Search St. Mary Parish Property Records

St. Mary Parish property records are maintained at the Clerk of Court in Franklin, where deeds, mortgages, conveyances, liens, and other land documents are filed for all real estate in this southern Louisiana coastal parish. You can access St. Mary Parish property records through the parish GIS portal and assessor maps for ownership and valuation data, or search recorded instruments through eClerks LA. Most name-based searches through these tools are free. For certified copies of deeds or mortgage documents, you will need to contact the Clerk of Court office in Franklin directly.

St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court

Greg Aucoin serves as the St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court. The office is in the Courthouse Building at 500 Main St., Franklin, LA 70538. The mailing address is P.O. Drawer 1231, Franklin, LA 70538. The main phone number is (337) 828-4100, and the fax is (337) 828-2509. You can find more information about the office at stmaryparishclerkofcourt.com.

The clerk records and maintains all property instruments filed in St. Mary Parish. Under La. Civ. Code art. 3338, any deed, mortgage, servitude, or other instrument affecting immovable property must be filed at the parish clerk's office to be effective against third parties. This rule applies to all property in St. Mary Parish, whether in Franklin, Morgan City, or any other community in the parish.

The clerk's office maintains grantor and grantee indexes so title researchers can trace ownership and encumbrances. For most title searches, you will need to search by name through the clerk's index to find all recorded instruments affecting a given property.

The screenshot below shows the St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court official website.

Source: stmaryparishclerkofcourt.com

The clerk site provides contact information, office hours, and links to public record request procedures for St. Mary Parish.

St. Mary Parish Assessor

The St. Mary Parish Assessor maintains valuation records for all real property in the parish. The assessor website is at smpassessor.net. Contact the office directly for current phone numbers and hours. Property assessment maps are available at smpassessor.net/Maps.

Under La. Const. art. VII § 18, residential homestead property is assessed at 10% of fair market value. Other property is assessed at 15%, and public service company property is assessed at 25%. The homestead exemption is available to qualifying owner-occupied residences and reduces the taxable assessed value.

The screenshot below shows the St. Mary Parish Assessor property maps page.

Source: smpassessor.net/Maps

The assessor maps show parcel boundaries and ownership data. You can use these maps alongside the GIS portal for a more complete view of any property in the parish.

St. Mary Parish GIS Portal

St. Mary Parish maintains a free GIS portal at stmary.geosync.io. This tool shows parcel boundaries, aerial imagery, and property data on an interactive map. You can search by address or parcel number and click any parcel to view ownership and valuation data. No login is needed to access the basic mapping features.

The GIS portal is useful for locating properties, checking lot lines, and viewing adjacent parcels. St. Mary Parish has a complex terrain along the Gulf Coast, with bayous, marshes, and coastal waterways that affect property boundaries. The GIS map can help you understand a parcel's location relative to these features before doing further research at the clerk's office.

The screenshot below shows the St. Mary Parish GIS portal.

Source: stmary.geosync.io

The GIS portal is open to the public at no cost. Parcel data on the map connects to assessor records to show current ownership information.

Online Access to St. Mary Parish Records

Several tools are available for online access to St. Mary Parish property records. The assessor site at smpassessor.net is the best place to look up ownership and assessment data. For recorded land documents, the statewide eClerks LA portal at eclerksla.com provides an index of filings across Louisiana, including St. Mary Parish.

Clerk Connect at clerkconnect.com provides subscribers access to multiple Louisiana parish clerk indexes. This is helpful when title research covers more than one parish. The Louisiana Tax Commission at latax.state.la.us offers statewide assessment comparison data as well.

For parcels near state-owned coastal lands, marshes, or water bottoms, the State Lands Office at doa.la.gov may hold records that affect title. St. Mary Parish has significant coastal and wetland areas where state ownership questions can arise. QPublic at qpublic.net may also have assessor data for the parish.

Types of Property Records in St. Mary Parish

The St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records all instruments that affect real property in the parish. Under La. R.S. 44:1, these documents are public records. They are retained permanently under La. R.S. 44:411. Any person may request to view or copy them.

Common property documents filed in St. Mary Parish include:

• Acts of sale for real property transfers
• Mortgage acts and collateral mortgages
• Releases and cancellations of liens and mortgages
• Judgments recorded as liens against property
• Servitudes, rights-of-way, and easements
• Donations of immovable property
• Succession and estate real estate transfers
• Lis pendens notices for pending legal actions
• Plats and boundary descriptions
• UCC fixture filings for commercial real estate

Morgan City is a key community in the parish. Property in and around Morgan City has been associated with the oil and gas industry for decades. Title records here may involve industrial property, pipelines, and servitude agreements that are specific to energy sector operations. The clerk's index covers all of these document types.

Nearby Parishes

St. Mary Parish borders these parishes. If a property is near a parish line, you may need to check clerk records in more than one location.