a written notice sent by registered or certified mail is presumptive evidence that the failure was intentional. The penalty is a fine of up to $500 or up to 6 months if the item is worth less than $1,000, and up to $2,000 or up to 2 years if it is worth $1,000 or more.

This is about ignoring a proper demand, not about being behind and trying to catch up. If you decide to walk away, returning the item, or responding to the notice, is what keeps you clear of it.

Reinstatement, and a boost at two-thirds paid

If you fall behind, you can reinstate without losing rights you’d already earned (La. R.S. §9:3357). While you still have the item, you can catch up within 5 days of the renewal date on monthly agreements (or 2 days on more frequent ones). If the item was returned, you get at least 21 days after the return to reinstate, stretching to at least 45 days if you’d already paid two-thirds or more. To reinstate, you pay the past-due charges, reasonable pickup and redelivery costs, and any late fee that applies.

Fees and ownership

Louisiana requires fees (late, default, pickup, and reinstatement charges) to be separately disclosed in your contract (§9:3355), so read the fee terms closely. You acquire ownership by completing the disclosed total of payments; the ownership calculator can help you estimate where you stand. Because the agreement renews one period at a time, you can also return the item and stop owing future payments.

Louisiana rent-to-own questions

Can a rent-to-own store in Louisiana have me arrested for missing payments?
Falling behind on payments is a civil matter, not a crime. Louisiana treats violations of its rental-purchase law as civil prohibited practices under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act (La. R.S. §9:3361), aimed at the store, not at customers who fall behind.
Can I be charged with theft for keeping rent-to-own property in Louisiana?
Keeping the item is a separate question. Louisiana makes it a crime for a lessee to intentionally fail to return a leased movable after the lease ends (La. R.S. §14:220.1). Not returning the item within 15 calendar days (or the lease term, whichever is less) after a written notice sent by registered or certified mail is presumptive evidence that the failure was intentional. The penalty is a fine of up to $500 or up to 6 months if the item is worth less than $1,000, and up to $2,000 or up to 2 years if it is worth $1,000 or more. It targets ignoring a proper demand, not being behind; returning the item, or responding to the notice, takes you out of it.
Can a rent-to-own store enter my home in Louisiana to take the item back?
A rental-purchase agreement can't authorize the store to enter your premises without your contemporaneous permission or commit a breach of the peace in repossession, and it can't include a confession of judgment, a wage assignment, a security interest, or a waiver of your claims or defenses (La. R.S. §9:3356).
Can I get rented rented merchandise back after it is repossessed in Louisiana?
If you fall behind, you can reinstate without losing rights you'd earned. While you still have the item, you can cure within 5 days of the renewal date (monthly payments) or 2 days (more frequent). If the item was returned, you have at least 21 days after the return, or at least 45 days if you'd paid two-thirds or more. Reinstatement requires past-due charges, reasonable pickup/redelivery costs, and any applicable late fee (La. R.S. §9:3357).
In Louisiana, can I owe money after the item is repossessed?
Because a rental-purchase agreement renews one period at a time, you can return the item and stop owing future payments rather than being held to a full purchase price.

Sources

Every statement about the law on this page links to the official statute itself, so you can read the law, not just our summary of it. Notice something out of date? Let us know.

Consumer information, not legal advice. For your situation, consider speaking with a licensed Louisiana attorney or a local legal-aid office.