In Tennessee, the landlord is responsible for keeping the property fit and habitable, meaning the structure, the roof, the plumbing, the electrical, the heating and cooling, the hot water, and any appliances the landlord supplied. The tenant is responsible for keeping the unit clean and safe, using the systems the way they are meant to be used, and paying for damage they or their guests caused. The gray area between those two, which is where nearly every dispute lives, comes down to one question: did this fail on its own, or did somebody cause it? This article walks the split item by item, then covers the cases that are honestly arguable and how to document them so the argument never happens.

First, which set of rules applies to your property

Tennessee has two frameworks. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, usually shortened to URLTA, applies in the state's more populous counties, which covers most of the Middle Tennessee rental market including Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Sumner, Wilson, and Montgomery. Properties in smaller counties fall outside URLTA and are governed largely by the lease and by common law, which gives the written lease considerably more weight.

That distinction matters. In a URLTA county, the landlord's core habitability duties are set by statute, and a lease cannot simply hand those duties to the tenant. Outside URLTA, the lease carries more of the load, which cuts both ways. Know which one your property is in before you rely on anything below, and get a Tennessee attorney to review your lease if it is doing heavy lifting on repair responsibility.

The landlord side

Under URLTA, the landlord's duties run roughly like this:

  • Comply with applicable building and housing codes affecting health and safety
  • Make repairs needed to keep the unit fit and habitable
  • Keep common areas clean and safe
  • Maintain in good and safe working order the electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems, plus any appliances supplied with the unit
  • Provide for trash removal receptacles where applicable
  • Supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water and heat

In practical terms, that is the roof, the foundation, the windows and exterior doors, the water heater, the furnace and the air conditioner, the supply and drain plumbing inside the walls, the electrical panel and wiring, the smoke detectors, and the refrigerator, range, and dishwasher if they came with the unit.

Age related failure is landlord cost, full stop. A water heater that reaches the end of its life at year eleven, a compressor that fails at year fourteen, a roof that reaches the end of its shingles: those are ownership expenses, not tenant expenses, no matter how inconvenient the timing. Our reference on how long home systems last is a useful sanity check when you are deciding whether something failed early or simply arrived on schedule.

The tenant side

The tenant's duties under URLTA run roughly like this:

  • Keep the part of the premises they occupy clean and safe
  • Dispose of trash properly
  • Keep plumbing fixtures as clean as their condition permits
  • Use electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, elevators, and appliances reasonably
  • Not deliberately or negligently destroy, damage, or remove any part of the premises, and not permit a guest to do so
  • Not disturb the neighbors' peaceful enjoyment

The operative words are negligently and reasonably. A drain clogged by hair and grease is a tenant cost. A drain clogged by roots in a 1962 cast iron lateral is a landlord cost. Same symptom, opposite answers, and the difference is cause, not appearance.

The item by item split

HVAC filters. Leases commonly assign filter changes to the tenant, and that is reasonable and enforceable in the ordinary case. But a compressor that fails is a landlord repair unless you can show the failure came from neglect, and proving that requires documentation, not suspicion. The practical answer many owners land on is supplying filters or having them changed on a schedule, because a $15 filter and a technician's visit costs a fraction of a compressor.

Clogged drains and toilets. Tenant cost when the cause is what went down the drain, meaning wipes, grease, hair, toys. Landlord cost when the cause is the line itself, meaning roots, a belly, a collapse, or scale in old galvanized pipe. A plumber who documents what came out of the line resolves this in one sentence, which is why you ask for the cause in writing, not just the invoice. Our plumbing service page describes what we document on a drain call.

Garbage disposals. Almost always tenant caused when jammed, almost always landlord cost when the motor or seal fails with age.

Broken windows. Tenant cost if the tenant or a guest broke it. Landlord cost if a storm, a failed seal, or rot in the frame did. If it is a break in, most owners cover it and should, because a tenant who was burgled is not a tenant who did damage.

Pest control. This is the most argued line in Tennessee leases. The reasonable position, and the one most defensible when it matters, is that infestations arising from the structure, meaning termites, rodents entering through gaps, or a problem that predates the tenancy, are landlord cost, and infestations arising from housekeeping are tenant cost. In multi family, treat the building, not the unit, because chasing roaches unit by unit never works and you will pay for it three times.

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Landlord installs and keeps them working. Tenant does not disable them and reports when one fails. Test at every turn and photograph it. This is a safety item where documentation actually matters.

Lawn care and gutters. Set by the lease in single family rentals. Whichever way you write it, be specific, because "tenant maintains the yard" and "tenant mows" mean different things when a tree limb comes down. Gutters are usually best kept with the owner, since they protect the structure and a tenant is unlikely to be on a ladder twice a year.

Lockouts and lost keys. Tenant cost, ordinarily.

Carpet and paint at move out. Not a repair question, a wear and tear question, and it deserves its own treatment. That whole line is drawn in wear and tear versus damage in Tennessee, including what can be deducted from a deposit and what cannot.

What a landlord cannot do

Two things worth stating plainly. In a URLTA county, you cannot use the lease to shift the basic habitability duty onto the tenant. A clause saying the tenant is responsible for all repairs of every kind is not going to save you on a heating failure in January. And regardless of who is at fault for a needed repair, you cannot cut off utilities, change the locks, or otherwise force the issue. Self help is illegal in Tennessee and converts your position into their claim.

You also generally owe notice before entering, commonly 24 hours, except in an emergency. Two exceptions do not swallow that rule: a maintenance visit the tenant requested and scheduled is consented entry, and a burst pipe is an emergency. A drive by to check on things is neither.

What a tenant can and cannot do

Tennessee's tenant remedies are narrower than in many states. There is no broad right to simply stop paying rent because a repair was not made, and a tenant who withholds rent without following the statute is usually the one who ends up in a weak position. The statute provides limited, specific paths after written notice, and the details matter enough that a tenant considering one should talk to a Tennessee attorney or a local legal aid office rather than to the internet.

The one universal piece of advice for both sides: put the request in writing, keep the date, and keep the photos.

How to keep this out of dispute entirely

  1. Document condition at move in. A dated photo set of every room, every appliance, the floors, and the walls. This one habit prevents more arguments than every lease clause combined.
  2. Take a written request for every issue, even the ones reported by text or in person, with a photo attached.
  3. Have the vendor state the cause on the invoice, not just the fix. "Cleared lateral, heavy root intrusion at 18 feet" answers the responsibility question by itself.
  4. Photograph before and after on every job. Ours close that way as a standard, and it is the reason deposit conversations are short.
  5. Respond quickly to the small stuff. A tenant who trusts that requests get handled reports the ceiling stain early, and the early report is worth more than any lease clause you could write.

We handle repairs, turnovers, and seasonal work for landlords and property managers across Middle Tennessee, with flat quotes and photo documentation on every job. If the coordination is what is costing your team, see the property managers page.

This article is general information about Tennessee landlord tenant practice, not legal advice. URLTA applicability, lease terms, and the facts of a specific repair all change the answer. For a real dispute, talk to a Tennessee attorney.