Kentucky Landlord-Tenant Law for DIY Landlords (2026)

Security deposits, late fees, notice periods, forcible detainer and the URLTA local-adoption rule in Kentucky, in plain English for landlords who manage their own rentals.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Kentucky runs two rental systems at once. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (KRS 383.505 to 383.715) has force only in the cities and counties that voted to adopt it. State law lets a city, county or urban-county government take the act on, in full and without changes, and bars local officials from writing their own version (KRS 383.500).

Everywhere else in Kentucky, your lease and the older forcible entry and detainer statutes (KRS 383.195 to 383.285) do the work. One state, two very different rulebooks.

First, check whether URLTA applies to you

A Legal Aid of the Bluegrass training deck lists the adopting jurisdictions. Counties on that list are Jefferson (Louisville), Fayette (Lexington), Campbell, Oldham and Pulaski. Cities on it are Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Elsmere, Florence, Fort Thomas, Georgetown, Ludlow, Melbourne, Newport, Shelbyville, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, Walton and Woodlawn.

Confirm with your county attorney or city clerk before you rely on that list. Most of what follows comes from URLTA and binds you only inside an adopting jurisdiction.

Security deposits

There is no cap. Kentucky sets no dollar limit and no month limit on a residential security deposit. Your market sets it.

Hold it in a separate account. The deposit goes into an account used only for that purpose, at a bank or lending institution regulated by Kentucky or the federal government, and the tenant has to be told where the account is and its number (KRS 383.580(1)).

Write the move-in damage list before you take the money. Give the tenant a full listing of damage that already exists, with the estimated cost to repair each item. The tenant gets to inspect and then sign the list, or write down what they disagree with (KRS 383.580(2)).

Do the same on the way out. At the end of the tenancy you prepare a second listing with costs, let the tenant inspect the unit and the list, and get a signature or a written dissent (KRS 383.580(3)).

Skip either list and you keep nothing. No separate account, or no move-in and move-out listings, and you lose the right to retain any part of the deposit (KRS 383.580(4)). That is the most expensive mistake a Kentucky landlord can make.

The tenant's claim is limited to what they disputed. A tenant may sue in District Court over the final listing, but only over items they dissented from in writing (KRS 383.580(5)).

There is no fixed return deadline. Kentucky gives you no 30-day refund clock of the kind Georgia and Florida use. Two other timers run instead. If the tenant leaves owing rent and never asks for the deposit back, you may apply it to that debt after 30 days (KRS 383.580(6)). If a refund is owed, you send written notice to the tenant's last known address, and if nothing comes back in 60 days you may keep the money (KRS 383.580(7)).

Do not treat the missing deadline as permission to sit on a refund. Pay it out fast and keep the proof.

Late fees

Kentucky sets no late-fee cap and no statutory grace period. The fee lives or dies on your lease. Write it in, keep it proportionate to the rent, and expect a judge to look hard at anything that reads as a penalty.

Rent increases and rent control

No Kentucky statute caps a rent increase. Local rent control is barred too, since only the General Assembly may pass legislation controlling rents on private property (KRS 65.875). Housing authority units and federally funded programs sit outside that bar.

On a month-to-month in a URLTA jurisdiction, a rent change rides on the same 30 days' written notice used to end the tenancy (KRS 383.695(2)). Send it before the rental due date.

Entering the unit

Two days' notice. In URLTA jurisdictions you give the tenant at least two days' notice of your intent to enter, and you enter at reasonable times only. Emergencies are the exception. Access cannot be used to harass a tenant (KRS 383.615).

Outside URLTA territory Kentucky sets no entry notice at all. Put 24 or 48 hours into your lease and stick to it.

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

30 days' written notice from either side, given before the rent due date (KRS 383.695(2)). A week-to-week takes seven days (KRS 383.695(1)).

In a county that never adopted URLTA, a tenancy at will or by sufferance ends on one month's written notice requiring the tenant to move out (KRS 383.195).

Holding over gets expensive for the tenant. A tenant who stays in bad faith after the term ends can owe up to three months' rent or three times actual damages, whichever is greater, plus your attorney fees (KRS 383.695(4)).

When rent isn't paid

Seven days. Deliver written notice that the rent is unpaid and that you intend to end the tenancy. If the tenant does not pay inside seven days, the rental agreement ends (KRS 383.660(2)).

For a breach that is not about money, the notice runs 14 days and the tenant gets 15 days to fix the problem. Same breach again inside six months and you can end the tenancy on 14 days' notice with no second chance to cure (KRS 383.660(1)).

The eviction timeline

Kentucky calls it forcible detainer, and it runs in District Court (KRS 383.200).

Serve the notice. Seven days for unpaid rent, 14 days for another breach, 30 days to end a month-to-month, one month outside URLTA.
File the complaint. The court issues a warrant to the sheriff or constable giving the tenant at least three days' notice of the time and place of the hearing (KRS 383.210).
Service. A tenant notified fewer than three days ahead can ask for the hearing to be put off so the full three days run (KRS 383.215).
Hearing. One hearing, no discovery. Either side may demand a jury at the call of the case (KRS 383.210).
Seven days to appeal. The tenant has seven days to appeal, and has to deposit rent owed plus rent coming due with the circuit court clerk. A perfected appeal stays the judgment (KRS 383.255).
Writ of possession. If the tenant neither moves out nor appeals, you can ask for the writ on the eighth day.

Fast on paper. Court backlogs are the real variable.

Never do it yourself. Locking a tenant out, or cutting heat, water or electricity to push them out, lets the tenant recover possession or end the lease and collect up to three months' rent plus attorney fees (KRS 383.655).

Retaliation carries a presumption. Raise rent, cut services or move to evict within a year of a tenant's code complaint or tenant-union activity, and the law presumes you retaliated (KRS 383.705). Unpaid rent and tenant-caused damage remain fair grounds.

Repairs and habitability

In URLTA jurisdictions you have to meet building and housing codes affecting health and safety, keep the unit fit and habitable, keep common areas clean and safe, keep electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning in working order, and supply running water with reasonable amounts of hot water at all times. Heat is required from October 1 through May 1 (KRS 383.595).

A written agreement moving some of that onto the tenant is possible in a single-family home, made in good faith. In a multi-unit building it takes a separate signed document backed by real consideration, and it cannot cover code violations.

Your lease cannot make a tenant waive URLTA rights, confess judgment, or pay your legal fees (KRS 383.570). Those clauses are unenforceable.

The short version

Check first whether your city or county adopted URLTA
No deposit cap, but a separate account and two signed damage listings or you keep nothing
No statutory late-fee cap and no grace period
No rent cap, and cities cannot pass rent control
Two days' notice to enter in URLTA areas, none by statute elsewhere
30 days to end a month-to-month, seven days' notice for unpaid rent, 14 for other breaches
Three days' notice of the hearing, then seven days for the tenant to appeal

Let Taz handle the paperwork

Taz is an AI property manager for landlords who would rather not live in the code books. It tracks deposit paperwork, sends rent reminders, takes maintenance requests day and night, and keeps the records a Kentucky District Court judge would ask for. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and whether URLTA applies turns on your city or county. Talk to a Kentucky attorney before acting on a specific situation. Last checked September 2026.