New Hampshire Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified July 11, 2026 Correction September 5, 2026

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure has been signed and takes effect on the date shown:

HB 1598 (2026) — Eviction-process overhaul: it caps the discretionary stay of dispossession at 60 days, or 75 days where the tenant proves both that the longer stay will cause the landlord no financial harm, no damage and no ongoing health or safety threat and that the added time is needed for reasons such as age, familial status, disability or limited English proficiency; a tenant in default gets no discretionary stay at all. It also requires a tenant to file an answer stating affirmative defenses and counterclaims not more than five days after the return date, sets a five-day deadline for a discovery continuance and a seven-day continuance for a landlord met with an unnoticed defense, moves the default notice to the day following default, requires a notice of judgment within two days of a contested hearing with the writ issuing seven days after that mailing, and adds a five-day exchange of documents before a hearing on prohibited practices. It amends RSA 540:13, 540:13-c, 540:14, 540-A:2 and 540-A:4, VII, and rewords RSA 540-A:3, V while keeping the entry standard 'notice which is adequate under the circumstances' word for word, so the entry-notice answer does not move. Status: Passed both chambers (Senate May 14, 2026; House concurrence May 21, 2026), enrolled June 4, 2026, and signed by Governor Ayotte on July 10, 2026 as chapter 308 of the 2026 New Hampshire Laws. It takes effect October 8, 2026, ninety days after passage, and until then the current text of each statute it amends governs. (checked September 5, 2026).

What did not become law. None of the following is law; failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

HB 1336 (2026) — Would have created a 'regulated conditional deposit' letting landlords collect up to one additional month's rent beyond the RSA 540-A:6 one-month security-deposit cap from applicants failing standard screening criteria (credit, income, eviction history), with disclosure and re-screening rights. Status: Passed both chambers; VETOED by Gov. Ayotte 2026-07-02 (veto message: would impede access to housing and lacked clarity on how long landlords could hold the funds). Not law; an override attempt is possible at the fall 2026 veto day — re-check then. (checked July 11, 2026).

New Hampshire at a glance

Rule	New Hampshire	Cited to
Max security deposit	1 month's rent	NH RSA 540-A:6 +4 more
Deposit return deadline	30 days	NH RSA 540-A:6 +4 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	30 days	NH RSA 540:2 +3 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	NH RSA 540:2 +3 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	NH RSA 540:9 +2 more
Entry notice	No fixed statutory period	NH RSA 540-A:3 +2 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	7 days	RSA 540:1 +36 more
Application fee cap	No dollar cap, but the amount must be disclosed in writing before it is collected, and where the applicant is not rented the unit the landlord may keep only the documented actual cost of the background check, credit check, and reasonable administrative costs.	RSA 540-A:3 +11 more
Interest owed on deposits	Conditional — owed only in certain circumstances	RSA 540-A:6 (security deposit interest) +4 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	14 days	NH RSA 540:13-d (defenses to violations of fitness) +9 more
Repair and deduct	No — no statute or decision authorizes it	NH RSA 540:13-d (defenses to violations of fitness) +9 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	30 days, from delivery	RSA 540:3 +19 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, New Hampshire Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/new-hampshire/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the New Hampshire statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in New Hampshire

No New Hampshire statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither authorizes municipalities to adopt rent-stabilization ordinances nor expressly prohibits them from doing so.

Verified August 12, 2026 · Full New Hampshire rent-increase rules →

New Hampshire landlord-tenant laws by topic

New Hampshire security deposits

New Hampshire caps security deposits at one month's rent or $100, whichever is greater, and the landlord must return the deposit within 30 days after the tenancy ends, with a written itemized list — backed by receipts or estimates — for anything withheld.

New Hampshire rent increase notice

New Hampshire landlords must give written notice of the amount and effective date of a rent increase at least 30 days before it takes effect — that is the express condition in RSA 540:2, IV for making a tenant's refusal to pay the higher rent 'good cause' for eviction.

New Hampshire late fees

New Hampshire sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period for apartments and houses — the state's landlord-tenant chapters never mention late fees, so the lease governs, bounded only by ordinary contract-law limits on penalty clauses.

New Hampshire entry notice

New Hampshire sets no fixed entry-notice period — the statute instead bars a landlord from willfully entering a tenant's home without prior consent except to make emergency repairs, and requires the tenant to allow access for repairs and other normal ownership functions at a reasonable time after 'notice which is adequate under the circumstances.'

New Hampshire eviction process

New Hampshire requires good cause to evict most residential tenants, so the first question is not how long the notice is but whether the landlord has a statutory ground at all: for 'restricted property' - which under RSA 540:1-a means every residential rental except a single-family house whose owner owns no more than 3 of them, a unit in an owner-occupied building of 4 units or fewer, and a single-family house a bank took by foreclosure - RSA 540:2, II lets the owner terminate 'only for one of the following reasons,' and the landlord then serves a written eviction notice of 7 days (nonpayment, substantial damage, health-or-safety behavior, or a cotenant accused of domestic violence) or 30 days for everything else, and files a possessory action in the circuit court district division.

New Hampshire application & screening fees

New Hampshire regulates rental application fees through a disclosure-and-refund rule rather than a dollar cap: before collecting any fee at application or renewal a landlord must disclose the amount in writing along with any requirement to pass a criminal background and credit check, and where the applicant is not rented the unit the landlord must return everything beyond the documented cost of those checks and reasonable administrative costs within 30 days.

New Hampshire deposit interest

New Hampshire requires interest on a security deposit held for one year or longer, at the regular savings rate of the New Hampshire institution where the money sits.

New Hampshire habitability & repairs

New Hampshire's habitability duty comes from statute and case law together, and each supplies what the other leaves out.

New Hampshire lease termination

New Hampshire is a good-cause state, but only for what it calls restricted property, and 30 days' written notice ends a residential tenancy either way.

New Hampshire mobile home park laws

New Hampshire's Regulation of Manufactured Housing Parks law, RSA chapter 205-A, covers residents who own their home and rent a lot in a park of two or more manufactured houses: lot rent may rise only after 60 days' written notice carrying a written explanation, a tenancy may be ended only for six statutory reasons, and closure or a change of use takes 18 months' notice.

New Hampshire Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every New Hampshire metro area and county.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (July 11, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, September 5, 2026 — New Hampshire: the pending entry for 2026 chapter 308 (HB 1598, effective October 8, 2026) now describes the eviction-process changes the act makes — the 60-day discretionary stay (75 days on a specific showing), no discretionary stay after a default, the five-day answer, the two-day judgment notice and the seven-day writ — instead of saying it changes no answer.

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official NH General Court site (gc.nh.gov, the redirect target of www.gencourt.state.nh.us): every section these answers rest on read at least twice via independent URLs — the merged chapter pages (540-mrg.htm read twice via independent paths, 540-A-mrg.htm, 540-B-mrg.htm) plus each individual section page (540-A:1, :2, :3, :4, :5, :6, :7, :8; 540:1-a, :2, :3, :9; 540-B:10; 205-A:6) read in full for verbatim quotes, with all figures matching across reads (greater-of one month/$100 cap, 30-day return from termination, one-year interest trigger with 3-year request cycle, double-damages penalty, 6-month unclaimed-deposit rule, 540-A:5 small-landlord exemption, consent-based entry with adequate-under-the-circumstances notice, 540:2 IV 30-day rent-increase notice, new 540:2 II(i) 60-day end-of-lease notice effective 2026-07-01). Negative checks (no late-fee or grace-period statute, no rent control, no express preemption) run against the full text of RSA chapters 540, 540-A, and 540-B plus a gc.nh.gov-restricted search. Session-law identities pinned by cross-referencing official source lines with bill records: 2025 ch. 263 = HB 60 (signed 2025-08-01, eff. 2026-07-01), 2025 ch. 176 = HB 309 (eff. 2026-01-01), 2024 ch. 9 = HB 261. 2026-session check on 2026-07-11: HB 1336 vetoed 2026-07-02; HB 1598 signed week of 2026-07-06, effective 90 days after passage, flagged as pending; dead bills HB 95 (2023) and HB 1362 (2024) debunked from contemporaneous reporting.