Code of Alabama - Title 35: Property - Chapter 9A - Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act

• Article 1 General Provisions and Definitions.
• Division 1 Short Title, Construction, Application and Subject Matter of the Chapter.
• Section 35-9A-101 Short title
  This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act."
• Section 35-9A-102 Purposes; rules of construction
  (a) This chapter shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies. (b) Underlying purposes and policies of this chapter are:...
• Section 35-9A-103 Supplementary principles of law applicable
  Unless displaced by the provisions of this chapter, the principles of law and equity, including, but not limited to, the law relating to capacity to...
• Section 35-9A-104 Construction against implicit repeal
  This chapter being a general act intended as a unified coverage of its subject matter, no part of it is to be construed as impliedly...
• Section 35-9A-105 Administration of remedies; enforcement
  (a) The remedies provided by this chapter shall be so administered that an aggrieved party may recover appropriate damages. The aggrieved party has a duty...
• Section 35-9A-106 Settlement of disputed claim or right
  A claim or right arising under this chapter or on a rental agreement, if disputed in good faith, may be settled by agreement.
• Section 35-9A-107 Notice requirement
  A cause of action or civil complaint initiated pursuant to this chapter is not subject to the notice requirement of subsection (j) of Section 34-27-31.
• Division 2 Scope and Jurisdiction.
• Section 35-9A-121 Territorial application
  This chapter applies to and is the exclusive remedy to regulate and determine rights, obligations, and remedies under a rental agreement, wherever made, for a...
• Section 35-9A-122 Exclusions from application of chapter
  Unless created to avoid the application of this chapter, the following arrangements are not governed by this chapter: (1) residence at an institution, public or...
• Section 35-9A-123 Jurisdiction and service of process
  (a) The district and circuit courts of this state, according to their respective established jurisdictions, may exercise jurisdiction over any landlord with respect to any...
• Division 3 General Definitions and Principles of Intrepretation: Notice.
• Section 35-9A-141 Definitions
  Subject to additional definitions contained in subsequent articles of this chapter which apply to specific articles or divisions thereof, and unless the context otherwise requires,...
• Section 35-9A-142 Obligation of good faith
  Every agreement and duty under this chapter and every act which must be performed as a condition precedent to the exercise of a right or...
• Section 35-9A-143 Unconscionability
  (a) If the court, as a matter of law, finds: (1) a rental agreement or any provision thereof was unconscionable when made, the court may...
• Section 35-9A-144 Notice
  (a) A person has notice of a fact if: (1) the person has actual knowledge of it; (2) the person has received a notice or...
• Division 4 General Provisions.
• Section 35-9A-161 Terms and conditions of rental agreement
  (a) A landlord and a tenant may include in a rental agreement terms and conditions not prohibited by this chapter or other law, including rent,...
• Section 35-9A-162 Effect of unsigned or undelivered rental agreement
  (a) If a landlord does not sign and deliver a written rental agreement signed and delivered to the landlord by the tenant, acceptance of rent...
• Section 35-9A-163 Prohibited provisions in rental agreements
  (a) A rental agreement may not provide that the tenant: (1) agrees to waive or forego rights or remedies established under Section 35-9A-204, 35-9A-401, or...
• Section 35-9A-164 Payment of rent prerequisite to enforcing remedies under this chapter
  The tenant may not withhold payment of rent to the landlord, while in possession, to enforce any of the tenant's rights under this chapter.
• Article 2 Landlord obligations.
• Section 35-9A-201 Security deposits; prepaid rent
  (a) A landlord may not demand or receive money as security, in an amount in excess of one month's periodic rent, except for pets, changes...
• Section 35-9A-202 Disclosure
  (a) A landlord or any person authorized to enter into a rental agreement on the landlord's behalf shall disclose to the tenant in writing at...
• Section 35-9A-203 Landlord to deliver possession of dwelling unit
  At the commencement of the term, a landlord shall deliver possession of the premises to the tenant in compliance with the rental agreement and Section...
• Section 35-9A-204 Landlord to maintain premises
  (a) A landlord shall: (1) comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety; (2) make all repairs and...
• Section 35-9A-205 Limitation of liability
  (a) Unless otherwise agreed, a landlord who conveys premises that include a dwelling unit subject to a rental agreement in a good faith sale to...
• Article 3 Tenant Obligations.
• Section 35-9A-301 Tenant to maintain dwelling unit
  A tenant shall: (1) comply with all obligations primarily imposed upon tenants by applicable provisions of building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety;...
• Section 35-9A-302 Rules and regulations
  (a) "Rules" or "regulations" pertaining to a residential lease are defined as policies of the landlord affecting the maintenance, operation, or governance of the common...
• Section 35-9A-303 Access
  (a) A tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent to the landlord to enter into the dwelling unit in order to inspect the premises, make necessary...
• Section 35-9A-304 Tenant to use and occupy
  Unless otherwise agreed, a tenant shall occupy the dwelling unit only as a dwelling unit. The rental agreement may require that the tenant notify the...
• Article 4 35-9A-461
• Division 1 Tenant Remedies.
• Section 35-9A-401 Noncompliance by the landlord
  (a) Except as provided in this chapter, if there is a material noncompliance by the landlord with the rental agreement or a noncompliance with Section...
• Section 35-9A-402 Failure to deliver possession
  (a) If the landlord fails to deliver possession of the dwelling unit to the tenant as provided in Section 35-9A-203, rent abates until possession is...
• Section 35-9A-403 Reserved
• Section 35-9A-404 Wrongful failure to make available heat, water, hot water, or essential services
  (a) The landlord is not responsible for the payment of utility services unless agreed in the lease. (b) If contrary to the rental agreement or...
• Section 35-9A-405 Counterclaims for action for possession or rent
  (a) In an action for possession or in an action for rent when the tenant is in possession, the tenant may counterclaim for any amount...
• Section 35-9A-406 Fire or casualty damage
  (a) If the dwelling unit or premises are damaged or destroyed by fire or casualty not caused by the tenant to an extent that enjoyment...
• Section 35-9A-407 Tenant's remedies for landlord's unlawful ouster, exclusion, or diminution of service
  If a landlord unlawfully removes or excludes the tenant from the premises or willfully diminishes services to the tenant by interrupting or causing the interruption...
• Division 2 Landlord Remedies.
• Section 35-9A-421 Noncompliance with rental agreement; failure to pay rent
  (a) Except as provided in this chapter, if there is a material noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement, an intentional misrepresentation of a...
• Section 35-9A-422 Failure to maintain
  If there is noncompliance by the tenant with Section 35-9A-301 materially affecting health and safety that can be remedied by repair, replacement of a damaged...
• Section 35-9A-423 Remedies for absence, nonuse, and abandonment
  (a) If a rental agreement requires the tenant to give notice to the landlord of an anticipated extended absence in excess of 14 days pursuant...
• Section 35-9A-424 Waiver of landlord's right to terminate
  Acceptance of rent with knowledge of a default by the tenant or acceptance of performance by the tenant that varies from the terms of the...
• Section 35-9A-425 Landlord liens; distraint for rent
  (a) A lien or security interest on behalf of the landlord in the tenant's household goods is not enforceable unless perfected before January 1, 2007....
• Section 35-9A-426 Remedy after termination
  If a rental agreement is terminated, the landlord has a claim for possession and for rent and a separate claim for actual damages for breach...
• Section 35-9A-427 Recovery of possession limited
  A landlord may not recover or take possession of the dwelling unit by action or otherwise, including willful diminution of services to the tenant by...
• Division 3 Periodic tenancy; holdover; abuse of access.
• Section 35-9A-441 Periodic tenancy; holdover remedies
  (a) The landlord or the tenant may terminate a week-to-week tenancy by a written notice given to the other at least seven days before the...
• Section 35-9A-442 Landlord and tenant remedies for abuse of access
  (a) If a tenant refuses to allow lawful access, the landlord may obtain injunctive relief to compel access, or terminate the rental agreement pursuant to...
• Division 4 Court Actions by Landlord.
• Section 35-9A-461 Landlord's action for eviction, rent, monetary damages, or other relief
  (a) A landlord's action for eviction, rent, monetary damages, or other relief relating to a tenancy subject to this chapter shall be governed by the...
• Article 5 Retaliatory Conduct.
• Section 35-9A-501 Retaliatory conduct prohibited
  (a) Except as provided in this section, a landlord may not retaliate by discriminatorily increasing rent or decreasing services or by bringing or threatening to...
• Article 6 Effective Date, Savings Clause, Severability.
• Section 35-9A-601 Effective date
  Except for subsection (b) of Section 35-9A-163 which shall become effective January 1, 2008, this chapter shall become effective on January 1, 2007. It applies...
• Section 35-9A-602 Savings clause
  Transactions entered into before January 1, 2007, and not extended or renewed on and after that date, and the rights, duties, and interests flowing from...
• Section 35-9A-603 Severability
  If any provision of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions...

Last modified: May 3, 2021