EDGARD — St. John the Baptist Parish Assessor Lucien Gauff III and several area attorneys are teaming up Tuesday in Edgard to help residents protect their rights as homeowners with clear property titles.

In recent weeks, letters were mailed to West Bank residents notifying them of loss of homestead exemptions and other homeowner rights.

The town hall, to be held at 5 p.m. inside the Edgard Courthouse, will be a step closer to completing essential successions, heirships or affidavits for ownership, according to Gauff.

Residents on the East Bank will soon receive notification letters, and another town hall will follow. However, Gauff said East Bank residents are welcome to attend Tuesday’s event.

“The town hall is pertaining to the fact that we have a lot of our residents that have homestead exemptions, and these homestead exemptions have been removed because the person whose name is listed on the property is deceased,” Gauff said. “Because a deceased person cannot have a homestead exemption, some of those homestead exemptions have been removed.”

Additionally, without a clear property title, homeowners could lose the right to sell their property, make repairs to the property, borrow money against the property, cash an insurance check, deal with a bank on foreclosure or have a court rule on claims of heir in a lawsuit against those falsely claiming to be heirs of the original owner.

“They may qualify for government help and not be able to fix their property because it’s not in their name,” Gauff said. “It’s a whole list of things. We’re having a town hall so we can explain some of the important facts about why they should be having their successions and getting this done so they can get a lot of the rights back that they don’t have.”

The local Assessor’s Office has partnered with Louisiana Appleseed and Southeast Louisiana Legal Services to send attorneys to the town hall and assist residents in completing legal services. Since the town hall is held in the Edgard Courthouse with access to records, residents are not required to bring any documentation.

Several local attorneys have also committed to attending the open house, according to Gauff.

“The attorneys can help with, depending on the income level, some of the legal services, successions, heirships or affidavits,” Gauff said. “They may actually be able to get some of it done, but they will get it started.”

This is the first time a town hall has been held to assist residents in obtaining property titles, Gauff said.

“I don’t think it’s been done from or through an assessor’s office,” he said. “My goal is to try to help as many people in our parish as we can to make sure they maintain their legal rights to their property. These attorneys and the Southeast Louisiana Legal Service and Louisiana Appleseed are on the same page.”

For more information, call 985-652-5311 or visit stjohnassessor.org.