Legal Checklist — Louisiana & Orleans Parish

LGD (Lower Garden District) Properties, Inc. · lease, security deposit agreement, application and plaster walls addendum · first reviewed 2026-09-06 · updated 2026-09-28

Not legal advice. This is Claude's research summary and document review, not an attorney's opinion. Section numbers refer to the documents as of 2026-09-28. Every citation should be independently verified before being relied on — see manager/LEGAL_RESEARCH.md for source URLs and which sources were read in full. Items marked open since 2026-09-06 were found in the first review and have not been addressed; items marked new come from the documents added or changed since. Tick the box once an item has been addressed, or a decision made not to.
DocumentHighMediumFor the attorney
Lease — missing entirely32—
Lease — section by section151
Security deposit agreement131
Application—23
Plaster walls addendum—11
Across all documents11—

Lease — missing entirely

Federal and Orleans-Parish requirements the lease still says nothing about. All open since 2026-09-06.

HIGH Federal lead-based paint disclosure. Any pre-1978 rental needs a signed lead warning statement, the EPA "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home" pamphlet, and disclosure of known lead hazards, with records kept 3 years. Penalties up to $21,018 per violation, plus a private right of action. Every LGD address is in the Lower Garden District's historic housing stock.
40 CFR Part 745 / 42 U.S.C. § 4852d · open since 2026-09-06
HIGH Orleans Parish "Healthy Homes" registration. Every rental must be registered via OneStopApp and hold a Certificate of Compliance with the Minimum Rental Standards. Non-compliance risks daily fines and losing the right to rent the unit. The ordinance also protects tenants from retaliation for code complaints, whatever §8 and §10 allow. This is an operational item for all 8 addresses, not only lease wording.
City of New Orleans Healthy Homes ordinance, 2026 mandatory registration phase · open since 2026-09-06
HIGH Assistance animals — §5 PETS has no carve-out. A no-pets clause cannot refuse a disability-related assistance animal. §5 still has no exception. The yard B addresses were described as having no pets, which makes the carve-out more important there, not less.
42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B); HUD assistance-animal guidance · open since 2026-09-06
MEDIUM Smoke detectors. Louisiana requires at least a 10-year sealed-battery smoke detector at the time of lease. A clause documenting compliance and giving the tenant the testing and notification duty also helps under §15 LIABILITY's notice-based standard.
La. R.S. 40:1581 · open since 2026-09-06
MEDIUM Flood / renter's insurance disclaimer for tenant belongings. Not a statutory requirement, but a low-cost gap to close given New Orleans' flood history; the lease's NOMAR ancestor template has one.
open since 2026-09-06

Lease — section by section

SectionFinding
§2 RENTMEDIUM The $50 returned-check fee may exceed Louisiana's cap (greater of $25 or 5% of the check) on a small check, and the statute separately requires a posted notice of the fee. La. R.S. 9:2782 · open since 2026-09-06
§3 SECURITY DEPOSITMEDIUM The 30-day accounting runs from "all keys returned and premises vacated". The statute runs it from written notice of a forwarding address. Bad-faith non-compliance costs actual damages plus the greater of $300 or twice the amount withheld, and attorney's fees. The security deposit agreement already asks for a forwarding address (condition 13), so aligning §3 to it is easy. La. R.S. 9:3251 · open since 2026-09-06
§5 PETSHIGH See assistance animals above.
§7 SUBLEASEMEDIUM Ambiguous sublease limits are read against the lessor. Consent "of Lessor" doesn't say it may be withheld in Lessor's sole discretion; saying so closes an argument that consent was unreasonably withheld. La. C.C. art. 2713 · open since 2026-09-06
§10 WAIVER UPON TERMINATIONMEDIUM — citation error The notice waiver is valid under La. C.C.P. art. 4701, but the lease also cites "La. CCP 2713", which is the Civil Code's sublease article and has nothing to do with eviction notice. A wrong citation in a document used in eviction court. open since 2026-09-06
§13 UTILITIESMEDIUM — new Since 2026-09-28 the Lessee pays all utilities, with no exception. Confirm that no address has a shared meter the Lessor actually pays (1364 Camp has 7 units, 1521 St. Andrew 6). The $10-per-day-per-utility charge assumes every utility can be put in the Lessee's name.
§14 ADDITIONS OR ALTERATIONSINFORMATIONAL Louisiana has no statutory entry-notice rule. A broader explicit entry clause, for routine inspection and not only repairs, reduces risk. La. C.C. art. 2682 · open since 2026-09-06
§15 LIABILITYGOOD Already tracks La. R.S. 9:3221. La. C.C. art. 2699 voids any waiver for defects that seriously affect health or safety, whatever the lease says.
§16 SIGNS AND ACCESSLIKELY FINE No Louisiana statute protecting political signs found; New Orleans code not checked.
§17 PATIO/YARDFOR THE ATTORNEY — new Version B (Lessor maintains all) omits pet waste on the basis that yard B addresses have no pets. With assistance animals possible anywhere, decide who cleans up after one at a yard B address.
§20 WALLSNEW — no statutory issue found Standard (A) and plaster (B) versions. B's damage paragraph says repair costs "will be deducted" from the deposit; §3 governs how. Neither version has had an attorney's review.
§1, §4, §6, §8, §9, §11, §12, §18, §19, §21NO ISSUE Nothing found, or already covered in LEGAL_RESEARCH.md (§18 attorney's fees).

Security deposit agreement new

HIGH "NO portion of the deposit will be refunded" if the lease is broken. A flat forfeiture sits uneasily with the statute's rule that the deposit is returned less itemized damages, and it contradicts the lease's own §3, which forfeits the deposit on abandonment but excepts the last month with notice given. The two documents are signed together and should say the same thing.
La. R.S. 9:3251; lease §3
MEDIUM The applicant's-deposit paragraphs duplicate the application. Page 2's last two paragraphs describe an applicant's deposit and liquidated damages on a refused lease — the application's holding deposit, in different words. Keep it in one document, and say whether the holding deposit becomes the security deposit.
MEDIUM "Fair wear and tear" here, "normal wear and tear" in the lease. Two phrases invite an argument that two standards were meant. Use the lease's.
MEDIUM Conditions 6 and 9 cite the lease by section number. Condition 9 (B) cites "Section 17 of the lease". A lease signed before 2026-09-28 is numbered differently, so for an existing tenant the citation may point at the wrong section. Condition 6 (B) already avoids this.
FOR THE ATTORNEY $40.00 per hour general labor, and the prorated-days charge. A fixed labor rate and charging the days needed to make the unit rentable are both deductions a tenant could contest as not actual damages under La. R.S. 9:3251.

Application new

MEDIUM Adverse action notice. The new credit-check authorization is good. If an application is ever denied, or approved on worse terms, because of a credit report, federal law requires a written adverse action notice naming the reporting agency.
Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681m
MEDIUM Social Security numbers on paper. Kept on the form by decision. Louisiana's data breach law applies to anyone holding them: keep completed applications secured, and shred them when no longer needed.
La. R.S. 51:3071 et seq. (Database Security Breach Notification Law) — verify
FOR THE ATTORNEY Binding arbitration, including fair-housing claims. Deferred to legal review by decision. Whether pre-dispute arbitration of Fair Housing Act claims holds up, and whether the clause survives once a lease is signed.
FOR THE ATTORNEY Holding deposit kept as liquidated damages. Deferred to legal review by decision. Whether keeping it all is a reasonable liquidated-damages amount if an approved applicant backs out.
FOR THE ATTORNEY Pets question. Left as is by decision. It should not be used to screen out someone with an assistance animal; see the lease's §5 item.

Plaster walls addendum new

MEDIUM Mid-lease signature. An existing tenant is asked to accept new obligations during a lease already signed. It binds them only if they agree; if they decline, the old lease governs until renewal. Have it signed at renewal where possible, or pair it with something the tenant receives.
FOR THE ATTORNEY Deductions "from the Lessee's security deposit". Relies on the old lease's own deposit terms, which have not been reviewed here.

Across all documents new

HIGH Confirm the legal entity name. Every document now names "Lower Garden District Properties, Inc." (it said LLC until 2026-09-28). The name on a lease should match the Louisiana Secretary of State registration exactly. If the registered entity is an LLC, the documents name a party that does not exist.
MEDIUM Nothing new has had an attorney's review. §20 WALLS, §17 yard B, the deposit's conditions 6 and 9, the addendum's framing and the application's credit-check wording were drafted on 2026-09-28.
Primary sources referenced (verify independently before relying on any citation): Full source URLs and verification notes: manager/LEGAL_RESEARCH.md.
Updated 2026-09-28 from a review of the current lease, security deposit agreement, application and plaster walls addendum, carrying forward the 2026-09-06 review. A static file, not generated by a script: update it by hand when the review changes. Hidden from print (this note, not the disclaimer).
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