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 no statute gives a landlord a right to enter, so any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent. 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 October 1, 2026 Correction October 2, 2026 All Kentucky topics →

What did not become law. None of the following is law; 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with no further action; the 2026 Regular Session adjourned sine die 2026-04-15. 2026 RS HB 202, which would have repealed KRS 383.500 and applied a rewritten act to every lease of a dwelling unit in Kentucky, was referred to House Judiciary on January 14, 2026 and also died; no 2026 act amended KRS 383.500-383.715, 383.195, or 65.875 — a future statewide-URLTA enactment would rescope Kentucky landlord-tenant law across the board and is the top KY watch item. (checked July 9, 2026).

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 and Lexington; in most of Kentucky there is no entry statute at all, and any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent.

Cited to KRS 383.615 (1)-(4) and 1 more cited source · Verified October 1, 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 tenant absence of more than seven days, 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 no statute gives a landlord a right to enter, so any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent. 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. Kentucky's time-computation statute leaves intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays out of any period shorter than seven days (KRS 446.030(1)(a)), so the two days are not a fixed 48 hours. Outside URLTA jurisdictions Kentucky has NO entry statute — any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent.
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 October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/entry-notice/kentucky/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited 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 entry statute — Outside adopting jurisdictions no statute gives a landlord a right to enter a rented home: the entry section, KRS 383.615, applies only where the act has been adopted (KRS 383.500), so any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent.
Unchanged since 1984 — KRS 383.615 has not been amended since 1984, when 1984 Ky. Acts ch. 176 repealed and reenacted it; it was first enacted in 1974.

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 no statute gives a landlord a right to enter, so any right of entry comes from the lease or the tenant's consent. 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)).

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 — Kentucky (correction): several pages had said that outside the cities and counties that have adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act no statute applies. Two statewide sections do: a landlord may not charge a pet fee or deposit for an assistance animal (KRS 383.085(4)), and a tenant who holds over after a fixed term may be removed without notice only if the case is begun within 30 days after the term ends, or 90 days for a term of a year or more (KRS 383.160). The eviction timeline is restated from the statutes: about 19 to 21 days from the notice to the earliest warrant where the act applies, and about 11 to 13 days from filing where it does not. Also corrected: a local ordinance cannot lengthen the act's notice periods, because a locality must adopt the act whole and without amendment (KRS 383.500, 383.198); a landlord may enter during a tenant's absence of more than seven days, and the statute requires no documentation of it (KRS 383.670(2)); since June 27, 2025 the bar on billing a landlord for an emergency response fee reaches a response caused by a tenant or guest where the landlord kept the building to code (KRS 65.111); the Louisville owner-occupancy rule for new leases does not reach a lot with one single-family home and no accessory dwelling unit (KRS 383.199); the deposit and entry sections date from 1974 and were reenacted in 1984. No state publication lists the localities that have adopted the act; the pages now name Lexington-Fayette from its own code (section 12-54) and Louisville from a Court of Appeals decision, and no longer cite privately compiled lists.

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

How this record was verified: Every section these answers rest on was read on the Legislative Research Commission's statute pages at apps.legislature.ky.gov. On October 1, 2026 each was read there again (the Commission's database includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session): KRS 383.500 to 383.715, the forcible entry and detainer sections 383.195 to 383.290, and KRS 383.085, 383.160, 383.302, 65.111, 65.875 and 446.030, together with the sections-affected tables for 2019 through 2026, the Administrative Office of the Courts forms AOC-215, AOC-216, AOC-217 and AOC-220, and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Code § 12-54, which enacts the act. No state publication lists the localities that have adopted the act; the Commission's 2018 local mandate statement on House Bill 550 gives a count. 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.