Published 2026-09-25 · 15 min read

Arkansas Landlord-Tenant Law 2026: The Plain-English Guide

Arkansas is still the most landlord-friendly state in America — but two claims repeated everywhere, including in earlier versions of this guide, are no longer true. It is not accurate to say Arkansas has no habitability law: Act 1052 of 2021, codified at Ark. Code § 18-17-502, has imposed minimum quality standards on leases entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021. And there is no statute that lets you file an eviction immediately, with no notice, for illegal activity — the unlawful detainer grounds in § 18-60-304 are a closed list, and nonpayment carries its own three-day notice to quit inside that section. What remains genuinely unique: Arkansas is the only state where willfully refusing to vacate after notice for nonpayment is still a crime on the books (§ 18-16-101), and its tenant remedies are the narrowest in the country — for a quality-standards failure, the tenant's sole remedy is to leave.

The scheme sits in three chapters. Chapter 16 holds the older statutes: security deposits (§§ 18-16-303 to 18-16-306) and the criminal failure-to-vacate law (§ 18-16-101). Chapter 17 is the Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007, covering notices, entry, quality standards, and remedies. Chapter 60 holds the civil eviction machine, unlawful detainer (§ 18-60-304 et seq.). The headline numbers: a two-month deposit cap that binds only landlords renting six or more dwellings (and some smaller landlords who use a paid manager), a 60-day deposit return, rent not in arrears until 5 days after the due date, a 14-day cure notice for other violations, 30 days to end a month-to-month tenancy, and no statutory entry-notice period at all.

The short version: If the deposit subchapter applies to you, collect no more than two months' rent as security, however labeled. Mail the itemized accounting and any refund within 60 days after termination and delivery of possession. Serve the right notice on the right clock: 5 days to arrears under § 18-17-701(b), a separate 3-day notice to quit before an unlawful detainer filing for nonpayment under § 18-60-304(3), 14 days after receipt to cure other noncompliance under § 18-17-701(a), and 30 days before the named termination date for month-to-month. Meet the six Act 1052 quality standards for the whole term. Build your eviction practice entirely on the civil route.

Arkansas law at a glance

Three corrections matter more than everything else in that table, because earlier versions of this guide — and most of the internet — get them wrong:

First, Arkansas has had minimum habitability standards since 2021. Act 1052 wrote six quality standards into § 18-17-502 for leases entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021. It is narrower than a classic implied warranty — no rent withholding, no repair-and-deduct, termination as the only remedy — but "Arkansas has no habitability law, take the unit as is" has been bad advice for five years. The Attorney General's consumer guidance still uses the older "as is" framing; the statute controls.

Second, there is no no-notice eviction for illegal activity. Earlier text here cited a § 18-17-901 for immediate filing over gambling, prostitution, or illegal alcohol sales. No such ground appears in the current § 18-60-304, whose five grounds are holdover, holding after a written demand for possession, nonpayment after a 3-day notice to quit, failure to maintain the premises in a safe, healthy, or habitable condition, and causing or permitting a nuisance. Illegal activity runs through the lease (§ 18-17-603 bars the tenant from conducting or permitting illegal activities on the premises), the § 18-17-701(a) notice track, and the nuisance ground.

Third, the deposit exemption is not a simple unit count. The subchapter covers landlords renting six or more dwellings — but an owner of five or fewer who has a third party manage the property or collect rent for a fee is treated as covered, which puts most out-of-state owners with a local manager inside the deposit rules even with one or two houses. Count your management arrangement, not just your units.

When the clocks actually start

Arkansas deadline disputes are lost on trigger dates, not on arithmetic. Each clock starts on a different event:

The deposit clock needs termination AND delivery of possession. Section 18-16-305(a) puts the itemized amount due 60 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession by the tenant. A tenancy terminated on paper while the tenant (or the keys) remained has not started your 60 days. Log both dates. Mailing by first-class mail to the last known address is deemed compliance (§ 18-16-305(b)(1)) — your proof is the mailing date, so keep the file copy and a certificate of mailing. Worked example: termination and delivery of possession on Monday, March 2, 2026 make the itemization and balance due out by Friday, May 1, 2026. If you mail on Monday, April 20, 2026, the letter comes back, and you cannot locate the tenant after reasonable effort, the payment becomes your property 180 days after mailing — Saturday, October 17, 2026 (§ 18-16-305(b)(2)). Do not spend a returned refund before that date.

The arrears clock runs from the due date, not from a notice. Under § 18-17-701(b), nonpayment supports termination only once the tenant has failed to pay within five days from the date due. Rent due Sunday, March 1, 2026 still unpaid after Friday, March 6, 2026 lets you terminate the rental agreement. That is a termination right, not a filing: the unlawful detainer ground for nonpayment separately requires a three days' notice to quit and written demand for possession under § 18-60-304(3), followed by refusal to quit. Serve the 3-day notice after the arrears date and keep the documents distinct. A notice served Monday, March 9, 2026 runs through Thursday, March 12, 2026; Arkansas practitioners flag that the delivery day counts as one of the three — serve early, never on the last arguable day.

The cure clock runs from receipt. Section 18-17-701(a)(1) measures the 14 days from the tenant's receipt of the written notice, and the termination date may not be less than 14 days after receipt. A notice received Monday, March 2, 2026 supports an earliest termination date of Monday, March 16, 2026, and a tenant who adequately remedies before that date defeats termination (§ 18-17-701(a)(2)). Prove receipt: hand delivery with a witness, or a mailing method that generates its own record.

The periodic-tenancy clock is anchored to the termination date you name. Section 18-17-704 requires written notice given at least 30 days (month-to-month) or 7 days (week-to-week) before the termination date specified in the notice — not one rental period, not the next rent due date. A notice given Monday, March 2, 2026 naming Wednesday, April 1, 2026 gives exactly 30 days; give it on February 27 instead and the cushion absorbs any counting fight.

The criminal clock runs from a 10-day written notice — and buys you no possession. Under § 18-16-101(b), the misdemeanor arises only if, after 10 days' written notice to vacate, the tenant willfully refuses to vacate and surrender possession. Notice given Monday, March 2, 2026 makes willful refusal after Thursday, March 12, 2026 the chargeable conduct. A conviction produces only a fine — the statute gives the court no removal power. That is one of several reasons the civil track is the practice standard.

The quality-standards clock runs from the tenant's written notice to you. Under § 18-17-502, once a tenant gives written notice of a standards failure, you have 30 days to remedy before the tenant's termination remedy matures. Notice received Monday, March 2, 2026 means remedy by Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Date-stamp every tenant letter on arrival; this clock runs against you. Our Security Deposit Deadline Finder computes deposit deadlines from the trigger dates for you.

How much can an Arkansas landlord charge as a security deposit, and when must it be returned?

Sections 18-16-303 through 18-16-306 are a self-contained subchapter, and the first question is whether it reaches you at all.

Who is covered (§ 18-16-303). The Attorney General's summary is the working rule: the deposit law applies to landlords who rent six or more dwellings. The exemption for owners of five or fewer is narrower than it looks — it is lost when the owner uses a third party to manage the property or collect rent for a fee. A self-managing owner of four houses sits outside the subchapter's cap, deadline, and penalty (the lease and general contract law still govern the money, and following the statute anyway is safest). An absentee owner of two houses with a local manager is inside it. Decide which one you are before you set the deposit.

What you may collect (§ 18-16-304). A covered landlord may not demand or receive a security deposit exceeding two months' periodic rent. Treat the cap as an aggregate: money taken as security is security however the lease labels it, so a full two-month deposit plus a stacked "pet deposit" or extra fee taken as security puts you over the line. (A genuinely nonrefundable fee that is not held as security is a different animal — but if it functions as security, expect a court to treat it as security.)

What you may apply it to (§ 18-16-305(a)(2)). Accrued unpaid rent, and damages suffered by reason of the tenant's noncompliance with the rental agreement — where damage beyond normal wear and tear lives. Every amount applied must be itemized in a written notice delivered to the tenant, together with the remainder due, inside the 60-day window. You may withhold the entire deposit when documented rent and damage exceed it (the Attorney General confirms this), but the itemization is still owed: silence is the violation even when the math is on your side.

How you send it (§ 18-16-305(b)). Mailing the notice and any payment by first-class mail to the tenant's last known address is deemed compliance — use the rule exactly as written, keep the file copy and mailing proof, and get a forwarding address in writing at move-out. Then the unclaimed-funds rule: returned letter, plus reasonable effort to locate the tenant, and the payment becomes yours 180 days from the date mailed. Calendar it; a refund spent at day 90 is a wrongful withholding if the tenant surfaces at day 120.

What it costs when you don't (§ 18-16-306). A tenant suing over a subchapter failure may recover the property and money due, damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld, costs, and reasonable attorney's fees. Two features decide real cases. First, the multiplier is measured on the amount wrongfully withheld, not the whole deposit — withhold $1,140 wrongfully and the damages figure is $2,280, not twice $2,400. Second, the safe harbor in § 18-16-306(a)(2): if you show by a preponderance of the evidence that the noncompliance resulted from an error that occurred despite procedures reasonably designed to avoid such errors, or rested on a good-faith dispute about the amount due, liability is only the sum erroneously withheld plus costs. "Procedures reasonably designed" is a systems test: a written move-out workflow, a deadline calendar, and an itemization template are exactly the evidence that invokes it. Build them before you need them. See our move-in/move-out inspection checklist and security deposit deductions guide, and our dedicated page on Arkansas security deposit law.

No separate-account or interest rule. The subchapter imposes no trust-account, separate-account, or interest duty. Keeping deposit money in a separate account is still the practical move: the 60-day refund has to be payable on your worst week, not your best.

What are Arkansas's rules on rent increases and rent control?

• No rent control — and since 2025, no local power to create any. Act 459 of 2025 (SB91, approved April 3, 2025) rewrote § 14-16-601 and added a parallel § 14-54-1409: as to leasing private residential or commercial property, a local governmental unit may not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would control the amount charged for rent, rental application fees, or rental deposits — with the state deposit cap in § 18-16-304 expressly excepted. The preemption does not impair a local government's right to manage property it has an interest in. The 2025 short-term-rental bills that drew attention in this space (HB1445, HB1790) did not pass — do not treat them as law.
• Rent increases ride on the termination-notice clock. No statute sets a dedicated increase-notice period or caps an increase. On a month-to-month tenancy the mechanism is § 18-17-704(b): a tenant who will not accept new terms can be terminated on 30 days' written notice before the named termination date, so give at least that much written lead time. On a fixed term, rent is locked until the term ends unless the lease says otherwise. One caution about a case often cited here: Robinette v. French, 20 Ark. App. 102 (1987), is a holdover case about when staying on after notice of an increase implies consent to the higher rent (and when an express protest defeats that implication, leaving liability for reasonable use and occupation). It does not establish a "16-day notice is too short" rule, and earlier versions of this guide were wrong to describe it that way. See how to raise rent legally.
• No mandatory grace period. Nothing in Chapter 17 delays when rent is due; rent is payable at the time and place agreed (§ 18-17-401(b)). The 5 days in § 18-17-701(b) are the period after which nonpayment supports termination — not a grace period that makes rent "not late" — and lease late fees can accrue during them if the lease so provides. Write the due date, any contractual grace period, and the fee trigger explicitly.
• No statutory late-fee cap. We could not verify any Arkansas statute capping late fees in the current code; treat recycled claims of a dollar-or-percentage cap as unreliable. Lease terms govern — keep the fee a defensible estimate of your actual late-payment costs, and state the amount, the day it accrues, and whether it repeats.
• No rent withholding. Arkansas gives tenants no general right to withhold rent — and Act 1052 says so expressly for quality-standards disputes: nothing in § 18-17-502 excuses rent or permits an offset. A tenant withholding anyway is on the § 18-17-701(b) track; see how to handle late rent.

How much notice is required to end a tenancy in Arkansas?

Periodic tenancies end on § 18-17-704's clocks, which either party can start:

• Week-to-week: written notice at least 7 days before the termination date specified in the notice (§ 18-17-704(a)).
• Month-to-month: written notice at least 30 days before the termination date specified in the notice (§ 18-17-704(b)). No cause is required — this is a no-fault termination track, distinct from the for-cause tracks in § 18-17-701.
• Holdover: a tenant who remains without your consent after expiration or termination can be sued for possession (§ 18-17-704(c)(1)). A holdover not in good faith exposes the tenant to reasonable attorney's fees, and a willful holdover in violation of the chapter or the agreement exposes the tenant to the greater of three months' periodic rent or twice your actual damages, plus fees (§ 18-17-704(c)(2)–(3)). The flip side: if you consent to continued occupancy, the tenancy continues on the agreement's terms (§ 18-17-704(c)(4), applying § 18-17-401(c)) — so accepting rent after termination without a written reservation of rights is a decision, not a courtesy.

A fixed-term lease ends on its own date; neither § 18-17-704 notice is needed for the term to expire, but the holdover rules above govern anyone who stays past it.

What eviction notices must an Arkansas landlord serve?

Self-help is not an Arkansas remedy. Arkansas case law has long denied landlords the right to evict without a court order (the Arkansas Supreme Court's holding in Gorman v. Ratliff is the citation a 2021 legislative study proposal used for exactly that proposition) — no lock changes, no utility shutoffs, no removing belongings to force a departure. Possession moves through a court, on one of these tracks:

Nonpayment — terminate under § 18-17-701(b), file under § 18-60-304(3). Two steps, two documents. Step one: rent due and unpaid five days later terminates your obligation to keep the agreement alive. Step two: the unlawful detainer ground for nonpayment requires a three days' notice to quit with a written demand for possession, and the tenant's refusal to quit. Attorney's fees are available where the nonpayment is not in good faith (§ 18-17-701(c)(3)). Do not merge the steps: a filing that skips the 3-day notice, or serves it before the arrears date, is defective on its face.

Other noncompliance — the 14-day notice (§ 18-17-701(a)). Deliver a written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the noncompliance, stating that the agreement will terminate on a date not less than 14 days after receipt if the noncompliance is not remedied in 14 days. "Specifying" means facts — dates, conduct, the lease clause — not the conclusion "lease violation." If the breach is remediable and the tenant adequately remedies it before the specified date, the agreement does not terminate. Willful noncompliance (other than nonpayment) supports reasonable attorney's fees (§ 18-17-701(c)(2)). Health-and-safety noncompliance by the tenant has a companion provision, § 18-17-702, under which — after written notice and a failure to comply promptly in an emergency or within 14 days — you may enter and cause remedial work (repair, replacement, cleaning) to be done; read its text before relying on it.

The other unlawful detainer grounds (§ 18-60-304). Beyond nonpayment: (1) holding over after the term; (2) obtaining possession peaceably and holding it willfully and unlawfully after a written demand for delivery of possession; (4) failing to maintain the premises in a safe, healthy, or habitable condition; and (5) causing or permitting the premises to become a common or public nuisance, including under the drug-abatement statutes. Note what is absent: there is no freestanding "illegal activity, file today" ground. A drug house fits ground (5); most other lease crimes fit § 18-17-701(a)'s notice track or ground (2)'s demand track.

The criminal track (§ 18-16-101) — on the books, and a poor tool. Arkansas remains the only state that criminalizes this conduct. The current text — this matters — is the short pre-2001 form: subsection (a) forfeits the nonpaying tenant's right to occupy; subsection (b) makes willful refusal to vacate after 10 days' written notice a misdemeanor fined $1 to $25 per offense, each day a separate offense. The court-registry deposit subsection and the added Class B misdemeanor that once sat in subsection (c) are gone: Act 159 of 2017 (§ 2) amended the section, and the current code text ends at subsection (b). Any guide still describing a registry-payment requirement in § 18-16-101 is describing repealed law. The constitutional status is genuinely unsettled: in State v. Artoria Smith (Pulaski County Circuit Court, Jan. 20, 2015), the court held the statute unconstitutional on equal-protection, due-process, debtors'-prison, and cruel-and-unusual grounds; three other circuit courts followed, the ruling was not appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, and a circuit decision binds its own circuit rather than the state — so the statute is a practical dead letter in Pulaski County, untested at the appellate level, and still charged in some counties, where many prosecutors decline these cases. It also cannot remove anyone: it authorizes fines only. Build your practice on the civil tracks, and treat any § 18-16-101 referral as a prosecutor's decision, not your remedy.

Full process: how to evict a tenant.

The court case: unlawful detainer mechanics

The notice terminates rights; only the court restores possession. After the applicable notice expires, the landlord files an unlawful detainer complaint in circuit court. The Attorney General's consumer summary describes the cadence, and the statutory notice form (Act 728 of 2007) fills in the detail:

• Service comes with a Notice of Intention to Issue Writ of Possession, served by the sheriff with the complaint and summons.
• The tenant has five days to object — excluding Sundays and legal holidays (Saturdays count). No written objection filed with the circuit clerk in that window, and the writ of possession issues for the sheriff to execute. A timely objection gets a hearing on whether the writ should issue.
• Staying now takes good cause plus security. Act 1052 of 2021 raised the bar: depositing rent into the court registry alone is no longer sufficient — the tenant must move the court, establish good cause to remain, and provide security of not less than the rent owed plus rent that will accrue while possession is retained.
• After the writ: coordinate with the sheriff, inventory anything left behind on the spot, and photograph the unit before anyone cleans. Property left after termination sits inside a landlord's-lien framework — do not treat "abandoned" as a synonym for "yours to discard" without checking the current text and your lease.

Damages ride along with possession: accrued rent, § 18-17-701(c) damages and fee claims, and the § 18-17-704(c) holdover enhancement are pleading decisions to make at filing, not after judgment.

What habitability duties does an Arkansas landlord have after Act 1052?

For most of Arkansas history, the Attorney General's summary was the whole law: you rent "as is," the landlord owes no maintenance the lease does not promise, and city codes are the tenant's only external protection. Act 1052 of 2021 ended that era for current leases, and any guide that still leads with "Arkansas is the only state with no implied warranty of habitability" without the next sentence is out of date.

The six standards (§ 18-17-502). For a lease or rental agreement entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021, the dwelling must have, at delivery of possession and throughout the term: (1) an available source of hot and cold running water; (2) an available source of electricity; (3) a source of potable drinking water; (4) a sanitary sewer system and plumbing conforming to the building and housing codes in existence at the time of installation; (5) a functioning roof and building envelope; and (6) a functioning heating and air conditioning system, to the extent that system served the premises when the agreement was made. Stricter local housing standards still apply on top. Temporary noncompliance caused by an act of God, a public utility failure, or a comparable force majeure event is excused while it lasts, and the one written opt-out the statute contemplates is a tenant's written agreement to take responsibility for renovation or remodeling.

Deemed compliance — the move-in form does legal work here. A landlord is deemed in compliance at delivery if the tenant is given a written form to list defects and either signs it without noting a defect and takes possession, or fails to return it within two business days. For later defects, the landlord is likewise protected where the failure could not be remedied because the tenant refused access for the repair, or was caused by the deliberate or negligent act of the tenant, household members, occupants, or visitors. That move-in defect form is the same document our move-in/move-out inspection checklist builds your deposit evidence on — in Arkansas it now does double duty, so use it at every move-in without exception.

The remedy is termination — only termination. The tenant must give written notice of the noncompliance (certified mail, or the method the lease specifies). If the landlord does not remedy within 30 days after receiving it, and the tenant's rent is current and the failure is not excused, the tenant may terminate without penalty and recover the security deposit. The statute makes this the tenant's sole remedy under the section, puts the burden of raising noncompliance on the tenant, and states that nothing excuses rent or allows an offset. There is still no repair-and-deduct statute and no rent-withholding right in Arkansas — that part of the old advice survives. What does not survive is "no duty": ignore a § 18-17-502 notice and you lose the tenant, the deposit, and the turnover costs, lawfully, on a 30-day clock.

Retaliation is prohibited (§ 18-17-504). A landlord may not retaliate against a tenant who complains to the landlord or to a government agency about a noncompliance or code violation, or who seeks to enforce a remedy under the agreement or the Act — by raising rent or fees, bringing or threatening a possession action or a failure-to-vacate charge, or similar action. Possession actions remain available for genuine material noncompliance, but after any complaint the sequence will be read against the complaint date: document the independent, pre-existing reason for any notice you serve, or do not serve it. See how to handle maintenance requests.

The honest framing for your leases: § 18-17-502 is a floor, not a maintenance program — six functioning systems, proven at move-in, remedied within 30 days of written notice. Put broader commitments in the lease anyway: where the statutory floor is this low, a written 48-hour response commitment is a competitive advantage, and it costs less than one Act 1052 termination.

How much notice must an Arkansas landlord give before entering?

Arkansas is the outlier of outliers on entry — but "no notice statute" does not mean "no rules":

• No statute sets any advance-notice period. The operative rule is § 18-17-602(a): the tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for the listed purposes — inspecting, making necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, investigating possible rule or lease violations, investigating possible criminal activity, and showing the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers, or contractors. The tenant also may not change locks without the landlord's permission (§ 18-17-602(b)).
• Abuse of access has priced remedies on both sides (§ 18-17-705). A tenant who refuses lawful access faces injunctive relief compelling access or termination of the agreement, plus actual damages and attorney's fees. A landlord who makes an unlawful entry, a lawful entry in an unreasonable manner, or repeated lawful demands that unreasonably harass the tenant faces the mirror image: injunction or termination at the tenant's election, plus actual damages and fees. Repeated unannounced entries are therefore not a management style; they are a liability with a fee-shifting clause.
• That makes the lease clause and the paper trail everything. Best practice: write a 24-hour written-notice rule into every lease — 24 hours' written notice for non-emergency entries, at reasonable times, with defined exceptions for emergencies, abandonment, and repairs the tenant requested. You get the protection a statute would have given you, in writing, and the "unreasonably withhold consent" standard is far easier to litigate with a documented notice procedure behind it.
• Document every entry: notice date and method, reason, time in, time out. Without a statutory backstop, your log is the entire argument — on both § 18-17-602 consent and § 18-17-705 harassment.

Because Arkansas puts so much weight on the lease document itself, it is worth pressure-testing yours: our free Lease Clause Scanner checks a pasted lease against a plain-English clause checklist, entirely in your browser.

Discrimination

The federal Fair Housing Act applies in full, and the Arkansas Fair Housing Act (§ 16-123-201 et seq.) tracks the federal protected classes: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. The Arkansas Fair Housing Commission is the state enforcement contact the Attorney General points to. Screen every applicant with the same written criteria and document your decisions. Our fair housing guide covers what you can and cannot ask.

Worked examples

Deposit return — the 60-day clock and the § 18-16-306 multiplier. Rent is $1,200 a month and the deposit is $2,400, the § 18-16-304 cap. The tenancy terminates and the tenant delivers possession on Monday, March 2, 2026, so the itemization and balance are due out by Friday, May 1, 2026. Documented deductions: $600 of accrued unpaid rent, $475 of damage beyond wear and tear (photographed against the signed move-in form), and $185 of cleaning under the lease — $1,260 total. The refund due is $2,400 − $1,260 = $1,140. Now suppose you simply never send it. The tenant's § 18-16-306 recovery is the $1,140 due, plus damages of twice the amount wrongfully withheld — 2 × $1,140 = $2,280 — plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees: $3,420 plus costs and fees for ignoring a $1,140 check. And the safe-harbor contrast: if the miss was a documented calendaring error inside a real procedure, or a genuine dispute over the $475 damage line, § 18-16-306(a)(2) cuts the exposure to the $1,140 plus costs.

Nonpayment — three clocks, one file. Rent of $1,200 is due Sunday, March 1, 2026 and is not paid. The § 18-17-701(b) arrears point passes after Friday, March 6, 2026 — before that date, nonpayment does not yet support termination. You serve the § 18-60-304(3) three-day notice to quit and written demand for possession on Monday, March 9, 2026; it runs through Thursday, March 12, 2026. If the tenant neither pays nor quits, the unlawful detainer complaint follows. Had you instead reached for the criminal track, the § 18-16-101 notice given March 9 would not even ripen until Thursday, March 19, 2026 (10 days after notice), would produce at most a $1–$25-per-day fine, would remove nobody, and would carry the Smith constitutional problem into your county's courtroom. The civil file is faster at every step.

Arkansas compliance checklist

1. Before you collect anything: confirm the deposit subchapter reaches you — six or more dwellings, or five or fewer with a third party managing or collecting rent for a fee (§ 18-16-303). If covered, keep total security at or under two months' periodic rent (§ 18-16-304).

2. At move-in: hand the tenant the § 18-17-502 defect-list form, walk the unit together, photograph everything, and chase the signed form — a signature with no defects noted, or no return within two business days, is deemed compliance at delivery. Keep it with the deposit file.

3. In the lease: state the rent due date, any contractual grace period, the late-fee amount and trigger, a 24-hour written entry-notice procedure the statute does not give you, and your maintenance-response commitments above the § 18-17-502 floor.

4. For every tenant notice from you: use the right clock — 5 days to arrears (§ 18-17-701(b)) plus a separate 3-day notice to quit before filing (§ 18-60-304(3)), 14 days after receipt to cure (§ 18-17-701(a)), 30 days before the named termination date for month-to-month (§ 18-17-704(b)) — and keep proof of service or receipt.

5. For every tenant notice to you: date-stamp it on arrival. A § 18-17-502 quality notice starts your 30-day remedy clock; a complaint starts the § 18-17-504 retaliation window in which your next rent change or notice will be judged.

6. For entry: follow your lease's 24-hour procedure even though no statute requires it, enter only for § 18-17-602 purposes, and log notice, reason, and times in and out — § 18-17-705 prices abuse on both sides.

7. At move-out: log the termination date and the delivery-of-possession date separately; build the itemization only from documented deltas between the move-in form and the move-out walk.

8. Within 60 days after termination and possession: mail the itemized notice and any balance by first-class mail to the last known address (§ 18-16-305) — target week four, not day fifty-nine — and keep the mailing proof with the ledger.

9. If the refund comes back: make and document a reasonable effort to locate the tenant, and calendar day 180 from the mailing date (§ 18-16-305(b)(2)) before treating any of the money as yours.

10. Never: change locks, interrupt utilities, or remove belongings to force a departure, and never build an eviction on the § 18-16-101 criminal referral — possession comes from an unlawful detainer judgment and the sheriff, full stop.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much security deposit can an Arkansas landlord charge?

If the deposit subchapter applies to you, no more than two months' periodic rent under § 18-16-304 — and the subchapter applies to landlords renting six or more dwellings, plus smaller owners whose property is managed or whose rent is collected by a third party for a fee (§ 18-16-303). Money taken as security counts toward the cap however the lease labels it, so do not stack a pet deposit or extra security fee on top of a full two-month deposit. Check a planned deposit against Arkansas's two-month cap for covered landlords with the Security Deposit Max Checker, which returns a compliant or over-the-limit verdict for the amount and state you enter.

How long does an Arkansas landlord have to return a security deposit?

Sixty days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession, under § 18-16-305(a) — the itemized written notice and any balance are due together inside that window. Mailing both by first-class mail to the tenant's last known address counts as compliance (§ 18-16-305(b)(1)). If the mailing is returned and the tenant cannot be located after reasonable effort, the payment becomes the landlord's property 180 days after the mailing date (§ 18-16-305(b)(2)).

What happens if an Arkansas landlord misses the deposit deadline?

Under § 18-16-306(a)(1), the tenant may recover the property and money due, damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld, costs, and reasonable attorney's fees. The multiplier is measured on the amount wrongfully withheld, not the whole deposit. Under the § 18-16-306(a)(2) safe harbor, a landlord who proves the failure came from an error despite procedures reasonably designed to avoid it, or from a good-faith dispute over the amount due, is liable only for the amount erroneously withheld plus costs.

Does Arkansas have a warranty of habitability?

Not the classic implied warranty — but since Act 1052 of 2021, § 18-17-502 imposes six minimum quality standards on leases entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021: hot and cold running water, electricity, potable drinking water, code-conforming sewer and plumbing, a functioning roof and building envelope, and functioning heating and air conditioning to the extent the system served the premises at signing. The tenant's only remedy is written notice, a 30-day cure window, then termination without penalty plus the deposit back. There is no rent withholding and no repair-and-deduct.

How much notice is required to evict for nonpayment of rent in Arkansas?

Two documents on two clocks. Rent unpaid five days after the due date lets the landlord terminate the rental agreement under § 18-17-701(b). The unlawful detainer action itself requires a three days' notice to quit and written demand for possession under § 18-60-304(3), followed by the tenant's refusal to quit. After filing and service, the tenant has five days, excluding Sundays and legal holidays, to file a written objection before a writ of possession can issue.

Is nonpayment of rent really a crime in Arkansas?

The refusal is. Section 18-16-101 makes it a misdemeanor — fined $1 to $25 per day, each day a separate offense — for a tenant to willfully refuse to vacate after 10 days' written notice following nonpayment. Arkansas is the only state with such a statute. Its limits are severe: it authorizes fines only and cannot remove anyone; a Pulaski County circuit court held it unconstitutional in State v. Artoria Smith (2015), three other circuit courts followed, and the Arkansas Supreme Court has never ruled. Act 159 of 2017 also removed the old court-registry deposit subsection, so the current text is subsections (a) and (b) only. Use the civil unlawful detainer track.

How much notice is required for a curable lease violation in Arkansas?

A written notice under § 18-17-701(a) specifying the acts and omissions constituting the noncompliance, with a termination date not less than 14 days after the tenant's receipt of the notice. If the noncompliance is remediable and the tenant adequately remedies it before that date, the agreement does not terminate. There is no separate no-notice track for illegal activity: unlawful detainer grounds are the closed list in § 18-60-304, and the nuisance ground in § 18-60-304(5) is the one that fits drug or nuisance activity.

How much notice must an Arkansas landlord give before entering a rental?

No Arkansas statute sets an entry-notice period. Section 18-17-602(a) says the tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for inspection, repairs, services, investigating violations or criminal activity, or showings, and § 18-17-602(b) bars the tenant from changing locks without permission. Because § 18-17-705 gives both sides damages and attorney's fees for abuse of access, the working standard is a lease clause: 24 hours' written notice for non-emergency entry at reasonable times, with every entry logged.

Read the rules yourself

• § 18-16-101, Failure to pay rent — Refusal to vacate — Justia (law.justia.com)
• § 18-16-305, Refund required — Exceptions — Justia (law.justia.com)
• § 18-16-306, Remedies — Arkansas Statutes (statutes.laws-info.com)
• § 18-17-602, Access — Justia (law.justia.com)
• § 18-17-701, Noncompliance — Failure to pay rent — Justia (law.justia.com)
• § 18-17-704, Periodic tenancy — Holdover remedies — Justia (law.justia.com)
• § 18-60-304, Actions constituting unlawful detainer — Justia (law.justia.com)
• Act 459 of 2025 (SB91), rent and deposit preemption — Arkansas Legislature (arkleg.state.ar.us)
• Act 1052 of 2021, quality standards explainer — Mitchell Williams (mitchellwilliamslaw.com)
• Landlord and Tenant Rights — Arkansas Attorney General (arkansasag.gov)
• Security Deposits — Legal Aid of Arkansas (a.arlawhelp.org)
• State of Arkansas v. Artoria Smith — Encyclopedia of Arkansas (encyclopediaofarkansas.net)

The bottom line

Arkansas rewards landlords who run paper, not pressure: a two-month deposit cap behind a threshold you have to analyze (unit count and management arrangement), a 60-day return with a double-damages multiplier and a procedures-based safe harbor, six statutory quality standards since 2021 with termination as the tenant's only — but real — remedy, a 5-day arrears point plus a separate 3-day notice to quit before filing, 14 days after receipt to cure other violations, 30 days to end a month-to-month tenancy, no statutory entry notice but fee-shifted access-abuse remedies on both sides, and, since 2025, statewide preemption of local rent, application-fee, and deposit control. The criminal failure-to-vacate statute is a museum piece with live ammunition: still charged in places, constitutionally wounded, and incapable of giving you possession. File civil, serve the right notice on the right clock, mail the deposit accounting in week four, and keep the move-in defect form — in Arkansas it proves both your deductions and your habitability compliance.

Investing across state lines? Arkansas rewrote its habitability floor in 2021 and its rent-control preemption in 2025 — lease clauses and timelines that work everywhere else need re-checking here, and every state has its own traps. The 50-State Landlord Law Dataset (CSV + JSON) puts all 50 states' key rules in one spreadsheet-ready dataset ($29, one-time purchase).

More landlord-tenant law guides

• Landlord-tenant law by state
• Arkansas security deposit law
• Arizona landlord-tenant law
• California landlord-tenant law
• Alaska landlord-tenant law
• Colorado landlord-tenant law

Last verified: October 16, 2026. This is general information about Arkansas landlord-tenant law, not legal advice. Statutory deadlines, notice periods, and remedies change by amendment and depend on your facts — verify yours against the current Arkansas Code sources above, or confirm with a licensed Arkansas landlord-tenant attorney, before acting.