Idaho Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Idaho
Idaho law bars cities and counties from adopting any ordinance that would regulate rent, fees, or deposits for private residential rentals, or force owners into optional housing-assistance programs, leaving local governments free to manage only housing they themselves own.
Cited to Idaho Code § 55-306 (renumbered from former § 55-307(2) by S.L. 2025, ch. 65, eff. 7/1/2025) · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Idaho rent-increase rules →
Idaho landlord-tenant laws by topic
Idaho security deposits
Idaho puts no cap on security deposits, but the landlord must refund the deposit within 21 days after the tenant surrenders the premises — or within a different period the lease fixes, never more than 30 days after surrender.
Idaho rent increase notice
Idaho landlords must give at least 30 days' written notice before any rent increase takes effect, in every residential lease including month-to-month tenancies (Idaho Code § 55-304(2)) — the same 30-day written notice applies to a decision not to renew the lease.
Idaho late fees
Idaho has no numeric cap on late fees, but since July 1, 2023 state law requires every fee charged to a residential tenant — late-payment fees included — to be reasonable, and bars landlords from charging any fee, fine, assessment, or interest that exceeds what the rental agreement states or that is not in the agreement at all (Idaho Code § 55-305).
Idaho entry notice
Idaho has no statute requiring landlords to give any advance notice before entering a rental unit — entry rights come entirely from the lease.
Idaho eviction process
To evict a residential tenant in Idaho, serve a written 3-day notice - pay-or-quit for unpaid rent under Idaho Code 6-303(2), or cure-or-quit for any other lease covenant under 6-303(3) - and if it expires unmet, file an unlawful detainer action in the district court for the county where the property sits, which the magistrate division hears.
Idaho application & screening fees
Idaho does not regulate the application stage of a residential tenancy at all: there is no cap on application or screening fees, no requirement that a fee match the cost of screening, no receipt, refund, or disclosure duty, no state denial-notice rule, and no law on holding deposits or reusable screening reports.
Idaho deposit interest
Idaho does not require landlords to pay tenants interest on a security deposit, and the word "interest" does not appear anywhere in Idaho's deposit statute.
Idaho habitability & repairs
Idaho gives a tenant the right to sue a landlord for damages and specific performance over six listed failures — reasonable waterproofing and weather protection, keeping the electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilating, cooling and sanitary facilities the landlord supplied in good working order, maintaining the premises in a manner hazardous to health or safety, returning a security deposit when the law requires, breaching a lease term that materially affects health and safety, and failing to install approved smoke detectors.
Idaho lease termination
Idaho measures its termination notice in calendar months rather than days: either the landlord or the tenant may end a tenancy at will, which is how an ordinary month-to-month tenancy is treated, by written notice naming a date not less than one month away, and the periods are the same in both directions.
Idaho mobile home park laws
Idaho's Manufactured Home Residency Act, chapter 20 of title 55 of the Idaho Code, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it in a community of two or more homes, and it is a notice statute rather than a price or security statute: lot rent may be raised only after the term expires and only on 90 days' written notice, an increase must be uniform across the community or across a rent tier, and there is no ceiling on the amount at state or local level.
Idaho Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Idaho metro area and county.
How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on legislature.idaho.gov (official HTML section pages), double-read against the official chapter PDFs (T6CH3.pdf, T55CH3.pdf, T55CH2.pdf) and the enrolled session laws S1043 (2025 ch. 65 recodification), H0594 (2020 ch. 254), H0545 (2024 ch. 257); Idaho Attorney General Landlord and Tenant Manual used as official agency confirmation of verified negatives (July 2025 edition at the original pass; on 2026-08-12 the citations were repointed to the July 2026 edition after confirming the relied-on guidance — deposits/rent refundability framing, entry-rights lease-drafting advice, late-fee coverage — is unchanged); FindLaw mirror used only to reconcile pre-2025 section numbering. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — §§ 55-304, 55-305, 55-306, 6-303A, 6-310A and 74-105 on legislature.idaho.gov (statutes current through the 2026 session); the earlier reads stand as recorded.