Bond for Deed

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the cited primary sources before acting. Bond-for-deed law is a Louisiana statutory regime that differs structurally from common-law contract-for-deed law; the same two words mean different things in different jurisdictions. Last verified: 2026-06-08.

• What it is: “Bond for deed” is the term for an installment land-sale instrument, but it carries two distinct meanings depending on where you are. In louisiana — the nation’s only civil-law jurisdiction — a “bond for deed” is a specific creature of statute, La. R.S. 9:2941–9:2947, defined as “a contract to sell real property, in which the purchase price is to be paid by the buyer to the seller in installments and in which the seller after payment of a stipulated sum agrees to deliver title to the buyer.” La. R.S. 9:2941. It comes with its own escrow-agent requirement, its own 45-day cancellation procedure, its own recording-and-priority rule, and a case-law ban on forfeiture — a regime that has no exact analog in the common-law states. Everywhere else the phrase is simply an archaic synonym for the ordinary common-law contract for deed / installment land contract (Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Illinois all use or recognize the term this way), and it carries no separate body of law — the deal is governed by that state’s ordinary contract-for-deed remedy regime. See forfeiture-vs-foreclosure.

• Why it matters for contract-for-deed: The word “bond” misleads. A lawyer or operator who reads “bond for deed” in a Louisiana contract is looking at a tightly regulated statutory instrument whose mechanics — who serves the cure notice (the escrow agent, not the seller), how long the cure period runs (45 days from mailing), whether the seller can keep the buyer’s payments (no), and whether a bank must hold the money on mortgaged property (yes) — are dictated by statute and enforced on pain of criminal penalty. Get those mechanics wrong and the remedy is void. The same words in a New Hampshire or Maine contract signal nothing more than a contract for deed under a quaint old label, governed by that state’s general installment-land-contract doctrine. Conflating the two — applying Louisiana’s escrow/45-day machinery to a common-law deal, or assuming a Louisiana “bond for deed” is just a contract for deed that can be forfeited — is the core failure mode this page exists to prevent.

• How the Louisiana statutory bond for deed differs from the common-law CFD:

  1. Civil-law characterization — a “contract to sell,” not a sale. The seller retains ownership until the price is paid; the buyer holds a recorded contractual right to acquire title, not common-law “equitable title.” Louisiana does not use equitable-conversion. La. R.S. 9:2941; see louisiana § 2.
  2. Mandatory escrow agent on encumbered property — a bank. “All payments by the buyers under bond for deed contracts of property then or thereafter burdened with a mortgage or privilege, shall be made to some bank authorized to do business in this state,” which distributes between seller and lienholder “in such proportion as the secured obligation shall bear to the purchase price in order to insure the buyer an unencumbered title when all payments have been made.” La. R.S. 9:2943. No common-law CFD statute imposes a comparable bank-escrow mandate.
  3. Recorded lienholder release-price guarantee before sale. “It shall be unlawful to sell by bond for deed contract, any real property which is encumbered by mortgage or privilege without first obtaining a written guarantee from the mortgage and privilege holders to release the property upon payment by the buyer of a stipulated mortgage release price,” recorded in the parish mortgage records before the property is offered. La. R.S. 9:2942. This makes a classic “wrap” bond for deed lawful only with lienholder cooperation. Compare garn-st-germain-due-on-sale: the federal due-on-sale right can still be exercised on the transfer itself.
  4. 45-day statutory cancellation served by the escrow agent. On default the seller “may have the bond for deed cancelled by proper registry in the conveyance records, provided he has first caused the escrow agent to serve notice upon the buyer, by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested … that unless payment is made … within forty-five days from the mailing date of the notice, the bond for deed shall be cancelled.” La. R.S. 9:2945. The cure clock runs from mailing, the escrow agent (not the seller) serves, and cancellation is effected by registry in the conveyance records — not by judicial foreclosure. This is a statutory_cancellation regime; see forfeiture-vs-foreclosure.
  5. No pure forfeiture — refund of price payments. Louisiana case law forbids forfeiture at any equity level: a cancelled buyer recovers the price payments (net of fair rental value), and a contractual waiver of that refund is void as against public policy. seals-v-sumrall-2004, montz-v-theard-2002. Louisiana needs no skendzel-v-marshall-1973 substantial-equity bar because it refuses forfeiture across the board.
  6. Recordation primes the seller’s later acts. On recordation in the mortgage and conveyance records, “any sale, contract, counterletter, lease, or mortgage executed by the bond for deed seller … shall be subject to the rights created by the bond for deed contract,” and subordinate filings may be cancelled on 30 days’ notice. La. R.S. 9:2941.1.
  7. Criminal enforcement. Violating the encumbrance/escrow rules is a crime — a fine of “not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.” La. R.S. 9:2947. No common-law CFD statute criminalizes the seller’s structural noncompliance this way.
  8. No bond-for-deed-specific pre-sale disclosure statute. Unlike Texas (Prop. Code Ch. 5, Subch. D) or Illinois (765 ILCS 67), Louisiana’s bond-for-deed Part imposes no schedule of pre-sale disclosures and no per-day/rescission penalty; its protections are structural (escrow, release price, cancellation). See louisiana § 1.

• The term elsewhere (archaic synonym, no separate doctrine): Outside Louisiana, “bond for deed” is one of the many regional names for the ordinary installment land contract, and the controlling law is the state’s general CFD remedy regime — not anything called “bond for deed law”:

  • maine — “bond for a deed” is the older Maine term; the Title 14 foreclosure statute, 14 M.R.S. § 6203-F, applies the same foreclosure procedures to “a contract for the sale of real estate, including a bond for a deed,” i.e., it is foreclosed like a mortgage, not treated as a distinct instrument.
  • new-hampshire — the New Hampshire Supreme Court held in randall-v-riel-1983 that “bond for deed,” “contract for deed,” and “installment land contract” are synonymous mortgage substitutes; a forfeiture clause is enforced only as reasonable liquidated damages and otherwise is an unenforceable penalty.
  • illinois — the Installment Sales Contract Act expressly sweeps the term in: an installment sales contract is “any contract or agreement, including a contract for deed, bond for deed, or any other sale or legal device” by which a seller agrees to sell. 765 ILCS 67/5. “Bond for deed” is just one label inside the common-law/statutory CFD definition.
  • north-dakota — the cancellation-of-contract statute, N.D.C.C. § 32-18-01, names “bond for deed” alongside “contract for deed” and any “other instrument for the future conveyance” as subject to the same cancellation regime.
  • connecticut, mississippi, missouri — each lists “bond for deed” among the local synonyms for the seller-financed installment instrument, with the deal governed by ordinary state CFD law (Connecticut’s mortgage-contingency statute even references a “bond for deed” in the same breath as a written purchase agreement). See each state page.

• Leading authority: La. R.S. 9:2941–9:2947 (the Louisiana regime) · seals-v-sumrall-2004 · bennett-v-hughes-2004 (Louisiana no-forfeiture + cancellation→eviction) · randall-v-riel-1983 (the synonym rule outside Louisiana).

▸ For Sellers / Operators — First, read the jurisdiction, not the label. If your deal is in louisiana, “bond for deed” is a statutory instrument and the mechanics are non-negotiable: (1) you cannot forfeit — on default you cancel under R.S. 9:2945 and refund the buyer’s price payments, keeping only fair rental value, and refund-waiver clauses are void (seals-v-sumrall-2004); (2) the escrow agent — not you — must mail the 45-day certified, return-receipt cure notice, and the buyer can defeat cancellation by proving non-receipt, so use a current address and document delivery; (3) if the property is mortgaged you must use a bank escrow agent (R.S. 9:2943) and record a lienholder release-price guarantee before offering the property (R.S. 9:2942) — skipping this is a crime (R.S. 9:2947); (4) record the bond for deed (R.S. 9:2941.1) to prime your later acts; (5) after a valid cancellation you recover possession by eviction, not foreclosure (bennett-v-hughes-2004). If your deal is anywhere else and the contract happens to say “bond for deed,” ignore the antique label — it is your state’s ordinary contract for deed, and the controlling questions are the ones in forfeiture-vs-foreclosure (is forfeiture available, what is the equity bar, what is the cure/notice procedure).

▸ For Buyers — In Louisiana your protections are unusually strong and do not depend on how much equity you have built: a 45-day cure on default (R.S. 9:2945), a refund of price payments on cancellation that the contract cannot waive (seals-v-sumrall-2004), recordation priority over the seller’s later dealings (R.S. 9:2941.1), and — if the home is mortgaged — bank-escrow protection ensuring your payments retire the underlying lien (R.S. 9:2943). Outside Louisiana, a “bond for deed” gives you exactly the protections your state’s contract-for-deed law gives any installment buyer — no more, no less.

Jurisdiction map

Positions below are stated only where a retrieved primary source supports them. “Bond for deed” as a distinct statutory regime exists in exactly one jurisdiction; the other rows record where the term is used as a synonym for the common-law contract for deed and identify the controlling authority. Per-state nuance lives on each [[state]] page.

Position	Jurisdiction	Authority (primary source)
Distinct statutory bond-for-deed regime — civil-law “contract to sell”; mandatory bank escrow on encumbered property; recorded release-price guarantee; 45-day escrow-agent-served cancellation; no forfeiture (refund of price payments); criminal penalty for structural noncompliance	louisiana	La. R.S. 9:2941 (definition), 9:2942 (release-price guarantee), 9:2943 (bank escrow), 9:2944 (lienholder forbearance), 9:2945 (45-day cancellation), 9:2947 (criminal penalty), 9:2941.1 (recordation/priority)
Synonym — foreclosed like a mortgage — “bond for a deed” is the older term; foreclosed under the same statute as a contract for the sale of real estate	maine	14 M.R.S. § 6203-F (foreclosure of “a contract for the sale of real estate, including a bond for a deed”)
Synonym — mortgage substitute (case law) — “bond for deed,” “contract for deed,” and “installment land contract” are synonymous; forfeiture enforced only as reasonable liquidated damages, else an unenforceable penalty	new-hampshire	Randall v. Riel, 123 N.H. 757, 465 A.2d 505 (N.H. 1983) — randall-v-riel-1983
Synonym — swept into the statutory CFD definition — installment sales contract “includ[es] a contract for deed, bond for deed, or any other sale or legal device”	illinois	765 ILCS 67/5 (Installment Sales Contract Act, definitions)
Synonym — subject to the contract-for-deed cancellation statute — § 32-18-01 names “bond for deed” alongside “contract for deed” and any other future-conveyance instrument	north-dakota	N.D.C.C. § 32-18-01 (cancellation of contract for deed)
Synonym — local naming only; ordinary state CFD law governs	connecticut · mississippi · missouri	Per-state pages: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-5b (mortgage-contingency reference); Mississippi / Missouri identity modules (term listed among synonyms) — see needs_verification for verbatim retrieval status

Operator takeaway: “Bond for deed” is a trap of terminology. In Louisiana it is a regulated statutory instrument with a fixed escrow + 45-day + no-forfeiture machine you must follow exactly (criminal exposure if you do not); everywhere else it is just an old name for the contract for deed, and you classify the deal by your state’s ordinary remedy regime under forfeiture-vs-foreclosure — the word “bond” changes nothing.

Primary sources (retrieved 2026-06-08)

• La. R.S. 9:2941 (Bond for deed, definition) — “a contract to sell real property … the seller after payment of a stipulated sum agrees to deliver title.” https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107307
• La. R.S. 9:2942 (Encumbered property; release-price guarantee) — unlawful to sell encumbered property by bond for deed without first obtaining and recording a written lienholder release-price guarantee. https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107308
• La. R.S. 9:2943 (Method of payment / escrow) — payments on encumbered property “shall be made to some bank authorized to do business in this state,” which distributes proportionally to ensure unencumbered title at payoff. https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107309
• La. R.S. 9:2944 (Foreclosure preclusion) — timely installment payments “preclude the holder of any secured notes from foreclosure”; default revives the lienholder’s foreclosure right. https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107310
• La. R.S. 9:2945 (Cancellation; 45-day notice) — escrow agent serves a registered/ certified, return-receipt 45-day-from-mailing cure notice; cancellation by registry in the conveyance records. https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107311
• La. R.S. 9:2947 (Penalty) — violation punishable by “not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.” https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=107313
• La. R.S. 9:2941.1 (Recordation; ranking) — recorded bond for deed primes the seller’s later sale/lease/mortgage; subordinate filings cancellable on 30 days’ notice. https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=408384
• 14 M.R.S. § 6203-F (Maine) — foreclosure procedures apply to “a contract for the sale of real estate, including a bond for a deed.” https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec6203-F.html
• 765 ILCS 67/5 (Illinois, Installment Sales Contract Act, definitions) — installment sales contract “includ[es] a contract for deed, bond for deed, or any other sale or legal device whereby a seller agrees to sell.” https://www.ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/076500670K5.htm

Meta

• needs_verification:
  • Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-5b — the connecticut page records that § 49-5b references “bond for deed” in a mortgage-contingency context, but the verbatim statute text could not be re-retrieved this run (cga.ct.gov and mirrors returned certificate/403/timeout errors). Confirm the exact § 49-5b wording at cga.ct.gov before relying on the precise language; the synonym classification is corroborated by the verified Connecticut jurisdiction page.
  • N.D.C.C. § 32-18-01 verbatim — the north-dakota page cites the statute as naming “bond for deed,” but the official ndlegis.gov text is delivered as a binary/encoded PDF that could not be rendered for a verbatim quote this run. The synonym classification is corroborated by the verified North Dakota page; confirm the exact § 32-18-01 enumeration before quoting.
  • Mississippi and Missouri — both jurisdiction pages list “bond for deed” among the local synonyms, but the specific statute/case fixing that usage was not separately retrieved on this run for this concept page; classification is carried from the verified state pages and should be pinned to a primary source when those rows are quoted verbatim.
  • Louisiana cases beyond Bennett v. Hughes — Seals v. Sumrall, Montz v. Theard, Lyons v. Pitts are sourced (per the louisiana page) via the Loyola Pro Bono Desk Manual rather than a direct reporter pull; direct-opinion retrieval is flagged on those case pages.
• open_questions:
  • Do any other states have a distinct statutory bond-for-deed regime (as opposed to the term-as-synonym usage), or is Louisiana genuinely unique? No second statutory regime was found this run; the working answer is that Louisiana is the only one.
  • In Louisiana, is R.S. 9:2945 statutory cancellation the seller’s exclusive remedy, or is it cumulative with Civil Code art. 2013 judicial dissolution? (Carried from the louisiana page open_questions.)
• cross_links: louisiana · forfeiture-vs-foreclosure · equitable-conversion · garn-st-germain-due-on-sale · skendzel-v-marshall-1973 · seals-v-sumrall-2004 · bennett-v-hughes-2004 · montz-v-theard-2002 · randall-v-riel-1983 · maine · new-hampshire · illinois · north-dakota · connecticut · mississippi · missouri
• changelog:
  • 2026-06-08 — Page created. Defined the two senses of “bond for deed”: Louisiana’s distinct statutory civil-law regime (R.S. 9:2941–2947 + 2941.1, all re-retrieved from legis.la.gov this run) versus the term-as-synonym usage in the common-law states. Built the jurisdiction map distinguishing the Louisiana statutory regime from the synonym states (ME §6203-F and IL 765 ILCS 67/5 re-retrieved; NH via Randall v. Riel case page; ND/CT/MS/MO carried from verified state pages with verbatim-retrieval gaps flagged).

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Disclaimer. This page is legal information, not legal advice, and may be out of date. “Bond for deed” means a distinct statutory instrument in Louisiana and a mere synonym for the contract for deed elsewhere; statutes are frequently amended and remedies turn on the facts of each default. Confirm the current statute and that any cited case is still good law before drafting, enforcing, or signing an installment land contract, and consult a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction.