Kentucky: Security Deposit Return Deadlines & Deductions
The short answer
Kentucky's security deposit statute only applies in cities and counties that have separately adopted the state's landlord-tenant act — including Louisville, Lexington, and roughly a dozen smaller jurisdictions — not statewide. Where it applies, KRS 383.580 doesn't set a flat return deadline: the landlord must inspect the unit, give you a signed listing of any damage, and notify you of any refund due; if you don't respond within 60 days of that notice, the landlord can keep the money. There's no cap on the deposit amount and no interest is owed. A landlord who skips both the required separate bank account and the damage-listing steps forfeits the right to keep any of your deposit, though Kentucky doesn't double or triple a wrongfully withheld deposit the way some states do. Outside an adopting city or county, Kentucky has no state deposit statute at all — your lease and general contract law control instead.
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This is the general rule in Kentucky. Ezel applies current Kentucky law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | KRS 383.580 (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) — in force only where a city, county, or urban-county government has adopted it under KRS 383.500; no state deposit statute exists elsewhere in Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Deadline to return the deposit | No fixed day-count deadline for the landlord to send the money. The landlord must notify the tenant of any refund due; if the tenant doesn't respond within 60 days of that notice, the landlord may keep it. If the tenant left owing rent and never asked for the deposit back, the landlord may apply it to the debt after 30 days |
| Itemized statement required? | Yes, in two steps — a signed move-in listing of existing damage and a signed move-out listing of damage with its estimated repair cost; the tenant must inspect and either sign or write a specific dissent to preserve a later claim |
| What can be deducted | Damage documented on the signed move-out listing; unpaid last month's rent can be covered from the deposit if the tenant never demands a refund. The statute doesn't use the phrase 'normal wear and tear' or list deduction categories the way most states do |
| Maximum deposit amount | No cap — Kentucky's URLTA sets no maximum deposit amount |
| Interest on the deposit? | No — the statute requires a separate account but not an interest-bearing one, and never mentions interest |
| Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding | Automatic forfeiture of the landlord's right to keep any part of the deposit, but only if the landlord fails BOTH the separate-account rule and the move-in/move-out listing rules; no bad-faith damages multiplier. A tenant who sues can recover only the specific items they dissented to in writing on the move-out listing |
| Separate account or bond required? | Yes — the deposit must be held in its own account at a bank or lending institution regulated by Kentucky or the federal government, with the tenant told the location and account number; the account need not be interest-bearing |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Kentucky's deposit rules live in KRS 383.580, one section inside the URLTA
(KRS 383.500 to 383.715). But URLTA isn't automatically the law of the whole
state: "The General Assembly hereby authorizes cities, counties and
urban-county governments to enact the provisions of the Uniform Residential
Landlord and Tenant Act as set forth in KRS 383.505 to 383.705. If adopted,
these provisions shall be adopted in their entirety and without amendment."
(KRS 383.500). A city or county either has adopted URLTA in full, or it
hasn't adopted any of it — there's no partial adoption, and no other local
ordinance on the subject is allowed once a jurisdiction opts in or stays out.
Deadline to return the deposit
There's no simple day-count deadline for the landlord to send your money
back. The statute instead builds two different tracks depending on whether
you owe rent when you leave:
- If you leave without paying your last month's rent and never ask for your
deposit back, the landlord has to wait: "the landlord may, after thirty
(30) days, remove the deposit from the account and apply any such excess to
the debt owing." (§ 383.580(6)). - If you don't owe rent and have a refund coming, the landlord has to notify
you of the amount due at your last known address — but the statute doesn't
say how quickly that notice has to go out. Once it's sent, the clock is on
you: "In the event the landlord shall not have received a response from
the tenant within sixty (60) days from the sending of such notification,
the landlord may remove the deposit from the account and retain it free
from any claim of the tenant." (§ 383.580(7)).
Itemized statement required?
Yes, twice. Before you move in, the landlord must give you "a comprehensive
listing of any then-existing damage to the unit" with an estimated repair
cost, which you can inspect and must sign — or, if you disagree, "state
specifically in writing the items on the list to which he dissents." (§
383.580(2)). At move-out, the landlord repeats the process with a listing of
any damage found then. (§ 383.580(3)).
What can be deducted
The statute ties any deduction to the signed move-out damage listing —
there's no separate list of deduction categories like "cleaning" or
"unpaid rent" the way many other states spell out, and KRS 383.580 never uses
the phrase "normal wear and tear." The one specific use the statute does
describe is applying the deposit to unpaid last month's rent, but only if you
leave owing rent and never ask for the deposit back (§ 383.580(6)).
Maximum deposit amount
None. Kentucky's URLTA sets no ceiling on how much a landlord can collect as
a security deposit.
Interest on the deposit?
No. The statute requires the deposit to sit in its own account, but nothing
in KRS 383.580 requires that account to bear interest, and no interest rate
or formula appears anywhere in the section.
Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding
Kentucky's remedy is forfeiture, not a multiplier. A landlord loses the right
to keep any part of the deposit only if the landlord fails BOTH required
steps at once: "No landlord shall be entitled to retain any portion of a
security deposit if the security deposit was not deposited in a separate
account as required by subsection (1) of this section and if the initial and
final damage listings required by subsections (2) and (3) of this section
are not provided." (§ 383.580(4)). There's no automatic doubling or tripling
of the deposit the way some states impose. And the tenant's own remedy is
narrower than it looks: a tenant who disputes the move-out listing "shall be
limited to those items from which the tenant specifically dissented," and a
tenant who never signs the listing or specifically dissents "shall not be
entitled to recover any damages under this section" at all (§ 383.580(5)) —
so simply refusing to sign, without writing down what you disagree with,
forfeits your own claim.
Separate account or bond required?
Yes. "All landlords of residential property requiring security deposits
prior to occupancy shall be required to deposit all tenants' security
deposits in an account used only for that purpose, in any bank or other
lending institution subject to regulation by the Commonwealth of Kentucky or
any agency of the United States government," and the tenant must be told the
account's location and number (§ 383.580(1)). There's no bond alternative in
the text.
What trips people up
Whether this page applies to you at all depends on your city or county.
URLTA — including every rule above — only governs in a jurisdiction that has
adopted it by its own ordinance. Louisville-Jefferson and Lexington-Fayette
are adopters; a number of smaller cities and counties (mostly around
Covington, Newport, and Florence in northern Kentucky) have adopted it too,
and the list can change as local governments vote to opt in. If your city or
county hasn't adopted URLTA, KRS 383.580 doesn't apply to your lease at all —
check with your local government or a Kentucky attorney before assuming any
of these numbers apply to you.
The forfeiture penalty requires BOTH violations, not just one. A landlord
who kept the deposit in a proper separate account but skipped the
damage-listing paperwork — or vice versa — is reading the statute's "and"
correctly if they argue the forfeiture trigger in § 383.580(4) doesn't apply
to a single missed step alone. That's a real gap in the tenant's protection
worth knowing about.
Silence isn't the same as agreement. If you disagree with the move-out
damage listing, simply refusing to sign it isn't enough to preserve your
claim — you have to write down specifically which items you dispute. Sign
nothing and write nothing, and the statute cuts off your right to recover
anything under this section.
Common questions
My landlord never sent me any notice about my refund — what happens?
The statute doesn't give a deadline for that notice, so there's no simple
"missed deadline" violation to point to. If the landlord also never put your
deposit in a separate account or never did the required move-in and move-out
listings, you can argue forfeiture under § 383.580(4); otherwise, your
remedy is to file in District Court and force the issue.
Does Kentucky double my deposit if the landlord acts in bad faith? No.
Unlike some states, Kentucky's statute doesn't add a bad-faith damages
multiplier — the remedy for a landlord's noncompliance is losing the right
to keep the deposit, not owing extra on top of it.
How do I find out if my city or county has adopted URLTA? Check your
city or county government's own ordinances, or ask a Kentucky attorney or
legal aid office — the Kentucky Revised Statutes themselves don't publish a
single current list of every adopting jurisdiction inside KRS 383.500.
Statutes and sources
- KRS 383.500 — authorizes cities, counties, and urban-county governments to adopt URLTA in its entirety.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35717 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(1) — separate-account requirement.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(2) — move-in damage listing.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(3) — move-out damage listing.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(4) — forfeiture for failing both the account and listing requirements.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(5) — tenant's claim limited to dissented items.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(6) — 30-day wait before applying the deposit to unpaid rent.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06) - KRS 383.580(7) — 60-day tenant-response window before forfeiture of an unclaimed refund.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35733 (accessed 2026-07-06)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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