Art. 2723.Appraisal of Property, Unless Waived

Before a seized property is sold under executory process, Article 2723 calls for it to be appraised, establishing a benchmark value that anchors the sale and, later, protects both sides in how the property is priced and how the proceeds are credited against the debt.

Appraisal is the default, but the parties can bypass it. Doing so takes three things lining up: the mortgage, security agreement, or document creating the privilege must include a waiver of appraisal in the first place; the plaintiff creditor must ask the court for a sale without appraisal; and the order directing the writ of seizure and sale must direct that the property be sold that way. Skip any one of those steps and the property has to be appraised regardless of what the mortgage document says.

Waiving appraisal is not without a cost. Article 2771, in the deficiency judgment chapter, conditions a creditor's ability to sue the debtor for whatever balance remains after the sale on the property having been appraised. A creditor who obtains a faster, appraisal-free sale trades away the right to chase a deficiency afterward.

Property subject to a security interest under Chapter 9 of the Louisiana Commercial Laws -- the state's version of the Uniform Commercial Code covering movable and commercial collateral -- sits outside this appraisal requirement altogether. That property need not be appraised before a judicial sale no matter what the parties agreed, reflecting how these transactions already carry their own valuation and disposition rules under commercial law.