Free Kentucky Room Rental Agreement Template

A Kentucky room rental agreement is a written contract for renting one bedroom in a shared house. Kentucky differs from most states in one structural way that decides which rules apply to it.

The state’s Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is not automatically in force everywhere. Where you are matters as much as what your agreement says.

Only if your local government adopted them. The General Assembly authorized cities, counties, and urban-county governments to enact the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act as set out in KRS 383.505 to 383.705. Where a local government does adopt it, the statute requires adoption in its entirety and without amendment, and no other local ordinance may be enacted on the subjects the Act covers.

So the first question for any Kentucky room rental is not what the agreement says. It is whether the city, county, or urban-county government where the property sits has adopted the Act. Your county clerk’s office or city government can tell you, and it is worth asking before you set a deposit.

This is also why so much general advice about Kentucky rentals misleads. Guidance written for an adopting jurisdiction may not describe the rules that apply a county away.

The security deposit provisions shaping a Kentucky room rental agreement sit in KRS 383.580, and they put most of the work at the start of the arrangement rather than the end.

The Deposit Needs Its Own Account

Landlords requiring a security deposit before occupancy must deposit all tenants’ deposits in an account used only for that purpose, at a bank or lending institution regulated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky or an agency of the United States government. Prospective tenants must be told the location of that separate account and its account number.

Existing Damage Is Listed Before Any Money Changes Hands

Before the tenant hands over anything treated as a security deposit, they must be presented with a comprehensive listing of any then-existing damage that would be the basis for a charge against the deposit, together with the estimated dollar cost of repairing it. The tenant may inspect the premises to check the listing before taking occupancy. Both parties sign it, and those signatures are conclusive evidence of its accuracy, though not as to latent defects. A tenant who refuses to sign must state in writing which items they dissent from, and sign that statement.

The Same Exercise Happens at the End

At the termination of occupancy the landlord inspects and compiles a comprehensive listing of any damage forming the basis of a charge, with estimated repair costs. The tenant again has the right to inspect and check it, both sign, and a tenant who refuses must specify their dissent in writing.

Skipping the Paperwork Costs the Landlord Everything

No landlord is entitled to retain any portion of a deposit where it was not held in the separate account and where the initial and final damage listings were not provided. On the other side, a tenant disputing the final listing in District Court is limited to the items they specifically dissented from, and a tenant who fails to sign or dissent is not entitled to recover damages under the section.

The section itself sets no cap on the deposit amount. Statutory requirements change from time to time, so confirm the current text before relying on any of this.

For a Kentucky room rental agreement, the terms worth adding are:

• The separate deposit account’s location and number, recorded where both can find it
• A reference to the signed move-in damage listing, kept with the agreement
• Which room is private and which areas are shared
• Guest limits, quiet hours, and how the kitchen is shared
• How utilities are divided and billed between housemates