How much notice must a landlord give before entering in North Dakota?

Verified July 11, 2026 All North Dakota topics →

North Dakota sets no fixed advance-notice period for landlord entry — instead, before a routine entry the landlord must (unless impractical) notify the tenant and obtain consent for a specific time, and the tenant's consent is presumed if the tenant does not object after getting notice of intent to enter at that stated time.

Consent may not be unreasonably withheld, entry must happen during reasonable hours and in a reasonable manner, and the permitted purposes are inspection, necessary or agreed repairs and improvements, supplying services, and showing the unit to prospective buyers, insurers, mortgagees, agents, tenants, workers, or contractors. The landlord may enter at ANY time, without notice or consent, in an emergency, when the landlord reasonably believes the tenant has abandoned the premises, or when the landlord reasonably believes the tenant is in substantial violation of the lease — an unusually broad third ground most states do not have. Notice can be personally served, posted conspicuously at the unit, or given any other way that actually informs the tenant, and the statute forbids using the access right to harass or intimidate the tenant.

North Dakota entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	No fixed statutory period (see notice standard)
Notice standard	No fixed advance-notice period. For routine entry the landlord must, unless impractical, first notify the tenant and receive consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold and which must identify a time certain; consent is PRESUMED if the tenant fails to object after receiving notice of intent to enter at a time certain (47-16-07.3(2)). Notice may be given by personal service, by posting in a conspicuous place in or about the dwelling unit for a reasonable period, or by any other method that results in actual notice.
Permitted reasons	Routine entry (during reasonable hours, in a reasonable manner): inspecting the premises; making necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements; supplying necessary or agreed services; or exhibiting the unit to actual or potential purchasers, insurers, mortgagees, real estate agents, tenants, workmen, or contractors (47-16-07.3(2)). Any-time entry without consent: emergency; the landlord reasonably believes the tenant has abandoned the premises; or the landlord reasonably believes the tenant is in substantial violation of the lease or rental agreement (47-16-07.3(1)). The landlord may not abuse the access right or use it to harass or intimidate the tenant.
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	None by the clock — routine entry is limited to 'reasonable hours' and 'a reasonable manner' only (47-16-07.3(2)); the any-time grounds in subsection 1 have no hour limit.

Notes and caveats

notice_hours null per the reasonable-notice convention (OH/ME precedent): 47-16-07.3 contains no hour or day figure — verified negative, run twice (official PDF full-chapter sweep plus FindLaw mirror read; no other entry provision exists in ch. 47-16). Charts stating ND requires '24 hours' notice' are wrong. Render the two-step structure honestly: this is a notify-AND-consent statute with a time-certain requirement, but the presumed-consent clause means in practice a landlord who gives notice of a specific entry time and hears no objection may enter — functionally similar to notice-only states, with no minimum lead time specified. The substantial-lease-violation any-time entry ground (47-16-07.3(1)) is landlord-favorable and rare; render alongside emergency and abandonment. The 'unless impractical' escape valve qualifies the notify-and-consent duty (URLTA-adjacent language). Failed HB 1272 (2025) cross-referenced this section for its proposed move-out inspection scheme but died; no amendment to 47-16-07.3 in the 2025 session.

Statute citations

N.D. Cent. Code § 47-16-07.3 (1)-(2) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text in the official North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs on ndlegis.gov (t47c16.pdf read in full, t47c32.pdf sections 47-32-01/-02/-05, t09c08.pdf section 9-08-04), whose official currency page states the posted code reflects all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly, current as of 2025-07-01. Every load-bearing figure (1-month deposit cap; 2-month felony and prior-judgment exceptions; pet deposit greater of $2,500 or 2 months; 30-day itemized return; 9-month interest threshold; treble damages; 30-day written change-of-terms notice covering rent; 25-day tenant termination after a change notice; one-calendar-month m2m termination; no entry-hour figure) was read twice independently — official PDF pass plus codes.findlaw.com mirror pass (current through 2024-01-01), reconciled verbatim, with deposit figures additionally matched against the current-law baseline reprinted in introduced HB 1272 (2025). Amendment history pinned from official session-law PDFs: 2015 ch. 312 (HB 1192, pet deposit subsection), 2017 ch. 316 (HB 1220, felony exception), 2019 ch. 379 (HB 1150, prior-judgment exception). 2025 regular-session sweep via official bill-overview pages: HB 1272 (inspections/deposits) failed House 41-47 on 2025-02-07; SB 2236 (late-fee cap amending 47-16-20) failed Senate 7-39 on 2025-02-04; SB 2237 (labor-commissioner oversight) failed 5-41; SB 2366 (notice of intention to evict) failed 8-37; SB 2238 (eviction-record sealing, now 47-32-05) enacted, signed 2025-03-26 — out of v1 topic scope. January 2026 special session (3 days) was Rural Health Transformation Program only; no regular session in 2026, next regular session January 2027. Negative findings (no late-fee statute, no entry-hour figure, no deposit-interest rate figure, no frequency limits) verified against the complete section-heading list of ch. 47-16 read from the official chapter PDF, run twice.