Kentucky does not have one statewide set of notice rules. It has two, and which one governs your property depends on whether the local government adopted URLTA. Getting that threshold question wrong makes everything downstream — the day count, the cure right, the wording — wrong too.
Start a KY Notice — $49.99 See all 50 statesKRS 383.500 authorizes cities, counties, and urban-county governments to enact the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — and requires that if they do, they adopt it "in their entirety and without amendment." It also bars a local government from passing any other ordinance on the subjects the Act covers. The practical result is a patchwork: a landlord in Louisville and a landlord ninety minutes away can be operating under different rules.
Secondary sources report that roughly nineteen jurisdictions have adopted URLTA, commonly listing Louisville-Jefferson County, Lexington-Fayette, Oldham County, Pulaski County, and a group of cities including Covington, Newport, Florence, Bellevue, Dayton, Ludlow, Southgate, Taylor Mill, Georgetown, Shelbyville, and Barbourville. That list moves. We are not in a position to confirm the status of any particular city or county on any particular date, and we would not ask you to rely on us for it. Call the county attorney's office or the district court clerk where the property sits, or ask a Kentucky attorney, before you count a single day.
The table paraphrases the residential notice provisions of KRS 383.505 to 383.715, which apply only where adopted. It is background information, not a determination that any of these applies to your tenancy.
| Situation | What the statute describes | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Rent unpaid when due | Landlord may terminate if the tenant fails to pay within seven days after written notice of the nonpayment and of the landlord's intention to terminate if the rent is not paid within that period | KRS 383.660(2) |
| Material noncompliance with the rental agreement or with KRS 383.605 / 383.610 | Written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach, stating the agreement terminates on a date not less than fourteen days after receipt (see the wording note below) | KRS 383.660(1) |
| Substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months | Landlord may terminate on at least fourteen days' written notice specifying the breach and the termination date | KRS 383.660(1) |
| Health-and-safety breach the tenant can fix by repair, replacement, or cleaning | Fourteen days' written notice specifying the breach and requesting the remedy; this is a repair-and-bill remedy, not a termination route | KRS 383.665 |
| Ending a week-to-week tenancy | Written notice at least seven days before the termination date specified in the notice | KRS 383.695(1) |
| Ending a month-to-month tenancy | Written notice at least thirty days before the periodic rental date specified in the notice | KRS 383.695(2) |
| Tenancy that began when a written lease ended | Written notice at least ten days before the termination date; the statute adds that if the tenant fails to pay rent within ten days after it is due, the landlord may terminate at any time without notice | KRS 383.695(3) |
KRS 383.660(2) is short but specific: the landlord terminates if the tenant fails to pay "within seven (7) days after written notice by the landlord of nonpayment and his intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within that period." A demand that states only the amount owed, without stating the intent to terminate, is missing an element the statute names. Notice also what subsection (2) does not say — unlike subsection (1), it does not use the phrase "after receipt." Whether the seven days run from delivery, from receipt, or from something else is a legal question, and courts in different counties may not answer it the same way.
For jurisdictions that have not adopted the Act, KRS 383.195 is brief: "In those jurisdictions where the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is not in effect, a tenancy at will or by sufferance may be terminated by the landlord giving one (1) month's notice, in writing, to the tenant requiring him to remove." That is the whole of it. There is no statutory pay-or-quit period, no statutory cure right, and no prescribed notice form — the lease and Kentucky common law fill the gap. Courts commonly treat "one month's notice" as thirty days, but a month and thirty days are not always the same span, and your lease may set its own terms.
KRS 383.198 separately bars local landlord-tenant ordinances that conflict with state law, which is worth knowing if you have been told a city rule applies on top of the statute.
KRS 383.560(3)(c) states that, in the case of the tenant, a notice is received when "it is delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail to him at the place held out by him as the place for receipt of the communication, or in the absence of such designation, to his last known place of residence." Subsection (3) also provides that a person gives notice "by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other in ordinary course whether or not the other actually comes to know of it."
That is the statutory text. We are not telling you it means any particular delivery product satisfies KRS 383.660 in your case, that KRS 383.560 governs a nonpayment demand under subsection (2), or that a Kentucky district court will treat your record as sufficient. Those are legal conclusions and we do not draw them. What we will say is narrower and, we think, more useful: in a state where the statute talks about hand delivery and about certified mail to a specific address, a dated record of what was sent, to whom, and when is worth keeping.
It depends on where the property is. In a jurisdiction that adopted URLTA, KRS 383.660(2) describes a seven-day period for unpaid rent and KRS 383.660(1) describes a fourteen-day notice for material noncompliance. In a jurisdiction that has not adopted URLTA, KRS 383.195 describes one month's written notice to end a tenancy at will or by sufferance, and there is no statutory pay-or-quit period at all.
Adoption is by local ordinance under KRS 383.500, and the roster changes. Secondary sources commonly name Louisville-Jefferson County, Lexington-Fayette, Oldham County, Pulaski County, and roughly fifteen cities, several of them in Northern Kentucky. Confirm your specific city or county with the county attorney, the district court clerk, or a Kentucky attorney rather than with any list published online — including this one.
KRS 383.660(2) describes written notice "of nonpayment and his intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within that period." Both elements appear in the statute. Whether your notice states them adequately, and whether it needs to specify an amount, are legal judgments we do not make.
KRS 383.560(3)(c), part of Kentucky's URLTA, describes a tenant as receiving a notice when it is delivered in hand or mailed by registered or certified mail to the address the tenant holds out, or to the last known residence. That is the statutory language on receipt. It is not our conclusion that certified mail satisfies KRS 383.660 for your notice, in your county, on your facts — ask a Kentucky attorney before you rely on any method.
In URLTA jurisdictions, KRS 383.695(2) requires written notice at least thirty days before the periodic rental date specified in the notice. That is not the same thing as any thirty consecutive days; Kentucky appellate courts have read the provision as tying the notice to the rental date. Outside URLTA, KRS 383.195 speaks of one month's notice. Confirm how your court computes it.
Both Louisville-Jefferson County and Lexington-Fayette are commonly identified as URLTA jurisdictions, which means the Act's periods apply there and KRS 383.198 constrains conflicting local ordinances. District court filing practice and local forms still vary by county. Check with the clerk's office where you will file.
In Kentucky, once a notice period has run without cure, a landlord seeking possession files a forcible detainer action in the district court for the county where the property sits, under KRS 383.200 and following. Self-help removal is not the route; possession runs through the court. A USPS record of what was sent, when, and to what address — or photo and GPS documentation of an attended delivery — is a form of delivery documentation commonly referenced in landlord-tenant filings. It carries extra weight in Kentucky precisely because the state's two-track structure invites disputes about which rules applied and when the clock started. Whether any particular court accepts a given record, and whether your notice, its date, and its delivery are correct, are matters for the landlord and the landlord's attorney to evaluate.
EvictServe is not a law firm, does not practice law, and does not give legal advice. We provide a self-service document-and-mail tool. Because Kentucky's notice rules depend on a local adoption decision you may not have been told about, we suggest confirming your jurisdiction and your termination date with a Kentucky-licensed attorney before the notice goes out.
KRS 383.500 (Local governments authorized to adopt URLTA) — Kentucky Legislative Research Commission
KRS 383.660 (Tenant's noncompliance; failure to pay rent) — Kentucky LRC
KRS 383.665 (Tenant's failure to maintain) — Kentucky LRC
KRS 383.695 (Periodic tenancy; holdover remedies) — Kentucky LRC
KRS 383.560 (Notice) — Kentucky LRC
KRS 383.195 (Termination of tenancy at will or by sufferance) — Justia
KRS Chapter 383, full index (current through the 2026 Regular Session) — Kentucky LRC
On URLTA adoption as a local option — McBrayer PLLC
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