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

No fixed statutory period (see notice standard). Tennessee requires no advance notice before a landlord enters, even in URLTA counties. The one exception is showing the unit to prospective tenants during the final 30 days of the tenancy, which needs at least 24 hours' notice and a lease clause granting that access right.

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

A Tennessee landlord may enter with the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold, for inspections, repairs, decorating, alterations, improvements, agreed services, and showings. Without consent, entry is limited to emergencies and a short statutory list.

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

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

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

Verified July 9, 2026 All Tennessee 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:

SB 961 / HB 955 (114th General Assembly) — 'Affordable Housing and Tenant Protection Act' — Would repeal the residential half of the rent-control preemption in T.C.A. § 66-35-102, allowing local rent control adopted by a two-thirds vote with a local rent agency, plus a THDA gap-financing program. Would flip local_control_preempted for residential property if ever enacted.Status: Not enacted. HB 955 was deferred in the House Cities & Counties Subcommittee to the 'January 2027 calendar' on 2026-03-18 — with the 114th GA adjourned sine die, this is effectively a soft kill; watch for a 115th GA refile. (checked 2026-07-09).

Tennessee's entry statute — which applies only in the 19 large URLTA counties — requires no advance notice for ordinary entries: tenants simply may not unreasonably withhold consent for inspections, repairs, services, or showings to buyers and contractors.

Cited to T.C.A. § 66-28-403 (current-code mirror) (a)-(e) and 1 more Tennessee statute · Verified July 9, 2026

The statute's only notice period is narrow and specific: during the final 30 days of the tenancy, a landlord may show the unit to prospective tenants on at least 24 hours' notice, and only if the lease reserves that right — claims that Tennessee requires 24 hours' notice for all non-emergency entry stretch the statute well past its text. Emergency entry needs no consent, with 'emergency' helpfully defined as a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence demanding immediate action, and the statute separately bars using access rights to harass. In the other 76 counties there is no entry statute at all: absent an emergency or a lease provision, the landlord needs the tenant's permission.

Tennessee entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	No fixed statutory period (see notice standard)
Notice standard	Tennessee requires no advance notice before a landlord enters, even in URLTA counties. The one exception is showing the unit to prospective tenants during the final 30 days of the tenancy, which needs at least 24 hours' notice and a lease clause granting that access right. § 66-28-403 runs on a consent standard: the tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent for the statutory purposes (a), and the landlord's access rights are an exclusive list (e) — court order; the section's own provisions (plus §§ 66-28-506 and 66-28-507(b)); abandonment or surrender; tenant deceased, incapacitated, or incarcerated; or the lease-authorized final-30-days showings described above.
Permitted reasons	A Tennessee landlord may enter with the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold, for inspections, repairs, decorating, alterations, improvements, agreed services, and showings. Without consent, entry is limited to emergencies and a short statutory list. The consent purposes are set out in § 66-28-403(a): inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, or exhibiting the premises to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, workers, or contractors. Without consent, the landlord may enter for emergencies, utilities-off situations, and the subsection (e) list, which includes lease-authorized showings to prospective tenants in the final 30 days of the tenancy on 24 hours' notice.
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Tennessee Landlord Entry Notice Laws (verified July 9, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/entry-notice/tennessee/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Tennessee statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Why the notice-hours field is blank — The 24-hour rule is confined to lease-authorized showings during the final 30 days of the tenancy. Recording 24 hours as Tennessee's entry-notice period would commit the exact overstatement this page warns against.
Stale-source trap — there was no 2021 or 2022 amendment — § 66-28-403 was rewritten in its entirety by 2011 Pub. Ch. 272, § 10 and has not been amended since; the credit line carries no later act. Sources framing a 2021 or 2022 amendment are wrong.
Subsection (e) is an exclusive list — Tennessee's landlord access rights are structured as a closed list, which is unusual: everything not on the list is off-limits.
Adjacent 2024 law — maintenance contacts, not entry — The 2024 maintenance-communication law (Pub. Ch. 907, effective January 1, 2025) amended § 66-28-302 to require landlords to disclose a maintenance phone number or email, or a portal. It sits beside the entry rules but is not one.
No time-of-day limits — No Tennessee provision restricts the hours during which a landlord may enter, so that field is left empty.
Outside URLTA counties — no emergency, no permission, no entry — Tennessee legal-aid guidance frames the non-URLTA counties in one line: no emergency, no permission, no entry.

Common questions: Tennessee 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 Tennessee?: No fixed statutory period (see notice standard). Tennessee requires no advance notice before a landlord enters, even in URLTA counties. The one exception is showing the unit to prospective tenants during the final 30 days of the tenancy, which needs at least 24 hours' notice and a lease clause granting that access right.
What reasons allow a landlord to enter a rental in Tennessee?: A Tennessee landlord may enter with the tenant's consent, which the tenant may not unreasonably withhold, for inspections, repairs, decorating, alterations, improvements, agreed services, and showings. Without consent, entry is limited to emergencies and a short statutory list.
Can a landlord enter without notice in an emergency in Tennessee?: Yes — Tennessee recognizes an emergency exception to the entry-notice requirement.
Are there time-of-day limits on when a landlord can enter in Tennessee?: Not addressed by statute.

Statute citations

T.C.A. § 66-28-403 (current-code mirror) (a)-(e) (verified 2026) Unofficial mirror
2011 Pub. Ch. 272, § 10 (official session law rewriting the section, eff. 2011-10-01) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Tennessee's official code is published via LexisNexis without stable deep links (GA-class sourcing situation), so verification pairs current code mirrors with official session-law PDFs from the Tennessee Secretary of State: T.C.A. §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, 66-28-301, 66-28-403, 66-28-512, and 66-35-102 read verbatim on the Justia 2024-edition and FindLaw (current through 2024-01-02) mirrors — §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, and 66-28-403 each read twice independently, with the reads matching — with every recent amendment traced to the official act text: 2011 Pub. Ch. 272 (inspection scheme, late-fee rule, entry rewrite), 2012 Pub. Chs. 847 and 887, 2013 Pub. Ch. 206, and 2021 Pub. Ch. 182 (census freeze + county preemption), all read from publications.tnsosfiles.com PDFs. Bill statuses (SB 961/HB 955 et al.) checked on official capitol.tn.gov pages 2026-07-09.