Does an Act of Donation Need Witnesses in Louisiana?

The rule, in the code

Two articles do the work, and they have to be read together.

La. Civ. Code art. 1541

“A donation inter vivos shall be made by authentic act under the penalty of absolute nullity, unless otherwise expressly permitted by law.”

La. Civ. Code art. 1833(A)

“An authentic act is a writing executed before a notary public or other officer authorized to perform that function, in the presence of two witnesses, and signed by each party who executed it, by each witness, and by each notary public before whom it was executed.”

So the witness requirement does not come from the donation articles at all. It comes from the definition of an authentic act, which the donation articles borrow. That is why the requirement gets missed: someone reads the donation rules, sees nothing about witnesses, and stops one article short.

Why the penalty is unusually harsh

Most defects in a document can be fixed by the people who signed it. An absolute nullity cannot. Civil Code article 2030 puts it directly: a contract that is absolutely null “may not be confirmed,” and the nullity “may be invoked by any person or may be declared by the court on its own initiative.” The form is demanded for the public’s protection, not the parties’ convenience, so the parties cannot agree to overlook it, and a stranger to the transaction can raise it later.

The practical consequence is that the problem rarely surfaces when it is cheap to fix. It surfaces years later, when the property is being sold and a title examiner reads the chain, or when someone dies and a succession is opened and the donation everyone relied on turns out never to have happened.

Who can be a witness

A witness must be a competent adult who is present for the signing and who signs the act. As a matter of sound practice, both witnesses should be disinterested: not the donor, not the donee, and not someone with a stake in what is being given. The typed or hand-printed name of each person should appear beneath that person’s signature.

Witnesses are the donor’s responsibility to produce, not the notary’s. This is the single most common reason a donation appointment fails at the door: everyone arrives, the document is perfect, and there is no second witness in the building.

The notary cannot be one of the two witnesses

This is the question that catches families short at the table, because it means a notary plus one friend is not enough.

Article 1833 requires the act to be executed before a notary and in the presence of two witnesses, and signed by each party, each witness, and the notary. The structure contemplates three separate roles filled by three separate people, and Louisiana practice treats it that way. Revised Statutes 13:3720 points in the same direction by negative implication: it provides that where an instrument is executed outside Louisiana, the fact that the notary is also one of the witnesses does not affect the document’s validity or admissibility. A carve-out for out-of-state acts would serve no purpose if the notary could freely double as a witness at home.

So the count is the notary plus two other adults. Your notary cannot make up the shortfall by signing twice.

Counterpart execution is allowed

Article 1833(B) provides that an authentic act need not be executed at one time or place, or before the same notary or the same witnesses, so long as each party signs before a notary and two witnesses, and each party, each witness, and each notary signs the act. Parties in different cities can still produce a valid authentic act.

The vehicle case: bring two witnesses anyway

Giving someone a car is what most people actually mean when they say act of donation, and the answer here surprises people.

Under the Civil Code alone, you would not need witnesses. A vehicle is a corporeal movable, and article 1543 permits donation of a corporeal movable by delivery of the thing without any other formality. As between donor and donee, handing over the car can be enough.

But transferring the title is a separate problem, and that is what people actually need. The Office of Motor Vehicles uses form DPSMV 1699, Act of Donation of a Movable, and that form is written as an authentic act. It recites appearance “before the undersigned notary public… and before the undersigned competent witnesses,” and it provides two witness signature lines alongside the donor and donee.

So the practical rule is the same as for a house: have two witnesses present. Not because the Civil Code demands it for a movable, but because the form OMV requires does.

One related form worth not confusing: DPSMV 1697 is the Notice of Transfer the donor files to tell OMV the vehicle is gone. It is a different document from the act of donation itself.

Online notarization is not available for this

Louisiana Revised Statutes 35:623(B) expressly excludes donations inter vivos from remote online notarization. A Louisiana act of donation has to be signed in person, in the physical presence of the notary and both witnesses. More on what Louisiana RON can and cannot do.

If a donation was already signed without witnesses

Do not have it re-notarized. Notarizing it again does not cure a nullity and can make the record more confusing than it already is. Have the document and the surrounding facts reviewed by a Louisiana attorney, because the right fix depends on what the parties intended, what has happened since, and whether anyone else has acquired an interest in the property.