Tennessee Right to Cure: Can You Stop an Eviction by Paying the Rent You Owe?

In Tennessee, the number you need is fourteen. If your landlord serves written notice to end your tenancy because the rent is unpaid, you generally have 14 days to pay what is owed — and if you pay inside that window, the landlord cannot evict you over that missed payment. That 14-day figure is the same whether you live in a big metro county or a rural one; the statutes are different, but the deadline is not. What changes by county is the surrounding procedure, and there are three specific traps that can take the 14 days away from you entirely. Those are spelled out below, with links to the state's own sources so you can check the work yourself.

Does Tennessee give tenants a right to cure nonpayment?

Yes — everywhere in the state, though under two different statutes.

Tennessee's landlord-tenant law is not uniform statewide. Counties above a population threshold of 75,000 (measured by the 2010 federal census or any later one) fall under the Tennessee Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Title 66, Chapter 28. That threshold sits in Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-102(a), as amended by Public Chapter 847 (2012), which raised it from the old 68,000 figure that outdated websites still repeat. The covered counties are the state's larger ones — Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton, Rutherford, Montgomery, Williamson and Sumner among them; the Tennessee judiciary's own residential-evictions materials list the full set.

In URLTA counties, a landlord who wants to end the tenancy over unpaid rent must give the tenant written notice of the breach, and the tenant has 14 days to remedy it. Remedy it in time and the rental agreement does not terminate on that breach. The 14-day figure lives in Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-505(a)(2) and (a)(3), and you can see it in the current code by reading the 2025 bill that tried to shorten it: SB1088 / HB1345 proposed "deleting 'fourteen (14) days' and substituting 'seven (7) days'" in both subdivisions. That bill failed in the House Business and Utilities Subcommittee in March 2025, so 14 days remains the law.

In counties not covered by the Act, you are not left with only the lease and the landlord's goodwill — that is a common misconception, and it is wrong. Those counties are governed by Title 66, Chapter 7. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-7-109(a)(1), a landlord must give 14 days' written notice to terminate a residential tenancy for a tenant's neglect or refusal to pay rent that is due and in arrears. The State of Tennessee's own renter's-rights guide for these counties puts it in plain words: "during the 14 days, pay the rent... If you pay or fix things in that time, the landlord CAN'T evict you." (One wrinkle: if you pay rent weekly rather than monthly, that guide says the notice period is 7 days.)

The practical upshot: a defective notice — no notice at all, or a notice shorter than the statute requires — is a defense you can raise at your detainer hearing, in either kind of county.

The trap: a notice waiver buried in your lease

Before you count on the 14 days, go read your lease. URLTA lets a tenant waive the nonpayment notice in the rental agreement. If you signed such a waiver, the landlord may file a detainer warrant immediately upon nonpayment — no notice, no 14-day cure window. The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts lists "Waiver of Notice For Nonpayment" among the URLTA notice rules in its judicial-conference eviction materials, and the Army Staff Judge Advocate's Tennessee eviction information paper states it directly: "If the tenant waives written notice, the landlord may proceed to file a detain[er] warrant immediately upon breach of the agreement for failure to pay rent."

Two things protect you here. First, the waiver must be set out in the rental agreement in 12-point bold font or larger, so it is findable — look for the bold paragraph. Second, the waiver does not erase the five-day grace period discussed below. If there is no such bold waiver clause in your lease, the landlord owes you the notice.

What stage does the cure right apply at?

The statutory right to cure is tied to the notice period that comes before a case is filed. In practical terms:

• Before the landlord files in court: This is when your right is strongest and clearest. Pay the full amount properly demanded within the 14 days and the landlord cannot terminate the tenancy over that missed payment.
• After the case is filed but before the hearing: Many landlords will accept full payment and dismiss the case, but at this point you are relying on the landlord's willingness, not on a statutory cure right.
• At the hearing: A general sessions judge may ask whether the arrears are resolved and may grant a short continuance (capped at 15 days absent agreement, under Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-18-118), but that is discretionary.
• After judgment: Tennessee has no statutory right to redeem the tenancy by paying after a possession judgment is entered. But losing at the hearing does not mean the sheriff comes tomorrow. You have 10 days. The general sessions judgment is not final for ten days, you cannot be put out during those ten days, and within them you may appeal to circuit court for a fresh hearing (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 27-5-108 and 29-18-129). The catch: to keep possession while the appeal is pending, a tenant-appellant must post a bond covering one year's rent under § 29-18-130 — and if you appeal without posting it, the landlord can take possession without posting any bond of its own. Both the 10-day rule and the bond rule appear in the AOC's eviction materials. Ten days is enough time to reach legal aid; call on day one, not day nine.

What has to be paid to cure a nonpayment eviction?

Curing means paying the past-due rent, and Tennessee law lets a landlord fold in certain related costs — but in URLTA counties the late fee is capped by statute, so check the arithmetic before you pay.

• Late fees are limited (URLTA counties). Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-201(d), enacted in its current form by Public Chapter 272 (2011), gives you a five-day grace period beginning the day rent is due before any late fee may be charged, and caps the fee: "Any charge or fee, however described, which is charged by the landlord for the late payment of rent, shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the amount of rent past due." If the fifth day falls on a Sunday or a legal holiday and you pay on the next business day, no late fee may be charged at all. A lease clause demanding more than the statute allows does not override the statute.
• Repairs and damages. If the notice also cites damage beyond normal wear and tear, curing can include paying for or fixing what was damaged.
• Court costs. If the landlord has already filed and incurred filing fees, expect those to be part of any deal that gets the case dismissed.
• Attorney's fees. These are owed only if your lease has a valid attorney's-fee clause. They are not automatic just because a case was filed.

Read the written notice carefully; it should state a dollar amount. If that amount includes a late fee larger than 10 percent of the past-due rent, or a fee charged inside the five-day grace period, say so in writing and raise it at the hearing.

Can the landlord refuse a proper cure payment?

Where the statutory cure period applies, a landlord generally cannot refuse a payment that fully satisfies the amount properly demanded and still evict you over that same missed payment. Three limits matter:

• Pay in full, not in part. A landlord need not accept a partial payment unless it agrees in writing to a lesser sum or to a payment plan.
• Pay inside the window. The payment has to land within the notice period. Once it closes, the landlord is not obliged to take it.
• The six-month repeat rule can kill the cure right outright. This is not a matter of what a landlord "may argue" — it is a hard statutory rule with a clock. If substantially the same act or omission that led to a prior notice recurs within six months, the landlord may terminate on 14 days' written notice with no second chance to cure. That is Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-7-109(a)(2) in non-URLTA counties (its "at least fourteen (14) days' written notice" language is quoted in SB1088), and the parallel recurrence rule runs under § 66-28-505 in URLTA counties. The State's renter's guide says it bluntly: "what if you do the same thing again within 6 months? Then the landlord can give you 14 days' notice and evict you. You can't stay even if you fix the problem again." So if you cured a nonpayment notice within the last six months and you are behind again, do not assume paying will save the tenancy. Negotiate a written agreement with the landlord, or start planning your move.

Lease violations other than nonpayment

Pay-and-stay is specific to unpaid rent. For other violations:

• URLTA counties: for a material breach that can be fixed, the landlord's notice must give you 14 days to remedy, with the tenancy terminating no sooner than 30 days after the notice (§ 66-28-505(a)(2)). Serious conduct moves faster: a violent act, or a real and present danger to health or safety, supports a 3-day notice, and repeat violations a 7-day notice, per the AOC materials.
• Non-URLTA counties: ordinary lease breaches that do not involve rent, damage or violence carry a 30-day notice; damage beyond normal wear and tear carries 14 days, with a right to fix it; violence or a serious threat carries 3 days.
• Either way, the six-month recurrence rule above applies, and it removes the chance to fix the same problem a second time.

Practical steps if you want to cure a nonpayment eviction in Tennessee

• Calendar 14 days from the date you received the notice — and first check your lease for a bold-font waiver of notice, which would mean the landlord can file immediately instead.
• Check the amount demanded. In URLTA counties: no late fee inside the five-day grace period, and no late fee above 10 percent of the past-due rent.
• Pay in a traceable way. Cashier's check, money order, or another method that leaves a paper trail. Avoid cash unless you get a detailed, signed receipt on the spot.
• Get a written receipt stating the amount, the date, the rent period covered, and that the account is current. If the office will not give you one, email a summary and ask them to confirm.
• Do not assume payment ends a filed case. If a detainer warrant has already issued, show up on your court date anyway unless the case has been formally dismissed. Bring the notice, your payment proof, the receipt and your lease.
• Tell the judge if the notice was short or missing. The statutory notice period is a defense, and the State's own guide tells tenants to raise it.
• If you lose, act inside 10 days. That is your window to appeal to circuit court, and you cannot be removed during it. If you are an active-duty servicemember, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3951) may also require a court order and allow a stay of the eviction.

The bottom line: Tennessee gives you a real, countable window — 14 days from a nonpayment notice — and pay-and-stay works inside it. What defeats tenants is usually not the length of the window but the three things they never checked: a notice waiver in the lease, a repeat breach inside six months, and the 10-day clock after judgment.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Sources: SB1088/HB1345 (114th General Assembly) and its bill history; Public Chapter 847 (2012); Public Chapter 272 (2011); the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts' residential-evictions materials; and the State of Tennessee's renter's rights guide. Statutes change; confirm current law, or talk to a Tennessee legal aid provider about your specific notice and lease.

Official Legal Sources for Tennessee

This page is based on Tennessee state landlord–tenant law. Laws change — verify the current text directly against the official sources below. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

• Tennessee landlord–tenant statutes (full text) — reproduced on this site from the public-domain Tennessee Code, because Tennessee publishes its official code only through a commercial service.
• Tennessee Attorney General, Division of Consumer Affairs — Consumer Laws (landlord-tenant / Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) — official state resource.

Local ordinances may apply. This page covers Tennessee state law. Your city or county may add protections — such as rent control, just-cause eviction, rental registration, or stricter housing codes — that change these rules. Check your local city or county ordinances.