The last two sessions in Frankfort handed Kentucky landlords two real changes. In March 2024 the General Assembly overrode Governor Beshear's veto to pass HB 18, an emergency measure that voids any local ordinance forcing landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers or other rental assistance; Louisville's and Lexington's source-of-income rules died with it, effective March 6, 2024. Then came HB 10, signed March 24, 2025 and effective June 27, 2025, which lets a property owner ask law enforcement to remove a true squatter on a sworn affidavit instead of running a full eviction.

The landlord-tenant act's day counts didn't move at all. But in Kentucky, the first compliance question is never "what does the statute say." It's "does the statute even apply at this address."

Two Kentuckys: URLTA territory and everywhere else

Kentucky adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in 1974 with a twist: it only operates in cities and counties that opt in, whole and unamended (KRS 383.500). Roughly twenty ever have. Louisville-Jefferson County, Lexington-Fayette, Oldham and Pulaski counties, a cluster of northern Kentucky river cities (Covington, Newport, Florence, Bellevue, Dayton and their neighbors), plus Georgetown, Shelbyville, and Barbourville.

Inside those places, KRS 383.505 to 383.715 gives tenants and landlords the full framework: deposit-handling rules, a 2-day entry notice, a 7-day nonpayment notice, habitability duties, retaliation protection. Outside them, across most of Kentucky's 120 counties, almost none of that exists. The lease is the law, backed by a thin layer of statewide statutes on terminating tenancies and forcible detainer. Tennessee runs a similar split (its URLTA covers only counties above 75,000 people), but Kentucky's opt-in map is patchier. Confirm your jurisdiction once; it changes everything below. The Kentucky quick-reference page keeps the numbers in one table, and Rentari's state-aware compliance alerts are built for exactly this kind of split.

Security deposits: the separate-account trap in URLTA cities

No Kentucky jurisdiction caps how much deposit you can charge. What URLTA territory regulates, hard, is handling. Under KRS 383.580 the deposit must sit in a bank account used only for deposits, and the tenant must be told the institution and the account number. Before you take a dime, the prospective tenant gets a signed listing of existing damage with estimated repair costs. At move-out you inspect, compile an itemized damage list with costs, and give the tenant the right to walk the unit and check it, signing or dissenting item by item.

Skip the separate account or either list and subsection (4) is blunt: you are not entitled to retain any portion of the deposit. Not the disputed line items. All of it.

Return timing runs on two clocks rather than one flat deadline. If the tenant leaves owing rent and never demands the deposit back, you may apply it to the debt after 30 days (KRS 383.580(6)). If the tenant leaves owing nothing, you send notice of the refund due to their last known address, and if 60 days pass with no response, the money becomes yours (KRS 383.580(7)). In practice: mail the itemized statement and the refund promptly, and keep proof of the mailing.

Outside URLTA areas there is no deposit statute at all: no account rule, no lists, no deadline beyond what your lease promises. The neighbors are stricter. Alabama caps deposits at one month's rent with a 60-day return window, and Mississippi gives landlords 45 days. Follow the KRS 383.580 playbook everywhere in Kentucky and you'll never be the test case.

Rent, late fees, and raising the rent in Kentucky

No grace-period statute, no late-fee cap, and no rent control anywhere: KRS 65.875 has barred local rent regulation since 1992, so there's no ordinance to check in Louisville, Bowling Green, or anywhere else. Late fees must be written into the lease, and Kentucky courts treat them as liquidated damages, which means a charge wildly out of proportion to the harm risks being tossed as a penalty. A single-digit percentage or a modest flat fee is the defensible zone; a compounding daily fee is how landlords end up arguing caselaw in District Court.

Rent increases: a fixed-term lease locks the rate until it ends. On a month-to-month, give written notice at least 30 days before the next periodic rental date, the same timing a termination requires under KRS 383.695(2), since a tenant who declines the new rate is effectively receiving one.

Entry: two days' notice where URLTA applies, lease language everywhere else

In URLTA jurisdictions, give at least 2 days' notice before entering to inspect, repair, or show the unit, enter only at reasonable times, and don't use access to harass; emergencies excuse the notice (KRS 383.615). Outside URLTA territory no statute covers entry, so your lease has to. A 24 or 48 hour notice clause protects you from a privacy claim and your tenant from surprises, and it costs nothing to include.

Eviction: the 7-day notice, the 14-day notice, and forcible detainer

In URLTA areas the ladder is fixed. For nonpayment, a written 7-day notice: pay within seven days or the rental agreement terminates (KRS 383.660(2)). For other material breaches, a 14-day termination notice that must spell out the violation and give the tenant the chance to cure it before the stated date; if substantially the same violation recurs within six months, a second 14-day notice ends the tenancy with no cure right (KRS 383.660(1)). Ending a month-to-month takes written notice at least 30 days before the periodic rental date (KRS 383.695(2)), and Kentucky's appellate courts read that literally: 30 days before the next rental date, not 30 days from whenever you got around to mailing it.

Outside URLTA, no statute prescribes a nonpayment notice, so the lease controls what warning, if any, comes first. Month-to-month and at-will tenancies still take one month's written notice to terminate statewide (KRS 383.195).

Both tiers funnel into the same courtroom: a forcible detainer action in District Court (KRS 383.200 to 383.285). Only a judgment, and a set-out executed through the court, lawfully puts a tenant on the street. Self-help is expensive in URLTA territory: unlawfully excluding a tenant or willfully cutting heat, water, gas, or electric lets the tenant recover possession or terminate plus up to three months' rent and attorney fees (KRS 383.655).

Habitability: the warranty Kentucky never implied

Here's the part that surprises out-of-state investors: Kentucky's highest court held in Miles v. Shauntee, 664 S.W.2d 512, that no implied warranty of habitability exists at common law. Outside URLTA areas, a tenant's habitability rights come from the lease and any local housing code, full stop. Inside URLTA areas, KRS 383.595 requires you to comply with housing codes, keep the premises fit and safe, and maintain electrical, plumbing, heating, and supplied appliances. Tenants there get structured remedies: termination after written notice if a material problem goes uncured (KRS 383.625), self-help when essential services fail (KRS 383.640), and protection from retaliation for complaining to code enforcement (KRS 383.705).

Disclosures track the same split. URLTA landlords must identify the owner and manager in writing (KRS 383.585) and disclose the deposit account details (KRS 383.580(1)). Statewide, every pre-1978 building needs the federal lead-based paint disclosure and pamphlet. Kentucky-specific leases and notices for both tiers live in our forms library.

Kentucky landlord FAQ

Does Kentucky cap security deposits?

No. Neither state law nor any local ordinance limits the amount. In URLTA jurisdictions the constraint is procedural: separate account, disclosed account number, and signed move-in and move-out damage lists under KRS 383.580, or you forfeit the right to keep any of it.

What notice do I need before filing a nonpayment eviction?

In Louisville, Lexington, and other URLTA jurisdictions: a written 7-day pay-or-terminate notice (KRS 383.660(2)). Elsewhere, the lease controls whether any notice comes first; the eviction itself is a forcible detainer action in District Court either way.

Can Louisville or Lexington require me to accept Section 8?

Not anymore. HB 18 (2024) preempted local source-of-income mandates statewide, effective March 6, 2024. Participation in the voucher program is your call unless a program you've opted into, like LIHTC financing, requires it.

How do I remove a squatter under the 2025 law?

HB 10, effective June 27, 2025, lets an owner submit a sworn affidavit so law enforcement can remove someone who never had permission to occupy. It doesn't apply to current or former tenants or their guests, and a wrongful removal creates civil liability, so when in doubt, evict.

How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy?

Written notice at least 30 days before the next periodic rental date in URLTA areas (KRS 383.695(2)), and one month's written notice for at-will tenancies statewide (KRS 383.195). Time it to the rental date, not the calendar month you happen to be in.

This article is general information for Kentucky rental owners, not legal advice. The URLTA map, local codes, and case law all shift, so before you act on any deadline here, read the current statute text or put the question to a Kentucky landlord-tenant attorney.