8 Things an Alabama Landlord Can’t Legally Do to Renters in 2026

In Alabama, your landlord generally has to give you at least two days’ notice before coming inside.

Renters have more say than they think, and the law spells out where a landlord’s rights stop.

Here’s what an Alabama landlord can’t legally do to renters in 2026.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Rental rules and notice periods are subject to change.

1. Lockouts and Utility Shut-Offs

A landlord who changes your locks to push you out is breaking Alabama’s residential landlord-tenant act.

The same goes for deliberately cutting off your heat, running water, hot water, electricity or gas.

Owing rent doesn’t change that.

A landlord who wants you out has to follow the eviction process the act lays out.

If a lockout or shut-off happens to you, you can take back possession or end the lease.

Either way, you can recover up to three months’ rent or your actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees.

If you end the lease, the landlord has to return the part of your security deposit you’re owed under the deposit rules and any prepaid rent you haven’t used.

2. Oversized Deposits and Slow Refunds

A landlord can’t demand a security deposit bigger than one month’s rent, unless the extra covers a pet, changes to the unit or a higher liability risk.

From that deposit, the landlord can hold back only unpaid rent and damage from your breaking a tenant duty.

Your landlord has to itemize each deduction in writing.

After you move out, the landlord has 60 days to refund the deposit or send you that itemized list.

A landlord who misses that deadline owes you double the deposit.

That’s twice your money back.

And the double payment doesn’t stop you from collecting other damages you’re entitled to.

3. Surprise Visits

Your landlord can’t come into your home whenever it’s convenient.

Alabama law generally requires at least two days’ notice, and the visit has to happen at a reasonable time.

Emergencies are one exception.

Beyond an emergency, a landlord can enter with a court order, or when there’s reasonable cause to believe you’ve abandoned the home.

Even with notice, a landlord can’t use entry to harass you.

If your landlord abuses access, you can get a court order to stop it or end the lease, and either way you can recover actual damages.

4. Seizing Your Belongings

If rent runs late, a landlord still can’t take your furniture, electronics or other belongings to cover it.

Landlords once had a common-law right to seize a tenant’s goods for unpaid rent, called distraint, and the act abolished it.

A landlord also can’t enforce a lien on your household goods unless it was set up before 2007.

Your sofa stays yours.

5. Retaliation for Complaints

If you complain about certain problems in your rental, a landlord can’t retaliate against you.

Raising your rent in a discriminatory way, cutting your services, or filing or threatening an action to remove you all count as retaliation.

The law covers three situations.

One is a complaint to the agency that enforces building or housing codes about a health or safety violation.

Another is a complaint to your landlord about a failure to maintain your home.

The third is organizing or joining a tenant’s union.

Any of the three gives you the same remedies as a lockout case, plus a defense when the landlord files to remove you.

6. Housing Discrimination

The federal Fair Housing Act bars most landlords from refusing to rent to you because of your race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability.

Familial status includes living with a child under 18.

The same traits can’t be the reason you get worse terms or services.

Ads count too.

A landlord can’t run an ad that shows a preference based on any of those traits.

Nor can a landlord tell you a unit is taken when it’s still open because of one of them.

If you have a disability, a landlord can’t refuse reasonable changes to rules or policies that you need to use your home.

Blocking reasonable changes to the unit that you need and pay for is off-limits too.

7. Lease Clauses That Waive Rights

Whatever your lease says, a landlord can’t make you sign away key protections under Alabama law.

Alabama’s act bars a lease from forcing you to waive certain rights under the act, including its deposit rules and the eviction law.

A lease can’t make you agree to a confession of judgment, a clause that lets the landlord get a court judgment against you, often without notice or a hearing.

Nor can it make you pay the landlord’s attorney’s fees or collection costs, or release the landlord from liability.

Those clauses can’t be enforced.

If a landlord knowingly tries to enforce a prohibited clause, you can recover your actual damages.

On top of that, you can get up to a month’s rent plus reasonable attorney’s fees.

8. Ending Your Lease Without Written Notice

A landlord who wants to end your lease over unpaid rent has to start with written notice.

That notice has to say how much rent and late fees you owe.

Your lease ends only if you haven’t paid within seven business days.

The clock starts at receipt.

A phone call or a verbal warning doesn’t count as that notice.

For other violations, the landlord has to send a written notice naming what you did or didn’t do.