How much notice must a landlord give before entering in Tennessee?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Tennessee topics →

Pending legislation — not yet law. The rules on this page reflect current law only. The following bill would change it if enacted:

SB 961 / HB 955 (114th General Assembly) — 'Affordable Housing and Tenant Protection Act' — Would repeal the residential half of the rent-control preemption in T.C.A. § 66-35-102, allowing local rent control adopted by a two-thirds vote with a local rent agency, plus a THDA gap-financing program. Would flip local_control_preempted for residential property if ever enacted.Status: Not enacted. HB 955 was deferred in the House Cities & Counties Subcommittee to the 'January 2027 calendar' on 2026-03-18 — with the 114th GA adjourned sine die, this is effectively a soft kill; watch for a 115th GA refile. (checked 2026-07-09).

Tennessee's entry statute — which applies only in the 19 large URLTA counties — requires no advance notice for ordinary entries: tenants simply may not unreasonably withhold consent for inspections, repairs, services, or showings to buyers and contractors.

The statute's only notice period is narrow and specific: during the final 30 days of the tenancy, a landlord may show the unit to prospective tenants on at least 24 hours' notice, and only if the lease reserves that right — claims that Tennessee requires 24 hours' notice for all non-emergency entry stretch the statute well past its text. Emergency entry needs no consent, with 'emergency' helpfully defined as a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence demanding immediate action, and the statute separately bars using access rights to harass. In the other 76 counties there is no entry statute at all: absent an emergency or a lease provision, the landlord needs the tenant's permission.

Tennessee entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	No fixed statutory period (see notice standard)
Notice standard	No general advance-notice requirement exists, even in URLTA counties. § 66-28-403 runs on a consent standard: the tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent for the statutory purposes (a), and the landlord's access rights are an EXCLUSIVE list (e) — court order; the section's own provisions (plus §§ 66-28-506 and 66-28-507(b)); abandonment or surrender; tenant deceased, incapacitated, or incarcerated; or showings to prospective tenants during the final 30 days of the tenancy, which alone carry a notice rule: at least 24 hours' notice, and only if that access right is written into the rental agreement.
Permitted reasons	With tenant consent (not unreasonably withheld): inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, or exhibiting the premises to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, workers, or contractors (§ 66-28-403(a)). Without consent: emergencies, utilities-off situations, and the subsection (e) list including lease-authorized final-30-days showings on 24 hours' notice.
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

notice_hours is null because the 24-hour rule is confined to lease-authorized final-30-days showings — encoding 24 would commit the exact overstatement the record warns against (mirror of the VA 72-hour decision). The 2011 provenance matters: this section was rewritten in its entirety by 2011 Pub. Ch. 272, § 10 and has not been amended since (credit line verified) — the '2021/2022 amendment' framing in some sources (and this project's own session prep) is wrong. Subsection (e)'s exclusive-access-list structure is unusual and page-worthy: everything not on the list is off-limits. The 2024 maintenance-communication law (Pub. Ch. 907, eff. 2025-01-01) amended § 66-28-302 (landlords must disclose a maintenance phone/email or portal) — adjacent, not an entry rule. time_of_day_restrictions is null (no provision). Non-URLTA framing per TN legal-aid guidance: no emergency, no permission, no entry.

Statute citations

T.C.A. § 66-28-403 (current-code mirror; read twice, fetches matched) (a)-(e) Unofficial mirror
2011 Pub. Ch. 272, § 10 (official session law rewriting the section, eff. 2011-10-01) Official source

How this record was verified: Tennessee's official code is published via LexisNexis without stable deep links (GA-class sourcing situation), so verification pairs current code mirrors with official session-law PDFs from the Tennessee Secretary of State: T.C.A. §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, 66-28-301, 66-28-403, 66-28-512, and 66-35-102 read verbatim on the Justia 2024-edition and FindLaw (current through 2024-01-02) mirrors — §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, and 66-28-403 each read twice via independent fetches that matched — with every recent amendment traced to the official act text: 2011 Pub. Ch. 272 (inspection scheme, late-fee rule, entry rewrite), 2012 Pub. Chs. 847 and 887, 2013 Pub. Ch. 206, and 2021 Pub. Ch. 182 (census freeze + county preemption), all read from publications.tnsosfiles.com PDFs. Bill statuses (SB 961/HB 955 et al.) checked on official capitol.tn.gov pages 2026-07-09.