Tennessee Residential Lease Agreement
Tennessee is a "patchwork" state — the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA, Tenn. Code §§ 66-28-101 to 66-28-521) applies ONLY in counties with population exceeding 75,000 under the 2010 census. Seventeen counties qualify — Davidson (Nashville), Shelby (Memphis), Knox (Knoxville), Hamilton (Chattanooga), Rutherford (Murfreesboro), Williamson, Montgomery, Sumner, Sullivan, Blount, Washington, Wilson, Bradley, Madison, Sevier, Maury and Anderson — together about 64% of the state's population (the full list is in the FAQ below). In the other 78 counties, tenant rights depend on the lease + common law + any local ordinance. BuildMyLease's TN lease is built around URLTA defaults: the 5-day rent grace and 10% statutory late-fee cap (§ 66-28-201(d)), the mandatory fire/casualty insurance disclaimer (§ 66-28-201(a)), the URLTA habitability covenant (§ 66-28-304), the 14-day cure for noncompliance (§§ 66-28-501, -505), the essential-services remedy (§ 66-28-502), the 24-hour entry notice for final-30-days showings (§ 66-28-403), the 30-day periodic-tenancy floor (§ 66-28-512), and the self-help-eviction prohibition (§ 66-28-504). The statewide rent-control preemption under § 66-35-102(a) applies to all 95 TN counties.
$29.00 per generated document.
What every Tennessee lease must include
Standard lease elements
- Parties and the Tennessee county + street address of the rental.
- Lease term — fixed end date or a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy.
- Monthly rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods.
- Security deposit amount (no statutory cap; URLTA separate-account requirement in URLTA counties).
- Utilities — which the landlord covers and which the tenant pays.
- Occupancy rules, pets, smoking, and entry procedures.
- Default, 14-day cure for noncompliance under URLTA § 66-28-501, and 30-day periodic-tenancy termination language.
- URLTA-applicability framework + the 30-day post-move-out damage-discovery deadline.
- Fire/casualty insurance disclaimer (verbatim statutory language).
- Signatures of all parties.
Tennessee-required disclosures
- Federal lead-paint disclosure and EPA pamphlet for any unit built before 1978. (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 24 C.F.R. Part 35)
- Fire/casualty insurance disclaimer — landlord's fire or casualty insurance does not cover tenant's personal property; verbatim statutory language required in URLTA leases. (Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(a))
- Owner / agent identification — name and address of landlord (or authorized agent) in the lease body. (Tenn. Code § 66-28-302)
Tennessee-specific workflow
- URLTA applies only in the 17 counties with population >75,000 under the 2010 census — Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sevier, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson, and Wilson. Tenn. Code § 66-28-102.
- No statutory deposit cap; in URLTA counties the deposit must be held in a separate account and the tenant notified of the account's location. Tenn. Code § 66-28-301(a), (h).
- Post-move-out damages must be discovered before the earlier of 30 days after vacating or 7 days after a new tenant takes possession. Tenn. Code § 66-28-301(g).
- Mandatory 5-day rent grace before late fees may be charged (URLTA). Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(d).
- Late fees capped at 10% of past-due rent (URLTA). Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(d).
- 14-day cure for general noncompliance (URLTA). Tenn. Code § 66-28-501; § 66-28-505.
- Essential-services failure remedy: substitute services + deduct, or substitute housing. Tenn. Code § 66-28-502.
- 24-hour entry notice for final-30-days showings (URLTA, when lease grants right). Tenn. Code § 66-28-403.
- 30-day periodic-tenancy termination floor.
- Self-help eviction prohibited; tenant has cause of action for damages + fees. Tenn. Code § 66-28-504.
- Statewide rent-control preemption: cities cannot impose rent control on private residential property. Tenn. Code § 66-35-102(a).
How the Tennessee lease is structured
- The document opens with parties, the Tennessee county, and the rental-property address.
- The property-location subphase surfaces the URLTA-applicability framework + the rent-control preemption + the Tennessee Human Rights Act non-discrimination + a single combined major-city overlay informational callout for Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Murfreesboro.
- The term section identifies the arrangement as fixed-term with an end date or as a periodic tenancy with the 30-day termination floor.
- The rent section sets the monthly amount, due date, accepted payment methods, and surfaces the URLTA 5-day grace floor + 10% statutory late-fee cap (§ 66-28-201(d)).
- The security-deposit section captures the deposit amount and renders the no-statutory-cap framing, the URLTA separate-account requirement, the 30-day post-move-out damage-discovery deadline, and the warranty of habitability.
- A dedicated Tennessee-disclosures subphase informs the user that the lease will automatically include the fire/casualty insurance disclaimer (§ 66-28-201(a)) and the owner-identification clause (§ 66-28-302).
- The document closes with the URLTA 14-day cure for noncompliance, the essential-services failure remedy, the SCRA service-member protections, the self-help-eviction prohibition, the statutory attorney's-fees clause, and the Tennessee Human Rights Act non-discrimination clause — followed by signatures.
BuildMyLease assembles all of this for you in a guided interview.
Free Tennessee lease template vs BuildMyLease
Free Tennessee lease templates are everywhere, but most miss the URLTA county-applicability framework entirely, omit the fire/casualty insurance disclaimer that § 66-28-201(a) requires verbatim, and get the 5-day grace + 10% cap wrong. Here is the honest side-by-side.
| Free template | BuildMyLease | |
|---|---|---|
| URLTA applicability (Tenn. Code § 66-28-102) | Almost universally absent. Templates apply URLTA-style protections statewide without acknowledging the 75,000-population test or non-URLTA-county distinctions. | Dedicated URLTA-applicability clause explaining the 17-county framework — and every Tennessee lease carries the URLTA-grade protections regardless of county, so a property in a qualifying county is never under-protected. |
| Fire/casualty insurance disclaimer (§ 66-28-201(a)) | Often summarized rather than rendered verbatim. The statute requires the all-caps written disclaimer. | Verbatim all-caps statutory text rendered in every TN lease. |
| 5-day grace + 10% statutory cap (§ 66-28-201(d)) | Many templates allow late fees from day 2 with flat fees of $75–$100 — both invalid in URLTA counties. | Hard /review error blocks the lease when grace days are below 5 or when the fee exceeds 10% of monthly rent. |
| 30-day post-move-out damage-discovery (§ 66-28-301(g)) | Rarely flagged. Damages discovered after the 30-day window (or 7-day new-tenant cutoff) are not chargeable. | Rendered in the deposit clause as part of the URLTA-county framework. |
| Cost | $0. | $29 per document. |
Who this is for
This is for
- Tennessee landlords managing 1–25 private-market units (single-family, condo, small multi-family).
- Owners renting in URLTA counties (Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton, Rutherford) who want the URLTA framework rendered automatically.
- Owners renting in non-URLTA counties who want a contractually-strong default that follows the URLTA pattern even where statute does not require it.
- Landlords issuing a new fixed-term lease OR a periodic tenancy that needs the 30-day termination floor.
This isn't for
- Mobile-home park tenancies (separate Tennessee statutory regime).
- Section 8 / federally subsidized tenancies — those carry separate HAP-contract requirements that this document does not encode.
- Properties subject to specific local ordinances (Nashville Metro Code in particular has additional rental-licensing rules) — counsel review recommended for the specific overlay.
- Ongoing detainer proceedings — those require court forms, not a lease.
- Commercial leases.
Recent Tennessee guides
Plain-language explainers of the laws this lease is built around.
GuideFirst-time landlord guide
Step-by-step operating sequence: prepare unit → screen tenants → sign lease → collect funds → document move-in.
Frequently asked questions
Which Tennessee counties does URLTA apply to?
Tenn. Code § 66-28-102(a) applies the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act "only in counties having a population of more than seventy-five thousand (75,000), according to the 2010 federal census" — the statute is pinned to the 2010 count, so the list is fixed until the legislature amends it. Seventeen counties qualify: Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sevier, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson, and Wilson. Putnam (72,321) and Greene (68,831) fall just short and are not URLTA counties. Everywhere else, the lease, common law and any local ordinance govern.
Does the generated lease account for my property's county?
Yes, conservatively. Every BuildMyLease Tennessee lease is drafted to URLTA standards — the 5-day grace and 10% late-fee cap, the separate deposit account and 30-day damage-discovery window, the 14-day cure, the fire/casualty disclaimer — and the URLTA-applicability clause explains that these apply by statute in the 17 qualifying counties and as agreed contract terms in the other 78. A lease for Williamson, Montgomery, Sumner, Wilson, Blount or any other qualifying county therefore carries every URLTA provision; a lease outside those counties is never less protective than the law requires.
Is there a security deposit limit in Tennessee?
No statutory cap. In the 17 URLTA counties (see "Which Tennessee counties does URLTA apply to?"), the deposit must be held in a separate account and the tenant must be notified of its location. Tenn. Code § 66-28-301(a), (h). BuildMyLease applies the separate-account clause in every Tennessee lease, as a statutory duty in URLTA counties and as a contract term elsewhere.
Does Tennessee's landlord-tenant act apply statewide?
No. The URLTA (Tenn. Code §§ 66-28-101 to 66-28-521) applies only in counties with populations exceeding 75,000 under the 2010 census — Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton, and Rutherford. In other counties, tenant rights depend on the lease + common law + any local ordinance.
When can a Tennessee landlord charge a late fee?
Not until rent is at least five days past due. The fee may not exceed 10% of the past-due rent. Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(d). BuildMyLease blocks /review when grace days are below 5 or when the fee exceeds 10% of monthly rent.
Does a Tennessee lease require an insurance disclaimer?
Yes. The lease must state in writing that the landlord's fire or casualty insurance does not cover the tenant's personal property. Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(a). BuildMyLease renders the verbatim all-caps statutory disclosure in every TN lease.
Can a Tennessee tenant withhold rent for repairs?
In URLTA counties, the tenant may give 14 days' notice and terminate for material noncompliance (Tenn. Code § 66-28-501). For essential-services failures, the tenant may procure substitute services and deduct the cost (§ 66-28-502). Outside URLTA counties, remedies depend on the lease.
How long does a Tennessee landlord have to discover post-move-out damages?
In URLTA counties, before the earlier of 30 days after the tenant vacates or 7 days after a new tenant takes possession. Tenn. Code § 66-28-301(g). Damages discovered after that window are not chargeable to the deposit.
How much notice is required to terminate a month-to-month tenancy?
At least 30 days' written notice before the end of any monthly rental period, applied symmetrically to landlord and tenant. Tenn. Code § 66-28-512 (URLTA) and Tennessee common law.
How much entry notice must a Tennessee landlord give?
Tennessee does NOT have a general statewide statute requiring a fixed advance-notice period for routine entry. In URLTA counties, the landlord may enter for inspections, repairs, and services and may not abuse access. A 24-hour notice provision applies specifically to showings during the final 30 days when the lease grants Landlord that right. Tenn. Code § 66-28-403.
Is self-help eviction allowed?
No. Under Tenn. Code § 66-28-504, a landlord may not lock out the tenant, change the locks, shut off utility service, threaten to do any of the foregoing, or otherwise oust the tenant outside the unlawful-detainer process. The tenant has a cause of action for damages and reasonable attorney's fees.
Does Tennessee have rent control?
No. Under Tenn. Code § 66-35-102(a), no local government in Tennessee may enact rent control on private residential property. The preemption is statewide.