Quick Reference: KRS 383.580 in URLTA Jurisdictions

A property manager takes on a portfolio spread across Louisville, Lexington and two rural counties in between. The deposit workflow is identical everywhere: collect the deposit, hold it, inspect at move-out, send an itemized statement within thirty days.

Two of those properties are governed by KRS 383.580. Two are not. And on the two that are, the thirty-day rule the manager is working to does not exist in the statute.

Kentucky's deposit provision is unusual twice over. It applies only in jurisdictions that have opted into the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, so identical buildings sixty miles apart can sit under entirely different regimes. And within those jurisdictions, the statute contains no return deadline at all - what it contains instead is a signed-listing procedure at both ends of the tenancy, and a forfeiture provision for landlords who skip it.

This guide covers where KRS 383.580 applies and where it does not, the four steps the statute actually requires, the forfeiture rule in subsection (4), the two waiting periods that are not return deadlines, and what governs deposits everywhere else in the Commonwealth.

First, Establish Which Regime the Property Sits In

Kentucky is one of a small number of states where the residential landlord-tenant statute is opt-in rather than statewide.

Under KRS 383.500, a city, county or urban-county government may adopt the provisions of KRS 383.505 to 383.705 - but only in their entirety and without amendment. The same section prohibits any other local ordinance relating to the subjects those provisions embrace.

KRS 383.580 sits inside that adoptable range. It is therefore a URLTA provision, not a statewide one, and it binds only where the local government has adopted the Act.

Because KRS 383.500 makes the URLTA a local-option framework, property managers should confirm whether the specific city, county or urban-county government has adopted the Act before applying KRS 383.580.

Verify adoption per property. URLTA adoption varies by local ordinance. Louisville-Jefferson County has adopted the Act, codifying it locally as Chapter 151 of the Louisville Metro Code of Ordinances, and other Kentucky jurisdictions have done the same. But managers should confirm the current ordinance and its geographic coverage for each property rather than relying on a published list, because those lists carry different dates and adoption is a matter of local legislation.

One legislative note. The General Assembly considered legislation in 2026 that would have made the URLTA statewide. That change did not become law, so the current KRS 383.500 remains the controlling provision. Verify both the statute and local adoption status before applying KRS 383.580.

For a portfolio spanning multiple jurisdictions, the adoption status belongs in the property record alongside the address, not in a manager's memory. Our guide to Kentucky landlord repair obligations works through the same divide on the maintenance side, where the consequences are equally sharp.

Step One: The Separate Account and the Disclosure

KRS 383.580(1) contains two obligations, and the second is easy to overlook.

• The account. All landlords of residential property requiring security deposits prior to occupancy shall 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.

• The disclosure. "Prospective tenants shall be informed of the location of the separate account and the account number."

Read that second sentence carefully. It is not a general statement that the deposit is held separately. It requires the location of the account and the account number, given to the prospective tenant - that is, before the tenancy begins rather than on request afterwards.

For a manager, this is a leasing-pack item rather than a finance item. Where the disclosure is missing from the documents a prospective tenant receives, the omission is fixed at the start of the tenancy and cannot be repaired at move-out.

Step Two: The Move-In Damage Listing

Subsection (2) carries a timing requirement that is easy to get wrong.

Before tendering any consideration deemed to be a security deposit, the prospective tenant shall be presented with:

• a comprehensive listing of any then-existing damage to the unit which would be the basis for a charge against the security deposit, and

• the estimated dollar cost of repairing such damage.

Three further requirements attach.

• The tenant may inspect. The tenant has the right to inspect the premises to check the accuracy of the listing prior to taking occupancy.

• Both parties sign. The landlord and tenant shall sign the listing, and those signatures shall be conclusive evidence of the accuracy of the listing - though not conclusive as to latent defects.

• Dissent has a form. If the tenant refuses to sign, the tenant shall state specifically in writing the items on the list to which he dissents, and shall sign that statement of dissent.

Note the sequencing. The listing must be presented before the deposit is tendered. A move-in inspection completed after the tenant has paid and taken keys does not match the subsection.

And note what the statute asks for. Not photographs, not a condition report, but a listing of existing damage with an estimated repair cost for each item. A checklist marking rooms as "good" or "fair" is not that document.

Step Three: The Move-Out Damage Listing

Subsection (3) mirrors subsection (2) at the other end of the tenancy.

At the termination of occupancy, the landlord shall inspect the premises and compile a comprehensive listing of any damage to the unit which is the basis for any charge against the security deposit, and the estimated dollar cost of repairing such damage.

Subsection (3) carries the same three features: the tenant has the right to inspect to check accuracy, both parties sign, and the signatures are conclusive evidence of the listing's accuracy. If the tenant refuses to sign, the tenant must state specifically in writing the items dissented from and sign that statement.

One textual difference between the two subsections. Subsection (2) expressly provides that the signatures are not conclusive as to latent defects. Subsection (3) does not repeat that qualification.

The two listings work as a pair, and subsection (4) treats them that way. The move-out listing is what a charge is measured against; the move-in listing is what establishes the baseline the charge is measured from.

That is a documentation discipline, not a legal judgment. Keeping the signed move-in listing attached to the tenancy record, so it is retrievable at move-out rather than reconstructed, is what makes the pair work. RIOO's move-in and move-out management holds both against the unit, and the tenant portal gives the tenant a route to inspect and respond that leaves a record.

The Forfeiture Rule in Subsection (4)

This is the provision that gives KRS 383.580 its teeth, and it is worded conjunctively.

"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."

Two points a manager should take from it.

The consequence is total. Not a reduction, not a penalty on top - no entitlement to retain any portion. A landlord with $2,000 of genuine, documented damage recovers nothing from the deposit if the subsection applies.

The wording joins the failures with "and". On its face, the forfeiture is triggered where the separate account was not used and the listings were not provided. Whether a court would apply the same result to a landlord who used a proper account but skipped the listings - or the reverse - is a question of construction on which a manager should not gamble. The operating answer is to do all three: the account, the move-in listing and the move-out listing.

Subsection (5) Cuts the Other Way

The section is not one-sided. Subsection (5) is a substantial protection for landlords, and it turns on the dissent procedure in subsection (3).

A tenant who disputes the accuracy of the final damage listing may bring an action in District Court. But:

• the tenant's claim is limited to those items from which the tenant specifically dissented in accordance with subsection (3); and

• if the tenant fails to sign the listing or specifically dissent in accordance with subsection (3), the tenant shall not be entitled to recover any damages under this section.

That is a significant limitation. A tenant who signs the move-out listing without noting a disagreement, or who simply walks away without signing at all, has narrowed or lost the statutory claim.

For a manager, it makes the move-out listing worth doing properly for reasons beyond compliance. A signed listing is conclusive evidence of accuracy under subsection (3), and it caps what the tenant can later dispute under subsection (5).

The Two Waiting Periods That Are Not Return Deadlines

This is the point on which published summaries diverge from the statute. KRS 383.580 contains no deadline for returning a deposit. What it contains are two periods after which a landlord may take money out of the account.

Subsection (6): thirty days, where the tenant left owing rent. "In the event a tenant leaves not paying his last month's rent and does not demand a return of his deposit, the landlord may, after thirty (30) days, remove the deposit from the account and apply any such excess to the debt owing."

This is a landlord's entitlement, not an obligation to pay. It applies where the tenant left owing the last month's rent and made no demand for the deposit back.

Subsection (7): sixty days, where the tenant left owing nothing. Where the tenant leaves not owing rent and a refund is due, the landlord shall send notification to the last known or reasonably determinable address of the amount of any refund due. If the landlord has not received a response from the tenant within sixty (60) days of sending that notification, the landlord may remove the deposit from the account and retain it free from any claim of the tenant or anyone claiming on the tenant's behalf.

Note the obligation buried in that subsection: where a refund is due, the landlord shall send notification. The sixty-day retention right only arises after that notice has gone out.

So what should a manager actually do? The absence of a statutory return deadline is not permission to be slow. Send the refund notification promptly, complete the move-out listing at termination, and treat the sixty days as a backstop for an unresponsive tenant rather than a schedule. A lease may also fix its own return period, and where it does, that term governs the parties.

What KRS 383.580 Does Not Contain

Four absences shape Kentucky deposit practice.

• No cap. The section sets no limit on the amount of a security deposit.

• No return deadline. The thirty and sixty day periods in subsections (6) and (7) are landlord entitlements, not deadlines to pay.

• No double-damages or prevailing-party attorney-fee provision in KRS 383.580. The remedies specifically stated in the section are the subsection (4) forfeiture and the subsection (5) District Court action. Guidance describing a two-months-rent penalty is not describing this section.

• No interest requirement. The section requires a separate account; it does not require interest or allocate it.

Deposits Outside a URLTA Jurisdiction

In a county or city that has not adopted the Act, none of the above applies as statute. What governs instead is:

• The lease. Whatever the rental agreement says about the amount, the holding and the return is the primary source of obligation.

• Contract and common law principles, including the general Kentucky law of contracts and any applicable equitable principles.

• Any applicable local requirements that are outside the subjects KRS 383.505 to 383.705 embraces.

The practical consequence is a drafting one. A deposit clause that adds little in Louisville - because KRS 383.580 supplies the account rule, the listing procedure and the forfeiture consequence - may be the only source of structure in a non-adopting county. Our guidance on lease management covers building terms that carry that weight, and a complete tenant and property record is what evidences condition where no statutory listing procedure applies.

And do not import URLTA procedure into a non-URLTA lease without thought. Adopting the signed-listing procedure contractually is often sensible, because it produces good evidence. But a lease that recites statutory language may create obligations the landlord did not intend and cannot then rely on the statute to interpret.

Common Kentucky Deposit Mistakes Property Managers Make

1. Applying KRS 383.580 to a non-adopting jurisdiction.
Under KRS 383.500 the Act binds only where a local government has adopted it in entirety and without amendment.

2. Working to a thirty-day return deadline.
KRS 383.580 states no return deadline. Subsection (6)'s thirty days is a landlord's right to apply an unclaimed deposit to unpaid rent.

3. Disclosing that the deposit is held separately, without the account number.
Subsection (1) requires prospective tenants to be informed of the location of the account and the account number.

4. Taking the deposit before presenting the move-in listing.
Subsection (2) requires the listing to be presented before any consideration deemed a security deposit is tendered.

5. Producing a condition checklist instead of a costed damage listing.
Subsections (2) and (3) require a comprehensive listing of damage with the estimated dollar cost of repair.

6. Not obtaining signatures, or not capturing a written dissent.
Signatures are conclusive evidence of accuracy, and subsection (5) limits a tenant's claim to items specifically dissented from in writing.

7. Skipping the move-out listing because the tenant has already gone.
Subsection (3) requires the landlord to inspect and compile the listing at termination of occupancy.

8. Not sending the refund notification under subsection (7).
Where the tenant leaves owing nothing and a refund is due, the landlord shall send notification to the last known or reasonably determinable address.

9. Quoting a two-months-rent penalty.
The section provides forfeiture under subsection (4) and a District Court action under subsection (5).

Building a Defensible Kentucky Deposit Workflow

Kentucky's deposit rules reward documentation at two fixed moments and punish gaps in either one. The subsection (4) forfeiture does not ask whether the damage was real; it asks whether the account and the listings were in place.

Four records carry the weight, and three of them exist before the tenant has spent a night in the unit.

• The jurisdiction flag. Whether the property sits in an adopting jurisdiction determines which regime applies to everything else. Holding that against the property record, alongside the address and the lease, is what stops a manager applying Louisville procedure to a rural county or the reverse. RIOO's unit and property management keeps that attribute with the unit.

• The account disclosure in the leasing pack. Subsection (1) requires the location and account number to reach the prospective tenant. Keeping that disclosure in the standard leasing documents provided before the lease is executed and before the deposit is tendered, held in contracts and renewals, is what makes the process consistent across a portfolio.

• The two signed listings. Costed, comprehensive, signed at move-in and at move-out, with any written dissent captured. RIOO's move-in and move-out management timestamps both and keeps them retrievable against the unit.

• The deposit ledger and the notification. Which account holds what, when the refund notification went out, and what happened in the sixty days after. Tracking that alongside rent in collecting rent and payments keeps the position visible when a tenant reappears eleven months later.

Conclusion

Kentucky asks a property manager two questions before any deposit rule can be applied.

The first is jurisdictional. KRS 383.580 applies only where the local government has adopted the URLTA under KRS 383.500, which means the same portfolio can contain properties on entirely different footings. Get that wrong and every downstream step is wrong with it.

The second is procedural, and it is where the statute departs from what managers expect. There is no cap, no return deadline, and no double-damages or prevailing-party attorney-fee provision in the section. What there is instead is a separate account with the number disclosed to prospective tenants, a costed damage listing signed before the deposit is taken, a matching listing signed at termination, and a forfeiture rule in subsection (4) for landlords who do not do those things.

Set against that, subsection (5) is a real protection: a tenant who does not sign or specifically dissent in writing is not entitled to recover damages under the section.

For teams managing Kentucky portfolios in Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Bowling Green, Owensboro or anywhere in the Commonwealth, the operating discipline starts before the lease is signed. Record the adoption status against each property. Put the account location and number in the leasing pack. Present the costed move-in listing before the deposit is tendered, and get it signed. Repeat at termination. Send the subsection (7) notification when a refund is due. And do not run a thirty-day return calendar on a statute that does not contain one.

This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. KRS 383.580 applies only in jurisdictions that have adopted the URLTA under KRS 383.500, adoption status is set by local ordinance and can change, and individual circumstances differ. Confirm the current statutory text with the Kentucky Legislature, confirm adoption status with the local government, and consult a licensed Kentucky attorney on a specific deposit dispute.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Does Kentucky's security deposit statute apply statewide?
KRS 383.580 sits within KRS 383.505 to 383.705, the range that KRS 383.500 makes adoptable by local ordinance. On that basis it applies in jurisdictions that have adopted the URLTA. Confirm the adoption status of the specific city, county or urban-county before applying the section.

Q2. Is there a cap on security deposits in Kentucky?
No. KRS 383.580 sets no statutory limit on the amount, so the figure is a matter for the rental agreement and any applicable local rules.

Q3. How long does a Kentucky landlord have to return a deposit?
KRS 383.580 does not state a return deadline. The thirty days in subsection (6) and the sixty days in subsection (7) are periods after which a landlord may remove money from the account, not deadlines to pay the tenant.

Q4. What must a Kentucky landlord disclose about the deposit account?
Under subsection (1), prospective tenants must be informed of the location of the separate account and the account number, and the account must be used only for tenant deposits at a bank or lending institution regulated by Kentucky or a federal agency.

Q5. What is the move-in damage listing?
Under subsection (2), before any deposit is tendered the prospective tenant must be presented with a comprehensive listing of existing damage that would be a basis for a charge, with the estimated dollar cost of repair. The tenant may inspect before taking occupancy, and both parties sign.

Q6. What happens if a Kentucky landlord skips these steps?
Under subsection (4), no landlord is entitled to retain any portion of the deposit where it was not held in a separate account as required and the initial and final damage listings were not provided.

Q7. Can a tenant dispute the move-out listing?
Under subsection (5), a tenant may bring an action in District Court, but the claim is limited to items the tenant specifically dissented from in writing under subsection (3). A tenant who fails to sign or specifically dissent is not entitled to recover damages under the section.

Q8. What if the tenant leaves owing rent and never asks for the deposit?
Under subsection (6), where the tenant leaves without paying the last month's rent and does not demand a return, the landlord may after thirty days remove the deposit from the account and apply any excess to the debt owing.

Q9. What if a refund is due but the tenant has disappeared?
Under subsection (7), the landlord shall send notification of the refund amount to the last known or reasonably determinable address. If no response is received within sixty days of sending it, the landlord may remove the deposit and retain it free from any claim.

Q10. What governs deposits in a non-URLTA Kentucky county?
The lease and general contract and common law principles, together with any applicable local requirements outside the subjects KRS 383.505 to 383.705 embraces. The rental agreement carries substantially more weight there than in an adopting jurisdiction.