Does Nebraska have an implied warranty of habitability?

Statute — no independent court-created warranty operates alongside it. The duty comes from Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1419, inside Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Nebraska's courts resolve habitability questions by construing that act rather than by applying an implied warranty of their own, and the section itself closes by saying that the obligations it imposes are not intended to change existing tort law in the state.

How long does a landlord have to make repairs in Nebraska?

14 days. Two periods run together. 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 thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days.

Can a tenant repair and deduct in Nebraska?

Only for essential-service failures, not general repairs — Limit: The one deduction Nebraska allows is the actual and reasonable cost of the hot water, running water, heat or essential services the tenant procured after the landlord's failure to supply them — no dollar figure, fraction of rent or frequency limit is stated for it. The separate substitute-housing recovery for a deliberate failure is capped at an amount equal to one period's rent. — The deduction reaches essential services only; there is no general repair-and-deduct remedy for ordinary disrepair.

Can a tenant withhold rent for repair problems in Nebraska?

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 — There is no standalone right to withhold rent. 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 act; the counterclaim is permissive.

Can a landlord retaliate against a tenant who complains about repairs in Nebraska?

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, so nothing turns on timing and the tenant carries the case.

Can a lease make the tenant responsible for repairs in Nebraska?

Repairs may be delegated only within uniform-act-style limits. No rental agreement may provide that the tenant waives or foregoes rights or remedies under the act, and there is no exception, so the duty section cannot be given up by agreement. The same provision bars confession of judgment, an agreement to pay the landlord's or tenant's attorney's fees, and exculpation or indemnity for liability arising due to the landlord's active and actionable negligence.

What does Nebraska law require a landlord to repair?

Verified August 30, 2026 All Nebraska topics →

Nebraska law requires a landlord, after written or actual notice, to substantially comply with applicable minimum housing codes materially affecting health and safety and to make all repairs necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition, and separately to keep common areas clean and safe, maintain systems and appliances including elevators, provide waste receptacles, and supply running water, reasonable hot water and reasonable heat.

Cited to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1408 (exclusions from application of act) and 9 more cited sources · Verified August 30, 2026

One sentence at the end of that list changes everything around it: where a minimum housing code applies to the premises, the code sets the landlord's maximum duty, so a local code caps what is owed rather than raising it. To end the tenancy the tenant gives written notice stating that the agreement terminates in at least thirty days if the breach is not remedied within fourteen, and a repeat of the same problem within six months cuts the notice to fourteen days. Damages, injunctive relief and attorney's fees for willful noncompliance do not depend on that notice. There is no repair-and-deduct remedy in Nebraska, but the essential-services remedy is broad: after written notice and with no waiting period, a tenant may buy in the missing service and deduct the cost, claim the lost rental value, or move to substitute housing with the rent excused, plus attorney's fees and, on a deliberate failure, housing costs up to one period's rent. Retaliation is barred without any time window, and the protected acts are only a complaint to a code-enforcement agency and tenants' union activity.

Nebraska habitability & repairs at a glance

Where the duty comes from	Statute — no independent court-created warranty operates alongside it
Duty source details	The duty comes from Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1419, inside Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Nebraska's courts resolve habitability questions by construing that act rather than by applying an implied warranty of their own, and the section itself closes by saying that the obligations it imposes are not intended to change existing tort law in the state. No independent judicially created warranty of habitability operates alongside the statute.
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 six duties, and two of them carry a qualifier that changes how the whole section works. The landlord must substantially comply, after written or actual notice, with the requirements of the applicable minimum housing codes materially affecting health and safety; make all repairs and do whatever is necessary, after written or actual notice, 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 and air conditioning 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 from the appropriate receptacle; and supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat. Three features set Nebraska apart. The code duty reaches minimum housing codes rather than building and housing codes generally, and asks for substantial compliance rather than compliance. The first two duties are triggered by notice on the face of the statute. And where a minimum housing code applies to the premises, that code fixes the landlord's maximum duty under the section, which is the opposite of the floor most states set. Nebraska has no separate mold or pest statute; those conditions reach the landlord only through the general fit-and-habitable duty.
Heat standard type	A duty to supply heat or maintain temperatures while the unit is occupied
Heat standard details	The duty is to supply reasonable heat, stated without a temperature figure and without a seasonal window: the landlord must supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat. It does not apply where the building is not required by law to be equipped for the purpose, or where the unit is so constructed that heat or hot water is generated by an installation within the tenant's exclusive control and supplied by a direct public utility connection. Two Nebraska particulars matter. Where a minimum housing code applies to the premises, that code sets the ceiling on what the landlord owes, so a local code with a low standard limits the heat duty rather than raising it. And the essential-services remedy that answers a heat failure carries no waiting period of any kind, but it does not arise until the tenant has given written notice.
Headline repair day count	14 days
Notice and repair-window rules	Two periods run together. 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 thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days. The landlord must actually remedy the breach, not merely begin work, and doing so before the date named in the notice keeps the tenancy alive. Where substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months, the tenant may terminate on at least fourteen days' written notice, so the repeat path is the faster one. 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. A separate and earlier notice matters just as much: the code-compliance duty and the general fit-and-habitable duty arise only after written or actual notice to the landlord, so notice is what starts the duty as well as the clock. Once that notice has been given, the tenant may seek damages or injunctive relief without ever serving the thirty-day termination notice, and need not pursue both remedies to pursue either. Essential-service failures have no day count at all, but the rights do not arise until the tenant has given written notice.
Repair and deduct	Only for essential-service failures, not general repairs — Limit: The one deduction Nebraska allows is the actual and reasonable cost of the hot water, running water, heat or essential services the tenant procured after the landlord's failure to supply them — no dollar figure, fraction of rent or frequency limit is stated for it. The separate substitute-housing recovery for a deliberate failure is capped at an amount equal to one period's rent. — The deduction reaches essential services only; there is no general repair-and-deduct remedy for ordinary disrepair. The omission is structural: the tenant-remedy sections run in an unbroken sequence from general noncompliance through failure to deliver possession, essential services, the noncompliance defense, fire or casualty damage and unlawful ouster, with no minor-repair section among them, and the word deduct appears exactly once in all 49 sections of the act, in the essential-services provision. The essential-services deduction requires the tenant's written notice specifying the breach and is described in full with the essential-services rules. A tenant who repairs and deducts for ordinary disrepair has no statutory shield and faces an eviction for nonpayment; the routes for ordinary disrepair are the termination notice, damages and injunctive relief, and a counterclaim if the landlord sues.
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 — There is no standalone right to withhold rent. 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 act; the counterclaim is permissive. The court may from time to time order the tenant to pay into court all or part of the rent accrued and accruing, and must determine the amount due to each party, paying the party owed a net amount first out of the money in court with the balance paid by the other party. If no rent remains due after that accounting, judgment is entered for the tenant in the possession action. The pay-in is discretionary, so this is a judge-managed deposit rather than an escrow a tenant may open unilaterally. The risk is symmetrical: if the tenant's defense or counterclaim is without merit and not raised in good faith, the landlord may recover reasonable attorney's fees. A tenant no longer in possession may counterclaim in an action for rent without paying anything into court.
Termination over habitability failures	Yes — a statute states the right — The tenant may end the tenancy for a material breach of the rental agreement, or a failure to meet the duty section that materially affects health and safety, by written notice specifying the acts and omissions and stating that the agreement will terminate on a date not less than thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days. The tenancy survives if the landlord adequately remedies the breach before the date named in the notice. Where substantially the same problem recurs within six months, the tenant may terminate on at least fourteen days' written notice. Damages and injunctive relief are available in addition to termination, and neither depends on serving this notice. On termination the landlord must return all prepaid rent and security recoverable under the deposit section, and no separate court action for termination is needed first. Fire or casualty damage that substantially impairs enjoyment of the unit has its own route: the tenant may vacate immediately and give written notice within fourteen days of an intention to terminate, or, if continued occupancy is lawful, vacate the unusable part with rent reduced in proportion to the diminution in fair rental value, while remaining responsible for damage caused by the tenant's own negligence.
Essential-service remedies	Yes — distinct statutory remedies for essential-service failures — This is the strongest remedy in Nebraska's act and it runs on no clock at all. Where the landlord deliberately or negligently fails to supply running water, hot water or heat, or essential services, contrary to the rental agreement or the duty section, the tenant gives written notice specifying the breach and may then choose one of three courses: procure reasonable amounts of hot water, running water, heat and essential services during the period of noncompliance and deduct their 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 during the period of noncompliance, in which case the tenant is excused from paying rent for that period. On top of the deduction route and the substitute-housing route, where the failure to supply is deliberate the tenant may recover the actual and reasonable cost or fair and reasonable value of the substitute housing, not in excess of an amount equal to the periodic rent, and in any case under the subsection reasonable attorney's fees. Three limits apply: the rights do not arise until written notice has been given; choosing this section bars the general noncompliance route for that breach; and nothing arises 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. The section also states that it is not intended to cover circumstances beyond the landlord's control. A landlord who deliberately cuts off service 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, so nothing turns on timing and the tenant carries the case. A tenant who proves a violation is entitled to the remedies of the unlawful-ouster section, which allow recovery of possession or termination of the rental agreement plus an amount equal to three months' periodic rent as liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney's fee, and also has a defense in an action for possession. The section carries a broad saver: nothing in it prohibits reasonable rent increases or changes in services notwithstanding a protected act, and that saver is stated as bare reasonableness rather than being tied to documented cost increases. Three grounds allow a possession action anyway: the violation of the applicable minimum building or housing code was caused primarily by lack of reasonable care by the tenant or another person in the tenant's household or on the premises with the tenant's consent; the tenant is in default in rent; or compliance with the code requires alteration, remodeling or demolition that would effectively deprive the tenant of the use of the unit. Maintaining such an action does not release the landlord from liability for damages and injunctive relief under the general noncompliance section. — The list has exactly two items. A tenant is protected after complaining to a government agency charged with responsibility for enforcement of a minimum building or housing code, about a violation applicable to the premises materially affecting health and safety, and after organizing or becoming a member of a tenants' union or similar organization. Complaining to the landlord is not a protected act in Nebraska, even though a written or actual complaint to the landlord is what triggers the landlord's repair duty in the first place.
Damages, penalties, and defenses	Beyond termination, the tenant may recover damages and obtain injunctive relief for any noncompliance with the rental agreement or the duty section, and may recover reasonable attorney's fees where the landlord's noncompliance is willful. Those remedies do not depend on the termination notice: once the tenant has given the written or actual notice the duty section requires, the damages and injunction route is open on its own, and the tenant need not pursue both forms of relief to pursue either. The landlord's principal defense is narrower than in some neighboring states: where the noncompliance is caused by conditions or circumstances beyond the landlord's control, the tenant may not recover consequential damages, but keeps the essential-services remedies. Further defenses are built into the duty itself, since the code-compliance and fit-and-habitable duties arise only after written or actual notice, the code duty asks only for substantial compliance, and an applicable minimum housing code caps the duty. No remedy arises for a condition 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. Using a rental agreement containing a term the act prohibits, where the landlord knows it is prohibited, costs the landlord actual damages and reasonable attorney's fees. Unlawful removal of a tenant and a willful and wrongful diminution of services carry the act's harshest measure, three months' periodic rent as liquidated damages plus a reasonable attorney's fee; that conduct is covered with the eviction rules, and it is also the measure the retaliation section borrows.
Can the duty be waived or shifted	Repairs may be delegated only within uniform-act-style limits
Waiver and delegation rules	No rental agreement may provide that the tenant waives or foregoes rights or remedies under the act, and there is no exception, so the duty section cannot be given up by agreement. The same provision bars confession of judgment, an agreement to pay the landlord's or tenant's attorney's fees, and exculpation or indemnity for liability arising due to the landlord's active and actionable negligence. A prohibited provision is unenforceable, and a landlord who deliberately uses a rental agreement containing provisions known to be prohibited owes the tenant actual damages and reasonable attorney's fees. Duties may still be shifted within the classic uniform-act limits, in two tiers plus an escape hatch. For a single-family residence, the landlord and tenant may agree that the tenant will perform the waste-removal duty and the water, hot water and heat duty, and also specified repairs, maintenance tasks, alterations and remodeling, but only where the transaction is in writing, for good consideration, entered into in good faith, and not for the purpose of evading the landlord's obligations; all four conditions must be met. For a dwelling unit other than a single-family residence, only specified repairs, maintenance tasks, alterations or remodeling may be shifted, and only under an agreement entered into in good faith and not to evade the landlord's obligations, set out in a separate writing signed by the parties and supported by adequate consideration, that does not diminish or affect what the landlord owes other tenants. Separately, and notwithstanding anything else in the act, a landlord may employ a tenant to perform the landlord's obligations.
Leading court decisions	Vasquez v. CHI Properties, LLC, 302 Neb. 742, 925 N.W.2d 304 (2019) — The failure-to-deliver-possession remedy belongs to the start of the tenancy only — a tenant who accepts possession and lives on the property proceeds under the fit-premises duties instead, and those duties are not limited to conditions arising after the lease begins. Once the tenant has given the notice the duty section requires, the tenant may seek damages or injunctive relief for a fit-premises breach without also sending the 14-day cure and 30-day termination notice, and the two forms of relief are distinct options, not a package. Choosing the essential-services remedies for one breach bars only the general remedies for that same breach, and no separate court action is needed to terminate a rental agreement.
Local rules	Nebraska inverts the usual relationship between state law and local codes. Where a minimum housing code applies to the premises, that code determines the landlord's maximum duty under the state statute, so the enumerated duties cannot require more than the local code does. In most states a local code is a floor that raises what the landlord owes; here it is a ceiling that caps it. The code duty is also narrower in wording than its counterparts elsewhere, reaching minimum housing codes rather than building and housing codes generally, and asking for substantial compliance. Where no minimum housing code applies, the enumerated duties and the general fit-and-habitable duty stand on their own.

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

The local code is a ceiling here, not a floor — The duty section ends by saying that if there exists a minimum housing code applicable to the premises, the landlord's maximum duty under the section is determined by the code-compliance paragraph. That is the reverse of the rule in most states, where a code duty lifts the landlord's other obligations wherever it is greater. In Nebraska a local minimum housing code caps the enumerated duties instead. The wording is narrower in two more ways worth noting: it reaches minimum housing codes rather than building and housing codes generally, and it asks for substantial compliance.
Complaining to the landlord is not a protected act — Nebraska's retaliation section protects exactly two things: a complaint to a government agency charged with enforcing a minimum building or housing code, and organizing or joining a tenants' union. A complaint to the landlord is not on the list, even though notice to the landlord is precisely what triggers the repair duty. Neighboring states protect that complaint expressly. There is also no presumption and no look-back window anywhere in the section.
No repair-and-deduct, but a strong essential-services remedy — The act contains no minor-repair remedy, and the word deduct appears once in all 49 sections. What Nebraska does give is the fullest essential-services remedy among its neighbors: procure and deduct, diminution in fair rental value, or substitute housing with the rent excused, plus reasonable attorney's fees in any case under that subsection. Where the failure to supply is deliberate, the tenant may also recover the cost of the substitute housing, but only up to an amount equal to the periodic rent.
Fourteen days is a cure period inside a thirty-day notice — It is not a freestanding repair deadline. The tenant's notice states that the tenancy ends on a date at least thirty days out if the breach is not remedied within fourteen days, and the landlord must actually remedy it rather than merely start. The repeat-breach path is the fast one: substantially the same problem within six months can be ended on fourteen days' written notice. None of these periods applies to an essential-service failure, which carries no clock at all.
Suing does not require the termination notice — Once the tenant has given the written or actual notice that starts the landlord's duty, the tenant can seek damages or injunctive relief without ever serving the thirty-day termination notice, and does not have to pursue both forms of relief in order to pursue either. The repair duty is also not limited to conditions that arise after the lease begins: the obligation to put and keep the premises fit reaches conditions that were already there.
No mold or pest statute — Nebraska has no statute naming mold or pest infestations in the landlord's duties or in the tenant's remedies. Those conditions reach a landlord only through the general duty to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition, and, where a local minimum housing code applies, only as far as that code requires. A 2025 bill would have added mold and pest infestation to the essential-services remedy and shortened the notice periods; it did not pass.
How the required written notice may be delivered changed in 2025 — Every remedy in this topic turns on notice, and since September 3, 2025 delivery by electronic means that meets the statute's conditions counts as equivalent to any delivery method required by law, including first-class, registered and certified mail, with verification or acknowledgment of receipt required wherever proof of receipt is. A landlord may use electronic delivery only on the tenant's affirmative, un-withdrawn consent after a clear and conspicuous disclosure, and may not require a tenant to accept it as a condition of entering into or renewing a rental agreement.

Common questions: Nebraska 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 Nebraska have an implied warranty of habitability?: Statute — no independent court-created warranty operates alongside it. The duty comes from Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1419, inside Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Nebraska's courts resolve habitability questions by construing that act rather than by applying an implied warranty of their own, and the section itself closes by saying that the obligations it imposes are not intended to change existing tort law in the state.
How long does a landlord have to make repairs in Nebraska?: 14 days. Two periods run together. 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 thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days.
Can a tenant repair and deduct in Nebraska?: Only for essential-service failures, not general repairs — Limit: The one deduction Nebraska allows is the actual and reasonable cost of the hot water, running water, heat or essential services the tenant procured after the landlord's failure to supply them — no dollar figure, fraction of rent or frequency limit is stated for it. The separate substitute-housing recovery for a deliberate failure is capped at an amount equal to one period's rent. — The deduction reaches essential services only; there is no general repair-and-deduct remedy for ordinary disrepair.
Can a tenant withhold rent for repair problems in Nebraska?: 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 — There is no standalone right to withhold rent. 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 act; the counterclaim is permissive.
Can a landlord retaliate against a tenant who complains about repairs in Nebraska?: 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, so nothing turns on timing and the tenant carries the case.
Can a lease make the tenant responsible for repairs in Nebraska?: Repairs may be delegated only within uniform-act-style limits. No rental agreement may provide that the tenant waives or foregoes rights or remedies under the act, and there is no exception, so the duty section cannot be given up by agreement. The same provision bars confession of judgment, an agreement to pay the landlord's or tenant's attorney's fees, and exculpation or indemnity for liability arising due to the landlord's active and actionable negligence.

Citations

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1408 (exclusions from application of act) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1413 (notice; give; receive; means of delivery) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1415 (prohibited provisions in rental agreements) · (1), (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1419 (landlord to maintain fit premises) · (1) through (4) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1425 (noncompliance by landlord) · (1) through (4) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1427 (wrongful failure to supply heat, water, hot water, or essential services) · (1) through (3) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1428 (landlord's noncompliance as defense to action for possession) · (1), (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1429 (fire or casualty damage) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1430 (tenant's remedies for landlord's unlawful ouster, exclusion, or diminution of service) (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1439 (retaliatory conduct prohibited) · (1) through (3) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct reading of Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 76-1401 through 76-1449, on the Legislature's official statutes pages, with all 49 sections read end to end and sections 76-1408, 76-1413, 76-1415, 76-1419, 76-1425, 76-1427, 76-1428, 76-1429, 76-1430 and 76-1439 read in full together with their source lines and the Legislature's own annotations; and the Legislature's complete bill lists for both sessions of the 109th Legislature, with the introduced text and statement of intent of the one measure that would have amended the tenant-remedy sections, and its official session-day calendar. The Supreme Court's decision in Vasquez v. CHI Properties, 302 Neb. 742 (2019), was read in full in the court's own published advance-sheets text.