Alabama Landlord Compliance Kit: Deposit, Notice and Eviction Checklists with an Excel Tracker

Who it is for

Landlords and property managers with rentals in Alabama, and tenants who want the same record, from move-in through move-out or a court case.

Not the right fit if

Your rental is outside Alabama: get that state's kit. Not legal advice, not a lawyer's review of a lease, notice or court case, and not a set of legal notice forms; city and county rules aren't covered.

Why it is different

• Built only from our Alabama data files, checked November 2026 against 9 official pages, among them Alabama Legislature: 2023 SB242 as introduced (reprints Code section 35-9A-201); Alabama Unified Judicial System (Macon County): reprint of the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Act 2006-316; Mobile County (Thirteenth Judicial Circuit): Unlawful Detainers; Montgomery County (Fifteenth Judicial Circuit): Unlawful Detainers (Eviction); Russell County District Court: Residential Landlord-Tenant Guidelines to Filing of Unlawful Detainer Actions; Escambia County: Eviction / Unlawful Detainer Procedure (07/2025), plus National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (a vetted secondary source, marked in the kit) where no official page could be read.
• 7 items the official pages didn't state are left out of the rules and put on a short look-up list with the page to check, never guessed.
• The workbook recalculates with zero formula errors and works out Alabama notice and deposit dates for you.

What is inside

• Start here. How to use the kit, the 16 confirmed Alabama rules at a glance and a short look-up list of 7 points to check: where the deposit is held, rent increase notice, late fee limits, hearing after filing, writ to lockout, paying to stop the case, diversion or mediation (statewide), each with the official page.
• Alabama landlord rules checklist. Deposits, notice periods, the eviction case and the small claims limit, each confirmed rule with its source link and check date. What it confirms: deposit limit: No more than one month's periodic rent, except for pets, changes to the premises, or increased liability risks (35-9A-201(a)); return deadline: The amount due 60 days after the tenancy ends and possession is delivered, with an itemized list of amounts withheld within that 60-day period (35-9A-201); itemized list of deductions: An itemized list of the amounts withheld, within the 60-day period (35-9A-201); interest on the deposit: None stated in 35-9A-201 as reprinted in 2023 SB242; penalty the law states: Double the amount of the tenant's original deposit if the landlord doesn't refund or account for it within 60 days (35-9A-201); ending month-to-month (landlord): Written notice at least 30 days before the periodic rental date named in the notice (7 days for week-to-week); ending month-to-month (tenant): Written notice at least 30 days before the periodic rental date named in the notice (7 days for week-to-week); unpaid rent notice: 7 days after the tenant receives written notice to terminate for nonpayment; entry notice: At least 2 days' notice; reasonable times; court: Eviction (unlawful detainer) cases can be filed in District Court or Circuit Court; the county court pages describe District Court filing; filing fee: Set locally; time to answer or appear: Seven calendar days after service to answer the claim for possession (14 days for a money claim); judgment to writ: The writ of possession can be requested only after the 7-day stay that follows the judgment (the time to appeal) has run; who carries out the lockout: The writ directs the county's law enforcement (the sheriff) to restore possession to the landlord; right to counsel (statewide): No statewide right to counsel for tenants in eviction cases (as of November 2026, per the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel): its tracker of enacted laws lists no statewide law here; small claims limit (for a deposit dispute): $6,000: the most a small claims case can ask for.
• Move-in and move-out deposit checklist. A room-by-room condition checklist for both visits and the steps after move-out, with Alabama's return deadline (within 60 days).
• Notice calendar. When each notice must go out: the lead time for every notice the state's text confirms, with a 2027 month-by-month serve-by table worked out with our notice date calculator's rules.
• Eviction timeline sheet. The Alabama case in order from notice to lockout, with each confirmed stage, an example dated from a sample filing day where the rules give periods, and blanks for your own case dates.
• Alabama landlord workbook (Excel). A tenant notice log that dates each notice from the Alabama rules, a deposit tracker that works out the return date for each move-out, and a rent ledger with a running balance.