Tennessee Renters Rights Without a Lease: What Landlords Need to Know

You bought a property with tenants already living there. There is no written lease. Or your tenant's lease expired six months ago and nobody renewed it. Either way, you are now operating under a verbal month-to-month tenancy, and the rules are different from what most landlords assume.

The good news: Tennessee law still governs the arrangement. The bad news: most landlords do not know what that law actually requires.

A verbal tenancy is still a legal tenancy

Under the Tennessee Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (TCA Title 66, Chapter 28), a tenancy does not require a written lease to be legally binding. When a tenant pays rent and a landlord accepts it, a tenancy exists. Period.

Without a written lease specifying a fixed term, the tenancy defaults to month-to-month under TCA Section 66-28-512. The tenant has a legal right to occupy the property. You have a legal obligation to maintain it. Both sides have rights and responsibilities under the Act, regardless of whether anything was put in writing.

This means you cannot simply tell the tenant to leave because there is no lease. You cannot change the locks. You cannot shut off utilities. All of those actions constitute illegal eviction under Tennessee law, and you will lose in court.

Notice requirements for termination

Either the landlord or the tenant can terminate a month-to-month tenancy with 30 days written notice under TCA Section 66-28-512. The notice must be delivered before the next rent period begins.

If rent is due on the first of the month, you must deliver written notice by the first of the preceding month for it to take effect on the following first. For example: to end the tenancy effective May 1, you must deliver written notice by April 1.

The notice should be in writing and delivered by a method that creates proof of delivery. Hand delivery with a witness, certified mail with return receipt, or posting on the door with a copy mailed (as allowed for other notices under TCA Section 66-28-106) are all accepted methods. A text message or verbal conversation is not sufficient if the tenant later disputes receiving notice.

Security deposit rules still apply

If the tenant paid a security deposit when they moved in, all rules under TCA Section 66-28-301 still apply. There is no exception for verbal leases.

The deposit must be held in a separate account at a Tennessee banking institution. When the tenant moves out, you have 30 days to return the deposit or provide an itemized list of deductions. If you fail to return the deposit or provide the itemized list within 30 days, the tenant can sue for the full deposit amount plus reasonable attorney fees. Read the full Tennessee landlord-tenant law guide for the complete deposit requirements.

If you inherited the property and do not know whether a security deposit was collected, this is a problem. The obligation transfers with the property. You are responsible for returning a deposit you never received if the previous owner collected one and did not transfer it to you. Get this sorted out at closing.

Rent is still owed on the agreed schedule

Without a written lease, the rent amount is whatever the parties have been operating on. If the tenant has been paying $900 per month and you have been accepting $900 per month, that is the rent.

You can raise the rent on a month-to-month tenancy with 30 days written notice before the next rental period. Tennessee has no rent control statute, so there is no cap on increases. However, the increase must be delivered with the same notice that would be required to terminate. You cannot raise rent in the middle of a rental period.

If the tenant does not pay rent, the eviction process is identical to what it would be with a written lease. You serve a 14-day notice to pay or vacate under TCA Section 66-28-505. If the tenant does not pay within 14 days, you file a detainer action in General Sessions Court. There are no shortcuts because there is no written lease. The process is the same.

Habitability obligations are the same

Under TCA Section 66-28-304, a landlord must maintain the property in a fit and habitable condition regardless of whether a written lease exists. This includes maintaining working plumbing, heating, electrical systems, and structural integrity. It includes keeping common areas safe and complying with all applicable building and housing codes.

A tenant in a month-to-month tenancy without a written lease has the same right to request repairs and the same remedies if those repairs are not made. Under TCA Section 66-28-502, if a landlord fails to maintain the property, the tenant can give written notice of the condition and, if it is not remedied within 14 days, pursue remedies including termination of the rental agreement or recovery of damages.

The absence of a written lease does not reduce your maintenance obligations. If anything, it increases your risk because there is no written record of what was agreed to regarding the condition of the property at move-in.

Why you should get a written lease in place

A month-to-month verbal tenancy works until it does not. When there is a dispute about repairs, late fees, pet policies, occupancy limits, or property condition at move-out, there is no document to reference. Everything becomes "he said, she said."

Specific risks without a written lease:

• No late fee enforcement. Tennessee allows late fees up to 10% of past-due rent (TCA Section 66-28-201(d)), but only if the lease provides for it. Without a written lease, you have no basis to charge a late fee.
• No pet or occupancy rules. Without written terms, you cannot enforce pet restrictions, guest policies, or occupancy limits beyond what local housing codes require.
• No move-in condition record. When the tenant moves out, you have no documented baseline for the condition of the property. Deducting from the security deposit becomes extremely difficult to defend.
• No insurance compliance. Your landlord insurance policy likely requires tenants to carry renter's insurance. Without a written lease, you have no mechanism to require it.

The fix is straightforward. Give the tenant 30 days written notice that you are offering a new written lease. The lease terms should match the existing arrangement (same rent, same unit) with the addition of standard protections: late fees, maintenance responsibilities, pet policy, insurance requirements, and move-out procedures. If the tenant refuses to sign, you have the option to terminate the month-to-month tenancy with 30 days notice.

The bottom line for landlords

A tenant without a written lease still has rights under Tennessee law. You still have obligations. The eviction process is the same. The security deposit rules are the same. The habitability standards are the same. The only difference is that you have no written terms to fall back on when something goes wrong.

Get a lease in place. It protects you more than it protects the tenant.