Kentucky Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 2, 2026

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with no further action; the 2026 Regular Session adjourned sine die 2026-04-15. 2026 RS HB 202, which would have repealed KRS 383.500 and applied a rewritten act to every lease of a dwelling unit in Kentucky, was referred to House Judiciary on January 14, 2026 and also died; no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 at a glance

Rule	Kentucky	Cited to
Max security deposit	No statutory cap	KRS 383.580 +3 more
Deposit return deadline	No statutory deadline	KRS 383.580 +3 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	KRS 65.875 +3 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	KRS 65.875 +3 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	KRS 383.565 (rent payable without demand or notice; lease may set terms) +2 more
Entry notice	2 days	KRS 383.615 +1 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	7 days	KRS 383.500 - Local governments authorized to adopt provisions of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in their entirety and without amendment +31 more
Application fee cap	No statutory cap	KRS 383.565 +17 more
Interest owed on deposits	No — no statute addresses it	KRS 383.580 (security deposits — dedicated account, disclosure, forfeiture) +3 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	30 days	KRS 383.500 (local governments authorized to adopt the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in their entirety and without amendment) +12 more
Repair and deduct	Yes — authorized by statute	KRS 383.500 (local governments authorized to adopt the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in their entirety and without amendment) +12 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	30 days, to the next rent-due date	Ky. Rev. Stat. § 383.695 +19 more
Owner and agent identity disclosure	Required — in the lease or in a separate writing	KRS 371.010 +31 more
In-force state hazard disclosures beyond the federal lead-paint rule	1	KRS 371.010 +31 more
Pet deposit	No statute, no cap	KRS § 383.085 +17 more
Assistance animals: the state instrument	Documentation statute or rule	KRS § 383.085 +17 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Kentucky Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/kentucky/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Kentucky statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in Kentucky

Kentucky law reserves rent control on private property exclusively to the General Assembly, barring cities and counties from enacting it, except for publicly assisted housing that local governments manage through housing authorities or federal programs.

Cited to Ky. Rev. Stat. § 65.875 · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Kentucky rent-increase rules →

Kentucky landlord-tenant laws by topic

Kentucky security deposits

Kentucky has no statewide security-deposit law: the deposit statute, KRS 383.580, applies only in the cities and counties that have adopted Kentucky's optional Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act by local ordinance — including Louisville-Jefferson County and Lexington-Fayette — and everywhere else the lease governs deposits, apart from the statewide bar on any pet fee or deposit for an approved assistance animal.

Kentucky rent increase notice

Kentucky has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase, no limit on how large an increase can be, and no limit on how often rent can rise — anywhere in the state.

Kentucky late fees

Kentucky has no statutory cap on residential late fees and no mandatory grace period — neither in the jurisdictions that have adopted the state's optional Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act nor in the rest of the state, where no landlord-tenant fee statute exists at all.

Kentucky entry notice

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.

Kentucky eviction process

In Kentucky, a landlord must give a 7-day written notice to pay or quit before filing to evict for unpaid rent - but only in the cities and counties that have adopted the state's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, because Kentucky never made that law statewide.

Kentucky application & screening fees

Kentucky does not regulate rental application or tenant screening fees anywhere in state law: no statute caps the fee, ties it to what a report costs, or requires a receipt, a refund, or any disclosure before an applicant pays.

Kentucky deposit interest

Kentucky does not require landlords to pay tenants interest on a security deposit, and the account rule that leads sources to say otherwise is a dedicated-account rule rather than an interest rule.

Kentucky habitability & repairs

Kentucky is one of the few states where the answer depends on which city or county the home is in: the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is a local option, and only jurisdictions that have adopted it — twenty-three are confirmed, including Louisville and Jefferson County, Lexington-Fayette, Pulaski County and much of Northern Kentucky — impose a habitability duty on landlords.

Kentucky lease termination

Kentucky runs two bodies of landlord-tenant law at once, and which one governs a tenancy depends on whether the city or county has adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

Kentucky lease disclosures

In a Kentucky city or county that has adopted the uniform act — Lexington-Fayette and Louisville Metro are the two confirmed, and there is no official statewide list — the landlord must disclose in writing, at or before the tenancy starts, the name and address of the manager and of an owner or agent for service of process, and must present a priced listing of existing damage that both sides sign before the tenant hands over any deposit money.

Kentucky pets & assistance animals

Kentucky caps no deposit of any kind, so an ordinary pet deposit, pet rent or pet fee is whatever the lease says.

Kentucky mobile home park laws

Kentucky has no manufactured home community tenancy act, and which rules reach a lot tenancy depends on where the community sits: the Kentucky Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, KRS 383.500 to 383.715, is in force only in the cities, counties and urban-county governments that have adopted it in its entirety by ordinance, and everywhere else the general landlord and tenant sections of KRS Chapter 383 and the common law govern.

Kentucky Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Kentucky metro area and county.

Editable Kentucky deposit kit · Editable Kentucky disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Kentucky rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

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.
Correction, October 2, 2026 — Indiana: the 2026 limit on local rules restricting rentals (Ind. Code 36-1-20-3.6, added by Public Law 157-2026) exempts outright a short-term rental rule adopted before January 1, 2018 under the state's short-term rental chapter; the habitability and lease disclosure pages now say so beside the January 1, 2028 exemption for other earlier rules. Kentucky: the lease disclosure page's list of arrangements the act excludes now follows KRS 383.535(1), residence at a public or private institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational counseling, religious or similar service. South Dakota: the lease termination page had said the Supreme Court twice called the landlord's duty to re-let unsettled; it said so once, in 2011, and decided a second case in 2022 without reaching the question. Mississippi: four comparisons with other sources or other states were removed from the lease termination, lease disclosure and habitability pages; the rules stated are unchanged.

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.