What does Alaska law require a landlord to repair?

Verified August 30, 2026 All Alaska topics →

Alaska law requires a landlord to make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep a rented home in a fit and habitable condition, and adds six more obligations covering common areas, systems and appliances including elevators and kitchen facilities, waste removal, running water with reasonable hot water and heat, locks and keys on request, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Cited to AS 34.03.040 (prohibited provisions in rental agreements) (a), (b) and 9 more cited sources · Verified August 30, 2026

The duty is entirely statutory, and unusually it does not include compliance with local building or housing codes. For an ordinary repair failure the tenant's route is a written notice giving the landlord 10 days to cure inside a termination runway of at least 20 days, plus damages and injunctive relief. For a failure of running water, hot water, heat, sanitary facilities or other essential services, the tenant may act immediately after written notice and choose one of three remedies: procure the missing service and deduct the cost from rent with no limit at all, claim the drop in fair rental value, or move into substitute housing with the rent excused and the extra cost recoverable. There is no general repair-and-deduct remedy, so a broken window or a dead appliance carries no deduction. Rent cannot simply be withheld; the tenant counterclaims, and paying rent into court is one of four things the judge may order, with the deposit refunded or spent on making the home fit if the problems are still uncured after six months. Attorney fees go to whichever side wins any proceeding under the act.

Alaska habitability & repairs at a glance

Where the duty comes from Statute — no independent court-created warranty operates alongside it
Duty source details The duty rests on statute alone: AS 34.03.100, "Landlord to maintain fit premises," inside Alaska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, AS 34.03.010 and following, adopted in 1974. Alaska's courts construe and enforce that statute, and the act itself supplies the whole apparatus of duty and remedy; no separate court-created implied warranty of habitability operates alongside it.
Who is covered Statewide — no coverage split
Where the repair standards live The statute itself lists specific standards
What must be kept in repair The statute lists seven obligations and they are broader than the uniform act's baseline in several places. The landlord must make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition; keep all common areas clean and safe; maintain in good and safe working order all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, kitchen and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, that the landlord supplies or must supply; provide and maintain receptacles for ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste and arrange for removal; supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water and heat at all times, insofar as energy conditions permit; provide and maintain locks and furnish keys reasonably adequate for the tenant's safety, if the tenant asks; and provide smoke detection and carbon monoxide detection devices as the fire code requires. What the list does not contain matters just as much: there is no obligation to comply with applicable building and housing codes. That subdivision, standard in uniform-act states, is simply absent from Alaska's duty, and Alaska has no statewide housing code. A landlord of a single-family residence in an undeveloped rural area, or where public sewer or water service has never been connected, is not liable for breach of the facilities duty or the water, hot water and heat duty if the unit lacked running water, hot water, sewage or sanitary facilities from a private system at the beginning of the rental agreement.
Heat standard type A duty to supply heat or maintain temperatures while the unit is occupied
Heat standard details The duty is to supply, and it is stated without a number: the landlord must supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water and heat at all times, insofar as energy conditions permit. Alaska sets no temperature, no measuring point and no seasonal window; what is owed is reasonable heat. Two exceptions cut into it. The duty does not apply where the building is constructed so that heat or hot water is generated by an installation within the tenant's exclusive control and supplied by a direct public utility connection. And where the premises have no well and no water from a direct public utility connection, the rental agreement may specifically state that the tenant waives the landlord's duty to supply running water or hot water. The separate rural exemption removes the duty entirely for a single-family residence in an undeveloped rural area, or where public sewer or water was never connected, if the unit started the tenancy without those services.
Headline repair day count 10 days
Notice and repair-window rules Ten days is the landlord's window to fix, and it sits inside a longer termination runway rather than standing alone. For a material breach of the rental agreement, or a failure to meet the duty section that materially affects health and safety, the tenant delivers written notice specifying the acts and omissions and stating that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than 20 days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in 10 days. If the landlord remedies the breach before the date in the notice, the tenancy continues. So the landlord has 10 days to cure, and the tenancy cannot end sooner than 20 days after the notice arrives. Where substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months, and the landlord has not exercised due care, the tenant may terminate on at least 10 days' written notice. The tenant may not terminate for a condition caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, a member of the tenant's family, or another person on the premises with the tenant's consent. Essential services run on a different footing entirely: the tenant gives written notice and may act immediately, with no waiting period, but rights do not arise at all until that written notice is given.
Repair and deduct Only for essential-service failures, not general repairs — Limit: There is no cap of any kind. The section states no dollar figure, no fraction of rent, no frequency limit and no aggregate ceiling; the tenant deducts the actual and reasonable cost of what was procured. Where the tenant instead takes substitute housing, rent is excused for the whole period of noncompliance and the tenant may also recover the amount by which the actual and reasonable cost of that housing exceeds the rent, again with no ceiling. — The remedy reaches essential services only. Alaska's act contains no general repair-and-deduct section, so a leaking roof, a broken window, a failed lock or a dead appliance that is not an essential service carries no deduction; those go through the general noncompliance route of termination, damages and injunctive relief. Where the landlord deliberately or negligently fails to supply running water, hot water, heat, sanitary facilities or other essential services, contrary to the rental agreement or the duty section, the tenant gives written notice specifying the breach and may immediately choose one of three courses: procure reasonable amounts of those services during the period of noncompliance and deduct the actual and reasonable cost from the rent; recover damages based on the diminution in the fair rental value of the unit; or procure reasonable substitute housing. Three limits are procedural rather than financial. Written notice is a condition precedent, because rights do not arise until it is given. Choosing this section bars the tenant from proceeding under the general noncompliance section as to that same breach. And rights do not arise where the condition was caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, a member of the tenant's family, or another person on the premises with the tenant's consent.
Rent withholding or escrow Only on conditions that commonly defeat it — see this page — How: withholding raised as a defense once the landlord sues; a court or agency escrow program — Alaska gives no self-help withholding right. What it gives is a counterclaim: in an action for possession based on nonpayment of rent, or in an action for rent while the tenant is in possession, the tenant may counterclaim for any amount recoverable under the rental agreement or the chapter. If the counterclaim is made, the court decides whether the defense is supported by the evidence and, if it is, may order any of four things: that the periodic rent be reduced to reflect the diminution in value during the period of noncompliance; that the action be continued for a reasonable time to let the landlord cure; that the tenant pay into court all or part of the rent accrued and accruing; or that the tenant vacate during repairs that cannot be made otherwise, with reinstatement when they are finished. Each of those is discretionary, so a deposit is not automatic, and the rent reduction is available without any deposit order. Where a deposit is ordered and the violations have not been cured within six months, the court must enter judgment for the tenant and either refund all the money deposited or use it to make the dwelling fit for human habitation. If the violations are cured, the court determines what each party owes, pays the party owed a net amount first out of the deposited money, and enters judgment for the tenant in the possession action if no rent remains due. A tenant who is no longer in possession may counterclaim without paying anything into court.
Termination over habitability failures Yes — a statute states the right — For a material breach of the rental agreement, or a failure to meet the duty section that materially affects health and safety, the tenant may end the tenancy by written notice specifying the acts and omissions and stating that the agreement terminates on a date not less than 20 days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in 10 days. A landlord who remedies the breach before that date keeps the tenancy alive. On a recurrence of substantially the same act or omission within six months, absent due care by the landlord, the tenant may terminate on at least 10 days' written notice. Damages and injunctive relief are available in addition to termination, not instead of it. When the agreement is terminated, the landlord must return all prepaid rent and any security deposit recoverable under the deposit section. A tenant who takes the essential-services route instead may not use this section for the same breach. Separate provisions cover what happens after fire or casualty damage.
Essential-service remedies Yes — distinct statutory remedies for essential-service failures — This is where Alaska's law is strongest and it carries no clock at all. A deliberate or negligent failure to supply running water, hot water, heat, sanitary facilities or other essential services entitles the tenant, after written notice specifying the breach, to act immediately. The tenant elects one of three courses: procure reasonable amounts of the missing services and deduct their actual and reasonable cost from the rent, with no ceiling; recover damages based on the diminution in the fair rental value of the unit; or procure reasonable substitute housing, in which case the tenant is excused from paying rent for the whole period of noncompliance and may additionally recover the amount by which the actual and reasonable cost of that housing exceeds the rent. Notice is a condition precedent rather than a mere pleading step, and electing this section bars the general noncompliance route for the same breach. A landlord who deliberately cuts off service to force a tenant out is a separate subject, covered with the eviction rules.
Retaliation protection Protected by a general retaliation statute — A landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent, decreasing services, or bringing or threatening to bring an action for possession after a protected act. The statute states no presumption and no look-back period; a tenant who proves retaliation is entitled to the remedies of the unlawful-ouster section, which allow recovery of possession or termination of the rental agreement plus an amount not to exceed one and one-half times the actual damages, and also has a defense in an action against the tenant for possession. Seven grounds let a landlord bring a possession action anyway, after serving a notice to quit under the forcible entry statutes: the tenant is in default in rent; compliance with the applicable building or housing code requires alteration, remodeling or demolition that would effectively deprive the tenant of the use of the unit; the tenant is committing waste or a nuisance, or using the unit for an illegal purpose or other than as a dwelling in violation of the rental agreement; the landlord seeks possession in good faith for personal purposes; the landlord seeks it in good faith for substantial alteration, remodeling or demolition; the landlord seeks it in good faith to take the unit off the market as a dwelling for at least six months; or the landlord has a good-faith contract to sell with a purchaser who has made a corresponding representation. Three grounds permit a rent increase notwithstanding a protected act: a substantial increase in property taxes or in other maintenance or operating costs unconnected with the complaint, incurred not less than four months before the demand, with the increase bearing a reasonable relationship to the net increase; a completed capital improvement, with the increase not exceeding straight-line depreciation claimable for federal income tax purposes prorated among the units that benefit; or competent evidence that the rent demanded does not exceed what other tenants of similar units in the building pay or, for a single-family residence or where there is no similar unit, fair rental value. Bringing an action on one of those grounds does not release the landlord from liability for damages and injunctive relief under the general noncompliance section. — The statute protects four acts, and the list should be read exactly as written. A tenant is protected after complaining to the landlord of a violation of the landlord's duty section; after seeking to enforce rights and remedies granted the tenant under the chapter; after organizing or becoming a member of a tenants' union or similar organization; and after complaining to a governmental agency responsible for enforcement of governmental housing, wage, price, or rent controls. There is no paragraph protecting a complaint to a building or housing code enforcement body, which is the standard provision elsewhere. That is coherent with Alaska having no statewide housing code and no code-compliance duty, but it means the practical route for most repair complaints is either the complaint to the landlord or the enforcement of chapter rights.
Damages, penalties, and defenses Alongside termination, the tenant may recover damages and obtain injunctive relief for any noncompliance with the rental agreement or the duty section, and that remedy is in addition to the right to terminate. Where a landlord unlawfully removes or excludes a tenant, or wilfully diminishes services by interrupting electric, gas, water, sanitary or other essential service, the tenant may recover possession or terminate and, in either case, recover an amount not to exceed one and one-half times the actual damages; that is a ceiling on the multiplier rather than a fixed award, and it is also the measure the retaliation section points to. The fee position is the strongest feature of the chapter and is easy to miss because it sits in its own section: attorney fees must be allowed to the prevailing party in any proceeding arising out of the chapter or a rental agreement. So a lease clause making the tenant pay the landlord's fees is void, while the statute itself shifts fees to whichever side wins. The landlord's stated defenses run through the duty section and the remedy sections: conditions caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, the tenant's family or a person on the premises with the tenant's consent; the qualifier that water, hot water and heat are owed insofar as energy conditions permit; the rural exemption for single-family residences that began the tenancy without those services; a valid delegation agreement; and the enumerated grounds for possession and rent increases in the retaliation section.
Can the duty be waived or shifted Waivable in part, with a stated floor or subject-matter limit
Waiver and delegation rules The general rule is that a rental agreement may not provide that the tenant or landlord waives or foregoes rights or remedies under the chapter, authorizes anyone to confess judgment, agrees to exculpation or limitation of liability arising under law or to indemnify the other party for it, or agrees to pay the landlord's attorney fees. A prohibited provision is unenforceable, and a landlord or tenant who wilfully uses an agreement containing a provision known to be prohibited owes the other party actual damages. Three routes out of the duty nevertheless exist. The first is a real waiver written into the duty section itself: where the premises have no well and no direct public-utility water connection, the rental agreement may specifically state that the tenant waives the landlord's duty to supply running water or hot water. The second is delegation. For a one- or two-family residence the parties may agree in writing that the tenant will perform the waste-removal duty, the water, hot water and heat duty, the locks-and-keys duty and the detector duty, and may also agree on specified repairs, maintenance tasks, alterations and remodeling; the tenant may take on the facilities-and-appliances duty only where the rent exceeds $2,000 a month; and the tenant may never agree to maintain elevators in good and safe working order. For any other dwelling unit, only specified repairs, maintenance tasks, alterations or remodeling may be shifted, and only under a separate writing signed by the parties, supported by adequate consideration, entered in good faith and not to evade the landlord's obligations, that does not diminish what the landlord owes other tenants; the landlord may not treat performance of such an agreement as a condition of the rental agreement. The third is not a waiver at all but the rural exemption described with the standards.
Leading court decisions This page rests on the statutes cited below
Local rules Local building and housing codes do not feed Alaska's private duty. The duty section contains no code-compliance obligation, and Alaska has no statewide housing code, so a municipal code violation is a matter for the municipality rather than a breach of the landlord's statutory duty to the tenant. Local codes appear in the chapter only as a landlord's ground for possession, where compliance with an applicable building or housing code requires alteration, remodeling or demolition that would effectively deprive the tenant of the use of the unit.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Alaska Habitability & Repair Laws (verified August 30, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/habitability/alaska/" — 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

Common questions: Alaska habitability & repairs

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

Does Alaska have an implied warranty of habitability?
Statute — no independent court-created warranty operates alongside it. The duty rests on statute alone: AS 34.03.100, "Landlord to maintain fit premises," inside Alaska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, AS 34.03.010 and following, adopted in 1974. Alaska's courts construe and enforce that statute, and the act itself supplies the whole apparatus of duty and remedy; no separate court-created implied warranty of habitability operates alongside it.
How long does a landlord have to make repairs in Alaska?
10 days. Ten days is the landlord's window to fix, and it sits inside a longer termination runway rather than standing alone. For a material breach of the rental agreement, or a failure to meet the duty section that materially affects health and safety, the tenant delivers written notice specifying the acts and omissions and stating that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than 20 days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in 10 days.
Can a tenant repair and deduct in Alaska?
Only for essential-service failures, not general repairs — Limit: There is no cap of any kind. The section states no dollar figure, no fraction of rent, no frequency limit and no aggregate ceiling; the tenant deducts the actual and reasonable cost of what was procured.
Can a tenant withhold rent for repair problems in Alaska?
Only on conditions that commonly defeat it — see this page — How: withholding raised as a defense once the landlord sues; a court or agency escrow program — Alaska gives no self-help withholding right. What it gives is a counterclaim: in an action for possession based on nonpayment of rent, or in an action for rent while the tenant is in possession, the tenant may counterclaim for any amount recoverable under the rental agreement or the chapter.
Can a landlord retaliate against a tenant who complains about repairs in Alaska?
Protected by a general retaliation statute — A landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent, decreasing services, or bringing or threatening to bring an action for possession after a protected act. The statute states no presumption and no look-back period; a tenant who proves retaliation is entitled to the remedies of the unlawful-ouster section, which allow recovery of possession or termination of the rental agreement plus an amount not to exceed one and one-half times the actual damages, and also has a defense in an action against the tenant for possession.
Can a lease make the tenant responsible for repairs in Alaska?
Waivable in part, with a stated floor or subject-matter limit. The general rule is that a rental agreement may not provide that the tenant or landlord waives or foregoes rights or remedies under the chapter, authorizes anyone to confess judgment, agrees to exculpation or limitation of liability arising under law or to indemnify the other party for it, or agrees to pay the landlord's attorney fees. A prohibited provision is unenforceable, and a landlord or tenant who wilfully uses an agreement containing a provision known to be prohibited owes the other party actual damages.

Citations

How this record was verified: Direct reading of Alaska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, AS 34.03, on the Legislature's official statutes service, with the whole chapter from AS 34.03.010 through AS 34.03.360 read end to end and sections 34.03.040, 34.03.100, 34.03.160, 34.03.180, 34.03.190, 34.03.210, 34.03.280, 34.03.300, 34.03.310, 34.03.330 and 34.03.350 read in full; currency established from the Legislature's own record of every bill affecting each of those sections across the 33rd and 34th Legislatures, together with its complete bill list for the 34th Legislature and its lists of session laws; and the session and adjournment provisions of AS 24.05 read on the same official service.