How many hours' notice must a landlord give before entering in Kentucky?

2 days. This applies only where the local government has adopted the URLTA. In the rest of Kentucky there is no entry statute at all, so absent an emergency or a lease clause the landlord needs the tenant's permission. The statute states the period as two days rather than in hours.

What reasons allow a landlord to enter a rental in Kentucky?

With the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold: inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, and showings to purchasers, mortgagees, prospective tenants, workmen or contractors.

Can a landlord enter without notice in an emergency in Kentucky?

Yes — Kentucky recognizes an emergency exception to the entry-notice requirement.

Are there time-of-day limits on when a landlord can enter in Kentucky?

Kentucky defines no clock hours. Entry is limited to 'reasonable times' (KRS 383.615(3)).

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

Verified July 10, 2026 All Kentucky topics →

Measure that did not become law. The following recent proposal failed and is not law — noted here because failed bills are sometimes still described as 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 on this page 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.

Cited to KRS 383.615 (1)-(4) and 2 more Kentucky statutes · Verified July 10, 2026

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	This applies only where the local government has adopted the URLTA. In the rest of Kentucky there is no entry statute at all, so absent an emergency or a lease clause the landlord needs the tenant's permission. The statute states the period as two days rather than in hours. 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. Two (2) days is the same period as the 48 hours recorded here. 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 the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold: inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, and showings to purchasers, mortgagees, prospective tenants, workmen or contractors. Those consent-based purposes are KRS 383.615(1). 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	Kentucky defines no clock hours. Entry is limited to 'reasonable times' (KRS 383.615(3)).

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Kentucky Landlord Entry Notice Laws (verified July 10, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/entry-notice/kentucky/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Kentucky statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

'2 days,' not 24 hours — and only where the URLTA is adopted — The notice period is shown as '2 days' because that is what the statute says — two (2) days' notice (KRS 383.615(3)) — not an hours figure. The URLTA-only scoping comes before the number wherever it appears: this rule applies only in adopting jurisdictions, though consumer sites present it as statewide and some national aggregators wrongly normalize Kentucky to '24 hours.'
The 'impracticable' escape hatch is routinely omitted — the exception — notice is excused 'unless it is impracticable to do so' — is in the statutory text of KRS 383.615(3) and is routinely omitted by summaries; it belongs in any account of the rule.
Remedies run both directions (KRS 383.700) — the landlord can compel access or terminate; the tenant can enjoin abusive entry or terminate — each side with actual damages and attorney fees.
'Reasonable times' is statutory, not a gap — The time-of-day answer carries the 'reasonable times' standard rather than sitting empty because the phrase is in the statute itself (KRS 383.615(3)).
Outside URLTA territory: no permission, no entry — per the Fort Knox Legal Assistance brief (a government source), the lease is controlling at common law in non-URLTA jurisdictions — no emergency, no lease right, no permission, no entry.
Unchanged since 1984 — KRS 383.615 has not been amended since its 1984 enactment.

Common questions: Kentucky entry notice

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How many hours' notice must a landlord give before entering in Kentucky?: 2 days. This applies only where the local government has adopted the URLTA. In the rest of Kentucky there is no entry statute at all, so absent an emergency or a lease clause the landlord needs the tenant's permission. The statute states the period as two days rather than in hours.
What reasons allow a landlord to enter a rental in Kentucky?: With the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold: inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, and showings to purchasers, mortgagees, prospective tenants, workmen or contractors.
Can a landlord enter without notice in an emergency in Kentucky?: Yes — Kentucky recognizes an emergency exception to the entry-notice requirement.
Are there time-of-day limits on when a landlord can enter in Kentucky?: Kentucky defines no clock hours. Entry is limited to 'reasonable times' (KRS 383.615(3)).

Statute citations

KRS 383.615 (1)-(4) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.500 (local-option adoption — scopes the entry rule to adopting jurisdictions) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.615 (current-code mirror, current through 2025-01-01) (3) (verified 2026) Unofficial mirror

How this record was verified: Every section these answers rest on 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. 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. Louisville Metro Code ch. 151 was read directly 2026-07-10 on the American Legal Publishing code library (codelibrary.amlegal.com, supplement 2026 S-47, current through ordinances of 2026-05-20) — § 151.01 titles the chapter the 'Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act' with an express statutory reference to KRS 383.500-383.705, ordinance lineage Jefferson County Ord. 22-1984 (adopted and effective 7-24-1984), recodified as 1994 Jeff. Code ch. 151, continued post-merger by Lou. Metro Am. Ord. No. 134-2006 (approved 8-23-2006); § 151.26 (security deposits) read in full and tracks KRS 383.580 verbatim in substance, including the separate-account/account-number disclosure, signed move-in/move-out damage listings with written dissent, the forfeiture-only penalty, and the 30-day (F) / 60-day (G) TENANT-side windows — confirming the reading given here that those windows are forfeiture rules, not landlord return deadlines. Metro-only additions beyond the URLTA text (eviction-court legal-representation §§ 151.60-151.61) noted and out of v1 scope.