What does the Tennessee Landlord Transparency Act require a Memphis landlord to disclose?

Under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-302 as amended by Public Chapter 907, a landlord in Shelby County, Tennessee, or anyone signing a lease on the landlord's behalf, must disclose to the tenant in writing, at or before the start of the tenancy, three things: the name and address of the agent authorized to manage the premises, which may be a third-party management company; the name and address of an owner or of a person authorized to accept service of process and receive notices and demands for the owner; and either a telephone number or email address for maintenance services or an online portal built for landlord-tenant communication. The information must be kept current. This is general information, not legal advice.

What happens if a Tennessee landlord does not give the written owner and manager disclosure?

Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-302(c) provides that a person who fails to comply becomes an agent of each person who is a landlord for the purpose of service of process and for receiving notices and demands. In practice, for a Memphis, Tennessee rental, that means whoever signed the lease without the disclosure, whether a manager, a relative or a leasing agent, can be served with lawsuits and tenant notices on the owner's behalf, and a repair notice delivered to that person counts as delivered to the owner. The statute does not set a fine; the exposure is legal and procedural.

Does the Landlord Transparency Act apply in Fayette County, Tennessee?

Generally no. The disclosure statute sits inside Tennessee's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-102 applies only in counties with more than 75,000 people at the 2010 federal census. Shelby County, Tennessee had 927,644 residents in 2010, so Memphis and its suburbs are covered. Fayette County, Tennessee had 38,413 residents in 2010 and an estimated 45,071 in 2025, so it is not covered, and a rental in Oakland or Somerville in Fayette County is governed by the lease and general Tennessee property law instead. Providing the same written disclosure there is still good practice.

If I buy a Memphis rental with a tenant already in place, do I have to give the disclosure?

Yes. Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-302(b) says the disclosed information must be kept current and that the section extends to and is enforceable against any successor landlord, owner or manager. When a Shelby County, Tennessee rental changes hands with a lease in place, the new owner or the new owner's manager should deliver an updated written disclosure naming the new manager, the new owner or agent for service, and the current maintenance contact or portal, and should do it again at any renewal or amendment. The prior owner's disclosure does not carry over.

Landlord Law & Operations · September 18, 2026

Who Is Your Landlord? The Tennessee Landlord Transparency Act and the One Page Every Shelby County Lease Now Needs

A tenant in Memphis has a leaking water heater, a lease signed by a name she does not recognize, and no idea who owns the house. Tennessee decided that was a problem. Since January 1, 2025, every lease signed, renewed or amended in Shelby County, Tennessee has to come with a written page that answers three questions: who manages this property, who owns it or accepts legal papers for the owner, and how do I reach maintenance. Most out-of-town investors have never heard of it. Here is what the statute says, who it reaches, and the penalty for leaving the page out.

What the statute now says

Tennessee's disclosure rule has existed since 1975, but it only required the landlord's name and address. House Bill 1814, enacted as Public Chapter 907 and effective January 1, 2025, rewrote Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-302. The landlord, or "any person authorized to enter into a rental agreement on the landlord's behalf," must now disclose to the tenant in writing, at or before the start of the tenancy:

First, the name and address of the agent authorized to manage the premises, which the statute says may be a third-party management company. Second, the name and address of an owner, or of a person or agent authorized to act for the owner "for the acceptance of service of process and for receipt of notices and demands." Third, either a telephone number or email address for maintenance services, or an online portal system designed for landlord-tenant communication.

Two sentences that follow do most of the work. Subsection (b): the information "shall be kept current," and the section "extends to and is enforceable against any successor landlord, owner or manager." Subsection (c), the penalty: a person who fails to comply "becomes an agent of each person who is a landlord for the purpose of service of process and receiving and receipting for notices and demands." The law applies to rental agreements entered into, amended or renewed on or after the effective date, so a lease signed in 2023 and left on autopilot is not covered until its next renewal, and then it is.

The penalty nobody reads

There is no fine in the statute. The consequence is quieter and, for an investor, worse. If the page is missing, whoever signed the lease on your behalf, a leasing agent, a brother-in-law, a manager you hired for one turn, is now your agent for lawsuits and for every notice a tenant is entitled to give you. A repair demand handed to that person is a repair demand handed to you, and the clocks in the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act start running whether you heard about it or not. A summons served on that person is served on you. In Memphis, where the rental ordinance and Environmental Court already turn a tenant's phone call into a code case, a landlord who cannot prove the tenant was told who to call is arguing from a bad position. Judges in Shelby County General Sessions expect the disclosure to be in the lease packet, and its absence is the kind of detail that surfaces when a tenant contests an eviction or a deposit deduction.

The statute does not care whether you are a good landlord. It cares whether the tenant can find you. If the answer is written down and current, you are done. If it is not, the law picks someone to stand in for you.

Shelby County yes, Fayette County mostly no

Section 66-28-302 lives inside the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and § 66-28-102 limits that Act to counties with more than 75,000 people at the 2010 federal census. Shelby County, Tennessee counted 927,644 residents that year, so Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Cordova and the rest of the county are covered. Fayette County, Tennessee counted 38,413, and even its 2025 estimate of 45,071 is well short; the threshold is frozen at the 2010 count anyway. A rental in Oakland or Somerville in Fayette County is governed by the lease and general Tennessee property law, not by this section. We covered the same split for security deposits and late fees; the lesson is the same. Eads, whose 38028 ZIP straddles the county line, takes the rule of whichever county the parcel sits in. In Fayette County the disclosure is not required, and we give it anyway, because a tenant who knows who to call is a tenant who calls before the leak becomes a ceiling.

The out-of-state owner's question

The objection we hear most from investors in California or New York is that they do not want their home address in a tenant's hands. Read the statute again: it asks for "an owner of the premises or a person or agent authorized to act for and on behalf of the owner" for service and notices. An owner who holds the house in an LLC and names a manager or registered agent as the person for service has complied without printing a residential address. What you cannot do is name nobody, or name a management company that quit last spring. Subsection (b)'s "kept current" language means a change of manager is a change that has to reach the tenant in writing, not just a change on your spreadsheet. Holding the property in an LLC has its own Tennessee tax wrinkle, which the FONCE article walks through.

Buying a house with a tenant in it

This is where the successor-landlord clause bites. When you close on an occupied rental in Shelby County, the seller's disclosure, if there was one, named the seller's manager and the seller's agent for service. None of that is you. The section is "enforceable against any successor landlord, owner or manager," so the day you take title you owe the tenant a fresh written page, and you owe another at renewal. Add it to the closing checklist next to the estoppel letter and the deposit transfer. Financing sits underneath the purchase: Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey release dated September 17, 2026 put the 30-year fixed at 6.95%, up from 6.76% the week before, and that is the owner-occupied benchmark; an investor loan prices above it with a larger down payment. One disclosure of our own, since this section is about acquiring property: alongside Homefront, Matt is a licensed REALTOR® with Reid Realtors, LLC. If you buy or sell through him, he is paid on that transaction as well as on management. You are never required to use both.

How the page looks in practice

For every property our team manages, the lease packet carries a disclosure that names Homefront Property Management, LLC as the agent authorized to manage the premises at our Germantown, TN office, names the person authorized to accept service and notices for the owner, and points the tenant to the online resident portal for maintenance requests, which satisfies the third prong on its own. The portal also produces a time-stamped record of every request, which is the evidence you want when a repair timeline is questioned. At renewal the page is re-issued, and when an owner sells to another of our clients the new owner's page goes out with the notice of transfer. If you self-manage in Memphis, the fix is a single addendum: two names, two addresses, one phone number or email, signed with the lease and re-signed at every renewal. Management fees at Homefront never exceed 10% of monthly rent, with a customized schedule by portfolio size and no hidden charges; tenant screening is paid by the applicant, and under our lease tenants are responsible for legal fees arising from a breach.

Sources & further reading: Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-302 (2025), Address of landlord or agent; Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-102, Application — Preemption; Tennessee General Assembly — House Bill 1814 (113th General Assembly); Tennessee Secretary of State — Public Chapter No. 907; LegiScan — TN HB1814 bill history; Haus Realty & Management — HB 1814 Explained; Fayette County, Tennessee — decennial census counts; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, release dated September 17, 2026. This article is general information about Tennessee landlord-tenant law as it applies in Shelby County, Tennessee, not legal advice; the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is Tenn. Code Ann. Title 66, Chapter 28, and an attorney should review any specific lease or dispute.