Tennessee Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Tennessee
Tennessee law bars local governments from adopting any ordinance or resolution that controls the amount of rent charged for private residential or commercial property.
Cited to Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-35-102 (official code access) , Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-35-102 (current-code mirror) · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Tennessee rent-increase rules →
Tennessee Security deposits
Tennessee sets no cap on security deposits and — almost uniquely — no fixed deadline for returning them: the statute instead requires the landlord to mail the departing tenant notice of any refund due, and a tenant who fails to respond within 60 days forfeits the entire refund to the landlord.
Tennessee Rent increase notice
Tennessee has no statute requiring notice of a rent increase, no limit on how large an increase can be, and no limit on how often rent can rise — the practical floor in the state's 19 large URLTA counties is the month-to-month termination rule, under which either party can end the tenancy on 30 days' written notice before the periodic rental date, so a rent increase works as an offer the tenant can refuse by leaving (week-to-week tenancies: 10 days).
Tennessee Late fees
In Tennessee's 19 large URLTA counties, late fees are capped at 10% of the rent actually past due, and no fee may be charged during a five-day grace period — with a counting rule that trips people up: the DUE DATE itself counts as day one, so for rent due on the 1st a fee may be charged on the 6th, not the 7th.
Tennessee Entry notice
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.
Tennessee Eviction process
Tennessee runs two eviction rulebooks, and which one applies depends on the county: the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA) governs only counties with more than 75,000 people in the 2010 federal census — Memphis's Shelby County, Nashville's Davidson, Knoxville's Knox, Chattanooga's Hamilton, and the state's other large counties — while every other county follows the older general landlord-tenant statutes.
Tennessee mobile home park laws
Tennessee has no manufactured-home community law: no statute sets lot rent, the lease, the notice before a closure or a resident's right to buy the community, and the general residential landlord and tenant act applies only in counties with a population over 75,000 under the 2010 federal census.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
Tennessee Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Tennessee metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 9, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Updated, August 12, 2026 — Tennessee's eviction page now records Public Chapter No. 657 (2026), which adds a section to T.C.A. tit. 29, ch. 18: a private participant in an eviction process may not publish or broadcast video of the service or execution of eviction process in real time or near real time without the individual's express written permission, subject to legal-documentation and court-order exceptions, with statutory damages of at least $25,000 per intentional violation. Law enforcement officers acting in official duties are excluded, and no notice, hearing, writ, or appeal period changes.
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.