North Carolina landlords picked up two genuinely new tools in the last eighteen months, and one of them fills a decades-old gap. Since December 1, 2025, an owner can remove a true squatter through an expedited law-enforcement process instead of a full eviction (Session Law 2025-88, codified at G.S. §§ 14-159.52 to 14-159.56). And since late 2024, the state has clarified which eviction costs you can recover while barring cities from forcing landlords to accept federal housing assistance (Session Law 2024-47). If your playbook predates both, start here.
The fundamentals held still: a 5-day grace period before late fees, deposit caps that scale with tenancy length, a mandatory trust account, and a 10-day demand before a nonpayment eviction. The one-page version of every number lives on the North Carolina quick-reference page.
The new squatter lane: 48 hours to a hearing, 4 hours to vacate
Session Law 2025-88 arrived as Senate Bill 55 after an earlier squatter bill, HB 96, died by veto in July 2025. It creates an expedited removal action against "unauthorized persons": occupants with no lease, no rent history, and no legal claim to the property. A holdover tenant is expressly not an unauthorized person; anyone who ever had a rental agreement still goes through summary ejectment.
The mechanics are fast by design. You file a verified complaint on form AOC-CVM-407 in the county where the property sits. The sheriff serves it within 24 hours, a magistrate hears the case no more than 48 hours after service, and once the possession order is served, the occupant has no more than 4 hours to vacate (SL 2025-88). An appeal requires a bond of at least $10,000. Use the tool honestly: wrongfully removing someone exposes you to actual damages for trespass or conversion.
Florida ran this play first in 2024, but the two versions differ enough (Florida's runs on a sheriff affidavit, North Carolina's on a magistrate hearing) that multistate owners shouldn't reuse forms across the line.
2024's quieter changes: eviction fees and a preemption
Session Law 2024-47 (House Bill 556), effective in stages through October 1, 2024, did two things landlords feel. It cleaned up Chapter 42's summary ejectment cost provisions, settling years of fights over which out-of-pocket litigation costs a prevailing landlord can recover. And it barred counties and cities from adopting local rules that would stop you from declining applicants whose income includes federal housing assistance; taking Section 8 remains your call statewide, though many owners find the guaranteed portion of the rent worth the paperwork.
Deposits: the trust account comes first
North Carolina's Tenant Security Deposit Act starts working before you collect a dollar. Deposits must sit in a trust account with a licensed and federally insured North Carolina bank or savings institution, or be secured by a bond, and you owe the tenant the bank's name and address within 30 days of the lease starting (G.S. § 42-50). Out-of-state landlords parking deposits in their home-state operating account are out of compliance from day one.
The caps scale with the tenancy (G.S. § 42-51): two weeks' rent on a week-to-week, one and a half months on a month-to-month, and two months on anything longer. A separate, reasonable, nonrefundable pet fee is allowed on top (G.S. § 42-53).
Returns run on two clocks. Send the itemized accounting and refund within 30 days of the tenancy ending. If the damage genuinely can't be priced that fast, send an interim accounting at 30 days and the final one within 60 (G.S. § 42-52). For contrast, Delaware gives landlords just 20 days. Willful noncompliance with the Act voids your right to keep any portion of the deposit, and the tenant can sue for the money plus attorney's fees (G.S. § 42-55).
What you can apply it to is broader than most states allow: unpaid rent, damage beyond normal wear, losses from a broken lease term, unpaid utility bills, re-rental costs after a breach, even removal and storage costs after an ejectment (G.S. § 42-51). Rentari builds the North Carolina interim-versus-final accounting automatically when your 30-day estimate is still soft.
Late fees: the 5-day grace period and the $15-or-5% cap
For monthly rent, no late fee may be charged until the payment is 5 or more days late, and the fee tops out at the greater of $15 or 5 percent of the monthly rent, once per late payment (G.S. § 42-46). Weekly rent: the greater of $4 or 5 percent. The same statute caps the eviction-adjacent fees: a complaint-filing fee at the greater of $15 or 5 percent when the tenant cures and you dismiss, a court-appearance fee of 10 percent of monthly rent when you win in small claims, and a second-trial fee up to 12 percent when you prevail on appeal. You may charge only one of those three per eviction action, and a late fee that isn't written into the lease is not collectible at all.
Rent itself is unregulated and must stay that way locally: G.S. § 42-14.1 bars every North Carolina city and county from controlling rents on private property. Unlike Washington, D.C., where rent stabilization covers most older buildings, your ceiling here is the market. No statute sets a rent-increase notice period; on a month-to-month, pair the increase with at least the 7 days you'd need to end the tenancy.
Evictions: the 10-day demand, then summary ejectment
Nonpayment starts with a demand for all past-due rent. If the tenant doesn't pay within 10 days of that demand, the term is forfeited and you can file summary ejectment (G.S. § 42-3). If your lease contains its own notice-and-cure language, follow the stricter of the two; magistrates read leases literally.
No-fault endings follow G.S. § 42-14: 7 days' notice on a month-to-month, 2 days on a week-to-week, a month before the end of the year on a year-to-year, and 60 days for manufactured-home lots. Lease-violation evictions ride on your lease's forfeiture clause, because the statute won't supply one; if your lease lacks it, fix that before you need it. Criminal activity has its own expedited article (G.S. §§ 42-59 to 42-76).
Cases are heard by a magistrate in small claims court, and either side gets a fresh trial in district court on appeal within 10 days. Self-help stays illegal at every step: no lock changes, no utility shutoffs, no removing belongings without the sheriff executing a writ (G.S. § 42-25.6). North Carolina notice and lease forms with these exact day counts are in the forms library.
Entry, habitability, and the short disclosure list
No North Carolina statute sets an advance-notice period for landlord entry, so the clause you write is the rule you live under. A 24-hour written-notice clause, honored consistently, is the standard that keeps both the relationship and the court file clean.
On habitability, G.S. § 42-42 requires fit and habitable premises, compliance with building codes, and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, with repairs owed promptly once you get written notice of a problem. Tenants can't lawfully withhold rent on their own; rent abatement takes a court order. But a tenant who complained about conditions in the past 12 months gets a retaliatory-eviction defense (G.S. § 42-37.1), so document a legitimate business reason whenever you non-renew a complainer.
Disclosures stay short: the federal lead-based paint disclosure and pamphlet for pre-1978 housing, the deposit-account (or bond) notice from G.S. § 42-50, and the late fee stated in the lease. North Carolina imposes no general mold, radon, or crime-history disclosure form on landlords.
North Carolina landlord FAQ
Can I use the new squatter law on a tenant who stopped paying?
No. The expedited removal action excludes anyone with a rental agreement or rent history, including holdovers. A nonpaying tenant gets the 10-day demand under G.S. § 42-3 and then summary ejectment. Misusing the squatter process invites a damages claim.
How much can I collect as a security deposit?
Two weeks' rent on week-to-week tenancies, 1.5 months on month-to-month, two months on longer terms, plus a reasonable nonrefundable pet fee (G.S. §§ 42-51, 42-53). The money goes in a North Carolina trust account or under a bond, never your operating account.
What if I can't price the damage within 30 days?
Send an interim itemized accounting by day 30 and the final accounting by day 60 (G.S. § 42-52). Skipping the interim step is the mistake that turns a legitimate deduction into a forfeited one under G.S. § 42-55.
When can I charge a late fee?
Only once rent is at least 5 days late, only once per missed payment, and only up to the greater of $15 or 5 percent of monthly rent, and only if the lease says so (G.S. § 42-46).
This guide is general information for North Carolina rental owners, not legal advice. Statutes and session laws change, and courts refine them, so verify any deadline or dollar figure against the current General Statutes or with a North Carolina attorney before acting on it.