North Dakota Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in North Dakota
North Dakota law bars political subdivisions from adopting ordinances that would control the amount of rent charged for private residential or commercial property, except as to residential property the subdivision itself owns.
Cited to N.D.C.C. § 47-16-02.1 · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full North Dakota rent-increase rules →
North Dakota landlord-tenant laws by topic
North Dakota security deposits
North Dakota caps security deposits at one month's rent, with three carve-outs: up to two months' rent may be accepted from a tenant convicted of a felony (as an incentive to rent to them), up to two months' rent may be demanded from a tenant who has a court judgment against them for violating a previous rental agreement, and a separate pet security deposit of up to the greater of $2,500 or two months' rent may be charged for a pet that is not a disability-related service or companion animal.
North Dakota rent increase notice
North Dakota landlords must give month-to-month tenants at least 30 days' written notice before the end of a month to raise the rent, under an express change-of-terms statute (N.D. Cent. Code 47-16-07) that lets the landlord establish new 'terms, rent, and conditions' effective at the expiration of the month if the tenant stays.
North Dakota late fees
North Dakota has no statute capping residential late fees and no statutory grace period — a 2025 bill to cap late fees (SB 2236, amending the rent-payment statute) failed in the Senate 7-39, so late charges remain purely a matter of the lease, policed only by North Dakota's contract rules on penalties and liquidated damages (a penalty imposed by contract is void, and a clause fixing damages in advance is void unless the parties agreed on an amount presumed to be the damage in a case where actual damages would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix) and by unconscionability review of residential rental agreements.
North Dakota entry notice
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.
North Dakota eviction process
To evict a residential tenant in North Dakota you serve a three-day written notice of intention to evict under N.D.C.C. 47-32-02, then bring an action of eviction in the district court for the county where the property is located; the summons must set the tenant's appearance not fewer than three and not more than fifteen days after the summons is issued.
North Dakota application & screening fees
North Dakota does not regulate residential rental application or tenant-screening fees at all: no statute caps the amount, ties it to the cost of a report, requires a receipt or a refund, or sets disclosure or denial-notice duties before or after money changes hands.
North Dakota deposit interest
North Dakota owes a tenant interest on a security deposit once the tenancy has run nine months or longer, and the money must sit in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account held for the tenant's benefit.
North Dakota habitability & repairs
North Dakota requires a residential landlord to comply with building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety, make all repairs necessary to put and keep the premises fit and habitable, keep common areas clean and safe, maintain the supplied electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning facilities and appliances in good and safe working order, provide and arrange for waste removal, and supply running water, reasonable hot water and reasonable heat.
North Dakota lease termination
In North Dakota either the landlord or the tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy with one calendar month's written notice, and no reason is required.
North Dakota lease disclosures
North Dakota requires one thing at signing and almost nothing else: a written statement of the condition of the facilities in and about the premises, signed by both the landlord and the tenant, which then stands as prima facie proof of the unit's condition.
North Dakota pets & assistance animals
North Dakota lets a landlord take a separate pet security deposit of the greater of $2,500 or two months' rent, and it sits on top of the ordinary one-month security cap rather than inside it — the largest express pet-deposit allowance in the country.
North Dakota mobile home park laws
North Dakota has no single manufactured-home-park tenancy act; the rules for a resident who owns the home and rents the lot sit in one section of the property-transfer title, N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28, alongside the park licensing chapter.
North Dakota Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every North Dakota metro area and county.
Editable North Dakota deposit kit · Editable North Dakota disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified North Dakota rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.
How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text in the official North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs on ndlegis.gov on October 1, 2026: chapter 47-16 in full, 47-32-01 and 47-32-02, 9-08-03 and 9-08-04, and 47-30.2-04. The Legislative Assembly's code page states that the posted code reflects all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly, and the chapter 47-16 file already prints the text that took effect on January 1, 2026. Figures read: one-month deposit cap; two-month felony and prior-judgment exceptions; pet deposit of the greater of $2,500 or two months' rent; 30-day itemized return; nine-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 termination of a month-to-month tenancy; no entry-hour figure. Amendment history read in the session laws: 2015 ch. 312 (HB 1192, separate pet deposit), 2017 ch. 316 (HB 1220, felony exception), 2019 ch. 379 (HB 1150, prior-judgment exception), 2021 ch. 337 (SB 2048, unclaimed-property cross-reference), 2025 ch. 145 (HB 1489, 47-16-17.1(2)(a), effective January 1, 2026) and 2025 ch. 423 (HB 1610, new 47-16-20.1, effective August 1, 2025). 2025 bills that failed, read on the official bill pages: HB 1272 (inspections and deposits, House 41-47 on 2025-02-07), SB 2236 (late-fee cap, Senate 7-39 on 2025-02-04), SB 2237 (5-41) and SB 2366 (8-37); SB 2238 was enacted as 47-32-05 (2025 ch. 427, effective August 1, 2025). The 69th Legislative Assembly also sat in special session on January 21-23 and September 2-4, 2026, and neither session amended Title 47. There is no regular session in 2026; the next is January 2027. Negative findings (no late-fee statute, no entry-hour figure, no deposit-interest rate figure, no frequency limits) rest on the complete section list of chapter 47-16.