How much notice must a landlord give before entering in Kentucky?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Kentucky topics →

Pending legislation — not yet law. The rules on this page reflect current law only. The following bill would change it if enacted:

HB 340 (2026 RS) — 'AN ACT relating to termination of residential leases' — Would have created early-termination rights (new sections of KRS ch. 383) for 'medically fragile' tenants (30 days' notice plus medical documentation), tenants 60+ or disabled on the death of a spouse or cotenant (60 days' notice), and tenants facing unabated lead hazards. Does not touch deposits, entry, late fees, or rent-increase rules, but it was the session's principal landlord-tenant bill and a likely refile.Status: Dead. Referred to House Judiciary 2026-01-21 with no further action; the 2026 Regular Session adjourned sine die 2026-04-15. No 2026 bill amending KRS 383.500-383.715, 383.195, or 65.875 was found; the perennial statewide-URLTA bills (2017 HB 510, 2018 HB 550, 2021 HB 595) were not refiled in 2026 — a future statewide-URLTA enactment would rescope every topic in this record and is the top KY watch item. (checked 2026-07-09).

Kentucky landlords must give at least two days' notice before entering a rental — but only in the cities and counties that have adopted the state's optional Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, such as Louisville, Lexington, Covington, and the other documented adopters; in most of Kentucky there is no entry statute at all, and absent an emergency or a lease clause the landlord needs the tenant's permission.

Where the act applies, tenants may not unreasonably refuse entry for inspections, repairs, agreed services, or showings to buyers, lenders, prospective tenants, and contractors, and the landlord may enter without consent in an emergency. The two-day notice rule carries a little-quoted escape hatch — it yields when notice 'is impracticable' — and entry must always be at reasonable times, never as harassment. The statute's access list is exclusive: beyond consent, emergency, court order, a documented seven-day tenant absence, a failure-to-maintain cure entry, or abandonment, the landlord has no right to enter, and abuse of access lets the tenant seek an injunction, damages, attorney fees, or lease termination.

Kentucky entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	2 days
Notice standard	Two (2) days' notice — encoded as 48 hours; render as '2 days.' Applies ONLY in jurisdictions that have adopted the URLTA. KRS 383.615(3): except in emergency 'or unless it is impracticable to do so,' the landlord must give at least two days' notice of intent to enter and may enter only at reasonable times; the same subsection bars using access to harass. Outside URLTA jurisdictions Kentucky has NO entry statute — absent an emergency or a lease provision, the landlord needs the tenant's permission.
Permitted reasons	With tenant consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold (KRS 383.615(1)): inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, or exhibiting the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workmen, or contractors. Without consent: emergencies (383.615(2)). Otherwise access is an exclusive list (383.615(4)): court order; entry to cure the tenant's own maintenance failures after 14 days' written notice (KRS 383.665); entry 'at times reasonably necessary' during a tenant absence exceeding seven days (KRS 383.670(2)); or abandonment/surrender.
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	No clock hours defined — entry is limited to 'reasonable times' (KRS 383.615(3)).

Notes and caveats

notice_hours encoded 48 (statutory 'two (2) days'' notice, KRS 383.615(3)) — renders as '2 days' — and the applicability scoping must lead every rendering: this is a URLTA-jurisdictions-only rule, though consumer sites present it statewide (and some national aggregators wrongly normalize KY to '24 hours'). The '(or) unless it is impracticable to do so' exception is in the statutory text and is routinely omitted by summaries — page copy should include it. Remedies live in KRS 383.700 (both directions: landlord can compel access or terminate; tenant can enjoin abusive entry or terminate, each with actual damages and attorney fees). time_of_day_restrictions carries the 'reasonable times' standard rather than null because the phrase is statutory. Non-URLTA framing per the Fort Knox Legal Assistance brief (government source): the lease is controlling at common law — no emergency, no lease right, no permission, no entry. Section unchanged since 1984.

Statute citations

KRS 383.615 (official LRC text; read twice plus Lexington ordinance-booklet corroboration, all matched) (1)-(4) Official source
KRS 383.500 (local-option adoption — scopes the entry rule to adopting jurisdictions) Official source
KRS 383.615 (current-code mirror, current through 2025-01-01) (3) Unofficial mirror

How this record was verified: Every load-bearing section read verbatim from official Kentucky LRC statute PDFs at apps.legislature.ky.gov (KRS 383.500, 383.580, 383.615, 383.695, 383.565, 383.570, 383.660, 383.535, 383.195, 383.198, 383.199, and 65.875), each with an independent second read on the FindLaw mirror (current through 2025-01-01) that matched — Justia, the usual second host, returned 403 throughout, so FindLaw served as the mirror. A third corroborating read of 383.565/.570/.580/.615/.695 came via the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission's booklet of Ordinance No. 98-84 (the LFUCG URLTA adoption), whose reproduced text matched. The URLTA adopter list is from the Fort Knox Legal Assistance Office brief (US Army, government source) corroborated by a Kentucky landlord-side attorney's published list; no official registry exists. 2026 Regular Session (adjourned sine die 2026-04-15) swept via official bill pages and the LRC chapter listing, which is current through the 2026 RS and shows no amendments to any section used here.