Art. 3281.Petition For Private Sale

Private sale is Louisiana's term for a negotiated sale of succession property to a particular buyer, worked out on agreed terms rather than through the competitive-bidding process of a public sale. Article 3281 opens the rules for that path by telling the succession representative -- the executor or administrator managing the estate -- what the petition asking for authority to sell has to contain: a description of the property, the price and conditions attached to the proposed sale, and the reasons the representative believes the sale should go forward.

Paragraph B lets the representative move faster than the petition alone might suggest. Without waiting for prior court authority, the representative can sign an agreement to sell the property, so long as the agreement is written to depend on a suspensive condition -- a civil-law term for an event that must occur before an obligation takes effect -- that the court later approve the sale. The agreement exists, but it does not bind anyone until the court signs off.

That flexibility comes with a clock attached. Paragraph C gives the representative thirty days from the date the agreement is signed to file the petition described in Paragraph A, with a copy of the agreement attached. The rule lets a representative lock in a buyer's commitment early while still keeping the sale under court supervision before it becomes final.