Breaking a lease in Kentucky

Kentucky's landlord and tenant chapter lets a tenant end a lease early in several cases: a tenant protected by a domestic violence order or interpersonal protective order may end it on 30 days' written notice; in a URLTA locality a tenant may end it for your uncorrected material noncompliance or after a fire or casualty that substantially impairs the home; and anywhere in Kentucky a tenant is not liable for rent for the rest of the term if the home is destroyed by fire or other casualty without the tenant's fault or neglect, unless the tenant agreed otherwise (KRS 383.300(5); KRS 383.625(1); KRS 383.650; KRS 383.170).

• After a fire or casualty that substantially impairs enjoyment of the home in a URLTA locality, either you or the tenant may end the lease on 14 days' notice, but the tenant may vacate immediately; you return the unused prepaid rent, and rent is accounted for as of the date of the casualty (KRS 383.650).
• Protective order terminations are covered under protective orders and emergency calls (KRS 383.300(5), (7)).See Protective orders and emergency calls on the Kentucky page

In a URLTA locality, if you materially fail to comply with the lease, or fail to meet your repair duties in a way that materially affects health and safety, the tenant may give written notice naming the breach and saying the lease will end on a date at least 30 days after you receive it if the breach is not remedied within 14 days. The tenant may also recover damages and get an injunction (KRS 383.625(1), (2)).

• If substantially the same breach recurs within six months, the tenant may end the lease on at least 14 days' written notice (KRS 383.625(1)).
• Repair and deduct: where you willfully and materially fail to comply with the lease, or fail to meet your repair duties, the noncompliance materially affects health and safety, and the reasonable cost of fixing it is less than $100 or half the monthly rent, whichever is greater, the tenant may give written notice of the intent to fix it at your expense. If you willfully fail to comply within 14 days after that notice, or as promptly as an emergency requires, the tenant may have the work done in a workmanlike manner and, after giving you an itemized statement of work actually done and paid for in full, deduct its actual and reasonable cost from the rent, up to that amount (KRS 383.635).
• If you willfully fail to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas or another essential service, the tenant may, after written notice naming the breach, buy the service and deduct its actual and reasonable cost from the rent, recover damages based on the reduced fair rental value, or get reasonable substitute housing, owing no rent for that period and recovering reasonable attorney's fees. A tenant who does this may not use the termination or repair-and-deduct remedies for that breach (KRS 383.640).
• None of the termination, repair-and-deduct or essential-service remedies applies to a condition caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, a family member or another person on the premises with the tenant's consent (KRS 383.625(1)(c); KRS 383.635(2); KRS 383.640(4)).

Unless you consent in writing, a tenant at will, a tenant by sufferance or a tenant with a term of less than two years who assigns or transfers the lease, or any part of it, forfeits it to you (KRS 383.180(2)).

• After giving the occupant 10 days' written notice to quit, you may recover possession from any occupant through a forcible entry or detainer case or other proper procedure (KRS 383.180(2)).
• You may recover rent from the tenant or from an assignee or subtenant, but an assignee or subtenant owes only rent that came due after their interest began (KRS 383.010(5)).

In a URLTA locality, you or the tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy by written notice given at least 30 days before the periodic rental date named in the notice, and a week-to-week tenancy by written notice at least seven days before the termination date named. Where the URLTA is not in effect, the landlord may end a tenancy at will or by sufferance by giving one month's written notice requiring the tenant to leave (KRS 383.695(1), (2); KRS 383.195).

• In a URLTA locality, a tenancy that began when a written lease ended may be ended by either party on written notice given at least 10 days before the termination date named (KRS 383.695(3)).
• If the tenant stays after the tenancy ends without your consent and the holdover is willful and not in good faith, you may also recover up to three months' periodic rent or three times your actual damages, whichever is greater, and reasonable attorney's fees (URLTA localities) (KRS 383.695(4)).
• A tenant who holds over after a fixed lease term ended on a certain day is a different case: possession proceedings have a 30-day window (90 days for a term of a year or more), described under eviction process (KRS 383.160).See Eviction process on the Kentucky page

No section of KRS chapter 383 sets a deadline for returning a security deposit, so the lease should set one. In a URLTA locality, KRS 383.580(4) says: "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." (KRS chapter 383; KRS 383.580(4)).

• At the end of the tenancy in a URLTA locality, inspect the home and compile a comprehensive listing of any damage you will charge against the deposit, with the estimated dollar cost of repairing it. The tenant may inspect the home to check it, and you both sign it, or the tenant signs a specific written statement of dissent (KRS 383.580(3)).
• A tenant who neither signs the move-out listing nor signs a statement of dissent may not recover damages under the deposit section (KRS 383.580(5)).
• If the tenant leaves without paying the last month's rent and does not ask for the deposit back, you may apply the deposit to the rent owed after 30 days (KRS 383.580(6)).
• If the tenant leaves owing no rent and a refund is due, send notice of the refund amount to the tenant's last known or reasonably determinable address. If the tenant does not respond within 60 days after you send it, you may keep the deposit free from any claim of the tenant (KRS 383.580(7)).
• The account and move-in listing rules are under deposit account and move-in condition (KRS 383.580(1), (2)).See Deposit account and interest on the Kentucky page