Alabama Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Alabama
Cities and counties in Alabama cannot enact rent control — state law bars local governments from regulating the rent charged for private property (Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1).
Cited to Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1 (official ALISON code viewer) · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Alabama rent-increase rules →
Alabama landlord-tenant laws by topic
Alabama security deposits
Alabama caps security deposits at one month's rent, but lets landlords charge extra for pets, tenant changes to the premises, or increased liability risks — and those add-on deposits have no statutory limit.
Alabama rent increase notice
Alabama has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase — the 30-day figure widely quoted online is derived from Ala. Code § 35-9A-441(b), which lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy on 30 days' written notice before the periodic rental date, so a landlord proposing higher rent is effectively offering new terms the tenant can decline by leaving (week-to-week tenancies: 7 days).
Alabama late fees
Alabama sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period — rent is payable 'without demand or notice at the time and place agreed upon by the parties' (Ala. Code § 35-9A-161(c)), so a lease-based late fee can begin accruing the day after rent is due.
Alabama entry notice
Alabama landlords must give tenants at least two days' notice before entering a rental for inspections, repairs, services, or showings, and may enter only at reasonable times — and the statute expressly allows delivering that notice by posting a note on the tenant's front door stating the intended time and purpose.
Alabama eviction process
In Alabama, a landlord must give a tenant at least seven business days' written notice to pay the rent owed or fix a lease violation before the lease ends and an eviction case can be filed.
Alabama application & screening fees
Alabama does not regulate what a landlord charges someone to apply for a home: no law caps an application or screening fee, ties it to what the reports cost, requires a receipt or a refund, or sets what must be disclosed before the money is paid.
Alabama deposit interest
Alabama requires no interest on a residential security deposit, and imposes no duty to hold the deposit in any particular place.
Alabama habitability & repairs
Alabama requires a landlord to make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep a rented home in a habitable condition, and that duty comes entirely from statute.
Alabama lease termination
In Alabama either side may end a month-to-month tenancy with 30 days' written notice, and a week-to-week tenancy with seven days, without giving any reason.
Alabama lease disclosures
An Alabama landlord must tell a tenant one thing at or before the tenancy begins: in writing, the name and business address of whoever manages the premises and of an owner or a person authorized to accept service and notices for the owner.
Alabama pets & assistance animals
Alabama does not cap a pet deposit, because pets are one of three things carved out of the one-month ceiling on security.
Alabama mobile home park laws
Alabama has no manufactured-home community tenancy act, so a resident who owns the home and rents the lot has no statutory notice before a rent increase, no limit on how much or how often lot rent rises, no cause requirement before the tenancy ends, no closure notice and no right to be told the community is for sale.
Alabama Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Alabama metro area and county.
Editable Alabama deposit kit · Editable Alabama disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Alabama rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, October 2, 2026 — Notice periods now print in the unit each statute uses (correction). Entry notice: the statutes of Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Washington say two days and Oklahoma's says one day, and those pages show days; Delaware's and Vermont's say 48 hours, and their pages, which had shown 2 days, now show 48 hours. Eviction notice for unpaid rent: California, Florida and Utah give three days that leave out Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and their pages now show 3 business days, as does California's lease-violation notice; Nevada's shows 7 judicial days; Alabama's two notices show 7 business days. Each statute was read on its official site on October 1, 2026. No period changed.
- Correction, October 2, 2026 — Alabama (correction): the eviction page had shown the notices for unpaid rent and for a lease violation as 7 days. The statute gives seven business days after the tenant receives the notice (Ala. Code 35-9A-421(a) and (b)), and the page now shows business days. The business-day wording dates from Act 2018-473, effective June 1, 2018, not from the 2014 act the late fee page had named. Also corrected: a tenant who appeals holds off the writ by paying the circuit court clerk the rent that has come due since the case was filed, not all rent owed (35-9A-461(d)); a sheriff or constable who neglects or refuses to execute the process forfeits $200 to the party aggrieved, which the page had called a fine (6-6-333); the circuit court may hear a case from the start where a money claim joined with it exceeds $6,000 (12-11-30); the notice for a default that cannot be cured is a seven-day notice the statute does not require to be written (35-9A-421(d)); the bar on local rent control leaves a local government free to manage property in which it has a property interest (11-80-8.1). The entry page now says that the sentence setting two days' notice speaks of showing the premises, and that a general notice or schedule given more than two days ahead covers repairs, maintenance and pest control (35-9A-303(c) and (d)).
How this record was verified: Every section these answers rest on was read on October 1, 2026 on the Legislature's Code of Alabama service at alison.legislature.state.al.us, which includes the acts of the 2026 Regular Session: all of Title 35, chapter 9A; sections 35-9-6 and 35-9B-9; Title 6, chapter 6, article 8; sections 12-11-30 and 12-12-30; and section 11-80-8.1, each with its credit line. The history of the 60-day deposit deadline and the seven-business-day notices was read in the enrolled Acts 2014-279 and 2018-473 on the Secretary of State's acts roll, and in Act 2006-316 with its Alabama Comments on the state judiciary's site. The district court provisions of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules 6, 12, 55 and 62) were read on judicial.alabama.gov and the eviction complaint form C-59 on eforms.alacourt.gov. No act from 2019 through 2026 amended a section cited here: each section's credit line, the 2026 table of code sections affected and the 2025 and 2026 act lists were searched, and the 2026 special session dealt only with redistricting. Negative answers (no late-fee cap, no grace period, no deposit interest, no separate account, no rent-increase notice) rest on the full text of chapter 9A and a search of the whole code for each subject; the manufactured-home chapters (Title 35, chapter 12A and Title 24, chapters 5 and 6) hold no tenancy terms on these subjects.