Consulta de leyes por estado › Depósitos de seguridad › Kentucky

Depósitos de seguridad en Kentucky: qué dice la ley

Mi arrendador se quedó con mi depósito

Ley estatal

Lo que dice la ley

Se exige estado detallado: Sí
Límite de reclamos menores: $2,500
Sección del código: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580 (KRS 383.580, Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, KRS 383.505-383.715)
Quién atiende quejas: None - the Kentucky Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection expressly excludes 'return of security deposits' from its consumer mediation; no state agency takes deposit complaints. Route is written demand then District Court / small claims.
Local stacking: Threshold question, not a stacking rule: KRS 383.580 applies ONLY in cities, counties, and urban-county governments that adopted URLTA (KRS 383.505-383.715) by ordinance; adoption must be 'in their entirety and without amendment' and no other local ordinance on the subject is permitted (KRS 383.500), so adopting jurisdictions cannot vary the deposit rules.
Ver la regla completa
Lexington-Fayette adopted via Ordinance No. 98-84 (verified only through an LFUC Human Rights Commission reprint). Secondary sources list roughly 19 adopters (Jefferson/Louisville, Fayette/Lexington, Oldham and Pulaski counties; Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Dayton, Florence, Georgetown, Ludlow, Melbourne, Newport, Shelbyville, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, Woodlawn) - NOT verified here, and municipal codes for Campbell County (Ch. 156) and West Point (Ch. 92) surfaced in search, suggesting that list is incomplete. Outside an adopting jurisdiction no Kentucky statute governs residential deposits; the tenant's claim rests on the lease and common law.
Penalty detail: No statutory multiplier, fixed penalty, or attorney's-fee award for withholding a deposit. The only sanction is forfeiture under § 383.580(4): the landlord may not retain ANY portion of the deposit if it was not kept in the required separate account and the move-in and move-out damage listings were not provided (statutory text is conjunctive: 'and').
Ver la regla completa
§ 383.580(5): a tenant who disputes the final listing may sue in District Court, but recovery is limited to items the tenant specifically dissented from in writing; a tenant who neither signed the final listing nor dissented in writing 'shall not be entitled to recover any damages under this section'. General URLTA remedy is actual damages plus injunctive relief (§ 383.625(2)); the Act's only fee-shifting clause is § 383.655 (unlawful ouster / utility shutoff), not deposits. Nothing requires proof of bad faith because there is no enhanced remedy to unlock.
Deadline detail: Kentucky's URLTA sets NO fixed number of days. KRS 383.580(3) requires the landlord to inspect and compile the final damage list at the termination of occupancy, and 383.580(7) requires notice of any refund due to the tenant's last known address. Do not treat any day count as a statutory deadline.
Forfeiture rule: KRS 383.580(4) is read conjunctively in practice: a landlord who fails EITHER to hold deposits in a separate account used only for that purpose (383.580(1)) OR to provide the move-in and move-out condition lists (383.580(2)-(3)) loses the statutory right to withhold any part of the deposit.
Penalty statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(4)-(5)
Deadline statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(3), (6), (7)
Forfeiture statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(1)-(4)
Interest or escrow: Escrow-type separate account required: all tenants' deposits must be held in an account used only for that purpose at a bank or lending institution regulated by Kentucky or a U.S. agency, and prospective tenants must be told the account's location and account number (§ 383.580(1)).
Ver la regla completa
No interest requirement in the statute.
Small claims statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 24A.230(1) (small claims division of District Court; $2,500 exclusive of interest and costs)
Itemized list statute: Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(2)-(3)
No statutory deadline: Sí
Rental registration note: Louisville's rental registration rules (LMCO § 115.11, § 119.03) are a separate municipal regime with its own administrative fines. Failing to register does NOT by itself forfeit a landlord's civil right to withhold a deposit; the two do not interact.
Adopting jurisdictions detail: KRS 383.580 governs only where the local government adopted URLTA under KRS 383.500. Louisville Metro adopted it in full (LMCO ch. 151) and Lexington-Fayette adopted the state act by LFUCG Code § 12-54 (Ord. 98-84).
Ver la regla completa
Widely circulated lists of adopting jurisdictions are incomplete, so check your own city or county before relying on any of the rules below.
Outside adopting jurisdictions: Where URLTA was not adopted, Kentucky's general landlord-tenant statutes (KRS 383.010-383.285) contain no deposit deadline, no interest requirement and no statutory penalty. The dispute runs on the lease and common law, in small claims court up to $2,500.
Applies only in adopting jurisdictions: Sí

Lee esto antes de confiar en los datos de arriba

Kentucky's security-deposit statute, KRS 383.580, is part of the state's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA, KRS 383.505-383.715), and URLTA applies only where a city, county, or urban-county government has adopted it by local ordinance, in its entirety and without amendment (KRS 383.500). Louisville/Jefferson County and Lexington-Fayette are among the adopters, along with a short list of other cities and counties; in a non-adopting jurisdiction no statute governs deposits at all and a tenant's claim rests on the lease and common law. Either way the forum is District Court, whose small claims division hears claims up to $2,500 exclusive of interest and costs (KRS 24A.230).

Unlike most states, § 383.580 contains no fixed number of days for returning the deposit. It requires the landlord to keep all deposits in a dedicated account at a regulated bank and to tell the tenant its location and account number; to present a signed, itemized list of existing damage with estimated repair costs before the deposit is paid; and, 'at the termination of occupancy', to inspect and compile a signed final damage listing with estimated repair costs. The tenant must sign that final listing or dissent in writing item by item - a tenant who does neither cannot recover under the section, and recovery is limited to the items dissented from. If the tenant leaves owing no rent with a refund due, the landlord must send notice of the refund amount to the tenant's last known or reasonably determinable address, and if the tenant does not respond within 60 days of that notice the landlord may keep the money. If the tenant leaves without paying the last month's rent and does not demand the deposit, the landlord may apply it to the debt after 30 days. The '30-day return deadline' and 'double damages under 383.580(3)' figures that circulate on landlord-tenant websites do not appear in the statute, which has been unamended since 1984.

The statute's only sanction is forfeiture: a landlord who did not use the separate account and did not provide the move-in and move-out listings loses the right to retain any part of the deposit (§ 383.580(4)). There is no multiplier, no fixed penalty, no bad-faith enhancement, and no attorney's-fee clause for deposit disputes (fee-shifting in the Act exists only for unlawful ouster or utility shutoff, § 383.655). The statute sets no cap on the deposit amount and requires no interest. The Kentucky Attorney General expressly excludes deposit disputes from its consumer mediation, so the practical path is a written demand letter (ideally citing the separate-account, disclosure, and listing requirements the landlord must prove it met) followed by a District Court or small-claims filing in the county where the property sits.

Kentucky is the unusual case: the deposit rules below exist only in the cities and counties that adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (KRS 383.500). Louisville Metro and Lexington-Fayette both did. If your rental is somewhere that did not adopt it, Kentucky law sets no return deadline, no interest and no penalty at all, and your claim rests on the lease itself.

Where URLTA does apply, there is still no day count for returning the deposit. What the statute gives you instead is a forfeiture rule: a landlord who did not keep deposits in a separate account, or who did not do the move-in and move-out condition lists, loses the right to keep any of it.

Léelo tú mismo

Fuentes oficiales. Si algún dato de abajo importa en tu caso, abre la ley y léela — las leyes se reforman y muchas ciudades agregan reglas locales más estrictas.

Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(1) — Deposit must be held in a dedicated bank account; tenant told location and account number (Effective July 13, 1984; unamended)
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(3) — Move-out: landlord must inspect and compile a comprehensive damage listing with estimated repair cost, signed by both or dissented in writing
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(4) — Only sanction: landlord forfeits right to retain any part of the deposit if separate-account and listing requirements were not met
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(5) — Tenant sues in District Court; recovery limited to items specifically dissented from; no signature/dissent = no recovery under the section
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(6) — 30 days: tenant left without paying last month's rent and did not demand deposit -> landlord may apply deposit to debt
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.580(7) — Refund due: landlord must send notice of refund amount to last known address; tenant has 60 days to respond or deposit is forfeited
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 24A.230(1) — Small claims division of District Court: $2,500 limit exclusive of interest and costs (Effective June 8, 2011)
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.500 — URLTA (incl. § 383.580) applies only where a city/county/urban-county adopts it by ordinance, in entirety and without amendment
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.625(2) — General tenant remedy: actual damages and injunctive relief for landlord noncompliance; no multiplier, no fee-shifting
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 383.655 — Only attorney's-fee provision in the Act is for unlawful ouster / utility shutoff (up to 3 months' rent) - not deposits
KRS Chapter 383 index (383.500-383.715) — Official chapter index confirming URLTA section range and heading '383.580 Security deposits.'
Ky. Attorney General, Office of Consumer Protection - Consumer Complaints page — State AG expressly excludes security-deposit disputes from its mediation; no state complaint channel
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Ordinance No. 98-84 (reprint hosted by LFUC Human Rights Commission) — Local-adoption evidence for Lexington-Fayette: URLTA enacted locally pursuant to KRS 383.505 et seq. (reprint, not the official code page)

Última verificación: 2026-09-04

Envía esto como carta certificada

Jab redacta la carta, un abogado con licencia la revisa, y la enviamos por correo certificado USPS con acuse de recibo firmado. $29 fijo. También puedes escribirla tú — esta página tiene lo necesario.

Empezar mi carta →

Jab Today no es un bufete y esto no es asesoría legal. Esta página describe cómo está redactada la ley, que es distinto de lo que pasará en tu caso. Las leyes se reforman y las ordenanzas locales suelen ser más estrictas. Para tu situación, consulta a un abogado con licencia en tu estado.