Does Tennessee's Landlord-Tenant Act Apply in Your County?

If you own a rental in Bedford County, most of the landlord advice you'll find online is written about a law that doesn't apply to you.

That's not an exaggeration or a hook. Tennessee's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — the statute that nearly every "Tennessee landlord rules" article describes — covers only a fraction of the state. Bedford County is not in it.

The threshold, and the part everyone misses

The act limits itself to Tennessee counties with a population above 75,000. That much gets repeated accurately.

What gets left out is the second half of the sentence: the count is taken according to the 2010 federal census. Not the most recent census. Not the current estimate. The 2010 one.

Bedford County's 2010 population was 45,058. We've grown considerably since, and we'll keep growing — but the number the statute cares about was fixed in 2010 and doesn't move. A county that wasn't covered then isn't covered now, regardless of how many people have moved in since.

That single detail is why so much of the online guidance misfires. A writer looks up Tennessee's threshold, checks a current population figure, and reasons their way to the wrong answer.

Which counties are covered

The act names a specific set of counties — the larger ones, measured at that 2010 line. Davidson, Knox, Shelby, Hamilton, Rutherford and Williamson are among them.

For owners around here, what matters is the other side of that list. Bedford County is not on it. Neither is Coffee County, covering Tullahoma and Manchester, nor Marshall County, covering Lewisburg. Rutherford County — Murfreesboro — is.

So if your rental is in Shelbyville, Wartrace, Unionville, Bell Buckle or Normandy, the act doesn't govern it.

Four places the difference actually bites

Security deposits

This is the big one, and it's where we see the most confusion.

The act's deposit provisions — the requirement to hold deposits in a separate account, the inspection procedure when a tenant moves out, the itemized damage list — live inside the chapter that doesn't apply here. In Bedford County there is no statutory requirement to escrow a deposit in a separate account, and no statutory deadline to return one. Your lease governs instead.

That's more freedom than most owners realize and more responsibility than they'd like. If your lease is vague about deposit handling, there's no statute quietly filling the gap on your behalf. There's just the vague lease.

And while we're here: you'll see it written that Tennessee has a "30-day security deposit return law." It doesn't. The statute contains a 60-day provision about retaining a deposit when a tenant doesn't respond to a refund notice, and a separate 30-day window relating to discovering damage. Those are two different rules about two different things, and a lot of content sites have merged them into one that doesn't exist. Neither applies in Bedford County anyway.

Late fees

Covered counties cap late fees at 10% of the past-due rent and require a five-day grace period. Bedford County has no such cap. What your lease says is what applies.

We'd still encourage you to write something reasonable — a fee a judge would look at and consider proportionate is worth more than an aggressive one you may struggle to enforce — but that's a business judgment here, not a statutory ceiling.

Eviction notices

Non-covered counties run under a different statute entirely, and it lays out five distinct notice situations.

Fourteen days, curable — nonpayment of rent, or damage beyond normal wear and tear. The tenant can stop the clock by paying or fixing the problem.

Fourteen days, no cure — substantially the same violation happening again within six months of a prior notice for it.

Thirty days, no cure — other lease defaults.

Fourteen days — threats or violence affecting health and safety, where the tenant is a person with a disability. Three days where the tenant is not.

Here's the counter-intuitive part worth flagging, because it trips up even experienced owners: the 14-day nonpayment notice is not a URLTA-only rule. Non-covered counties have their own 14-day notice. Plenty of articles state or imply the opposite.

From there it goes to General Sessions Court on a detainer warrant. The statute sets the trial date no sooner than six days from service.

We're deliberately not putting a total day count on the process. Timelines vary with the court's calendar and with whether the judgment gets appealed, and there are figures circulating about appeal windows that we could not verify against the statute itself. When it matters, ask an attorney rather than a blog — including this one.

The 2025 disclosure requirement

A law effective January 1, 2025 requires landlords to disclose, in writing, who manages the property and who owns it, along with a contact method for maintenance.

It applies in covered counties only. A version of the bill would have extended those duties statewide, but that section was removed before it passed.

So if you own in Shelbyville and also in Murfreesboro, that obligation attaches to the Murfreesboro property and not the Shelbyville one. It's also a reasonable thing to do everywhere regardless — tenants who know who to call generate fewer emergencies.

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