Caddo Parish Property Records

Caddo Parish property records are held by the Clerk of Court in Shreveport, with records dating back to 1839. The clerk's office maintains the official indexes for all recorded instruments -- including deeds, mortgages, liens, conveyances, and other land documents filed for property in this northwest Louisiana parish. You can search these records online through the Clerk Connect portal or in person at the courthouse on Texas Street. The parish assessor also provides a separate online lookup for ownership and valuation data.

Caddo Parish Clerk of Court

The Caddo Parish Clerk of Court keeps all property records for the parish. This office records deeds, mortgages, liens, and other instruments that affect real property. All documents must be filed here to be valid against third parties under Louisiana law. The office is in the Caddo Parish Courthouse in downtown Shreveport.

Records go back to 1839. That is a long history. You can find old conveyances, early land grants, and historical mortgage filings. Staff can help you search by name or by legal description. The clerk also handles UCC filings and other commercial instruments that may affect property ownership.

The clerk's website at caddoclerk.com lets you search online. You can look up records by grantor and grantee name, by date range, or by instrument type. This free tool covers many years of recorded documents. For older records or certified copies, you may need to visit in person or call the office.

The clerk's homepage shows the full range of services and search tools available for Caddo Parish property records. Below is a screenshot of the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court website:

Visit the clerk's website to search deeds, mortgages, and other recorded instruments going back to the mid-1800s.

Caddo Parish Assessor

The Caddo Parish Assessor sets the value of all real property in the parish. These values determine how much property tax each owner pays. The assessor keeps records on every parcel, including ownership information, legal descriptions, and assessed values. You can look up property this way without knowing the case number or the exact deed date.

Louisiana's constitution sets assessment rates. Under La. Const. art. VII § 18, land and residential improvements are assessed at 10% of fair market value. Other property is assessed at 15%. Public service property is assessed at 25%. These rates apply to Caddo Parish and all other parishes across the state.

The assessor's free GIS mapping tool lets you search by address or parcel number. You can see a map of the parcel, the current owner, and the assessed value. This is a good first step when you want to learn about a property before pulling the full deed file from the clerk's office.

The Caddo Parish Assessor website provides an interactive map and property lookup tool. Below is a screenshot of the assessor's online portal:

Use the assessor's site to find current ownership details and parcel maps for any property in Caddo Parish.

How to Search Caddo Parish Property Records Online

You have a few ways to search Caddo Parish property records from home. Start with the clerk's own site for recorded documents. Use the assessor's site to look up ownership and parcel data. For a wider search, use Clerk Connect or eClerks LA to pull data from multiple sources.

Clerk Connect at clerkconnect.com gives you access to recorded instruments from Caddo Parish and other Louisiana parishes. A subscription gives you more search tools and the ability to view document images. This is useful for title research, real estate transactions, and legal work.

Clerk Connect provides a unified portal for searching property records across Louisiana parishes, including Caddo. Below is a screenshot of the Clerk Connect portal:

Clerk Connect is a reliable option for title researchers and others who need fast access to recorded Caddo Parish property documents.

The eClerks LA portal is another statewide option. It links to clerk records from many parishes and offers a streamlined search interface. Both tools are helpful when you need to search across parish lines or do broad research on a chain of title.

For tax records and parcel data, visit the Louisiana Tax Commission site. You can find assessment rolls and tax payment history there. This can help you confirm ownership or find out if back taxes are owed on a property.

Recording Property Documents in Caddo Parish

Any deed, mortgage, or other instrument that affects real property in Caddo Parish must be recorded with the Clerk of Court to be valid against third parties. This rule comes from La. Civ. Code art. 3338. An unrecorded instrument has no effect on someone who buys or lends money on the property without knowing about it.

Recording gets the document into the public record. From that point, everyone is on notice. If you buy property in Shreveport or anywhere else in Caddo Parish, you need to check the recorded record at the clerk's office to know what claims exist on that land. This is what a title search does.

Under La. R.S. 44:411, conveyance and mortgage records must be kept permanently. This is why records go back to 1839 in Caddo Parish. They cannot be destroyed. You can always go back and search the historical chain of title for any parcel in the parish.

To record a document, bring the original signed and notarized instrument to the clerk's office. The clerk will assign a recording number and book and page reference. This reference becomes part of the property's title history. Always get a stamped copy back for your own records.

Types of Property Records in Caddo Parish

The Caddo Parish Clerk of Court records many types of instruments. Here are the main ones you will find when searching property records:

• Warranty deeds and quitclaim deeds transferring ownership
• Mortgages and deeds of trust securing loans
• Releases and satisfactions of mortgage
• Liens including tax liens, judgment liens, and contractor liens
• Servitudes and easements
• Partition acts dividing jointly owned property
• Acts of sale for immovable property
• Successions and inheritance transfers
• Lis pendens notices of pending litigation

All of these affect who owns or has a claim on real property in Caddo Parish. When you do a title search, you look through all of these to build a clean picture of ownership history. The clerk's index lets you search by the names of buyers and sellers, which speeds up the process.

Public records in Louisiana are open under La. R.S. 44:1. Anyone can search and copy property records at the Caddo Parish Clerk's office. You don't need to own the property. You don't need a lawyer. You just need to ask.

Tax Records and Additional Resources

Property taxes in Caddo Parish are collected by the parish tax collector. The assessor sets the value; the collector sends the bill and takes the payment. You can check tax status online to see if taxes are current on any parcel. Unpaid taxes can lead to a tax lien, which shows up in the property records at the clerk's office.

The Louisiana Tax Commission keeps statewide assessment data. You can search there for historical tax rolls and compare assessed values across time. This is useful for appraisers, researchers, and anyone doing due diligence on a property purchase in Caddo Parish.

The Louisiana Office of State Lands at doa.la.gov has records related to state-owned lands and original land grants. If you are researching an old parcel in northwest Louisiana, some of the earliest title documents may trace back to state or federal land grants. These records help fill in the chain of title before private ownership began.

The QPublic portal also covers Louisiana assessors and lets you look up parcel data with a map view. This can be a fast way to get a parcel number before pulling the full deed file.

Cities in Caddo Parish

All property filings in Caddo Parish, regardless of city, go through the Clerk of Court in Shreveport. Shreveport is the largest city in the parish and the third-largest city in Louisiana. Property records for Shreveport are filed at the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court on Texas Street.

Nearby Parishes

These parishes share borders with Caddo Parish. Each has its own clerk of court and property records office. If a property sits near a parish line, always confirm which parish it falls in before you search.