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

Who it is for

Landlords and property managers with rentals in Arkansas, 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 Arkansas: 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 Arkansas data files, checked November 2026 against 3 official pages, among them Arkansas Attorney General: Landlord and Tenant Rights; Arkansas Judiciary: Circuit Court Judges' Benchbook, Civil and Criminal (2022), Forcible Entry and Detainer; Arkansas Attorney General: Guide to Small Claims Court, plus Justia (statute text) and Nolo and National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (a vetted secondary source, marked in the kit) where no official page could be read.
• 9 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 Arkansas notice and deposit dates for you.

What is inside

• Start here. How to use the kit, the 14 confirmed Arkansas rules at a glance and a short look-up list of 9 points to check: interest on the deposit, where the deposit is held, late fee limits, filing fee, hearing after filing, judgment to writ, writ to lockout, paying to stop the case and more, each with the official page.
• Arkansas 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 two months' rent; return deadline: The deposit is returned, with a written itemized list of charges withheld, within 60 days of the time the tenant vacates; itemized list of deductions: A written, itemized list of the charges withheld; penalty the law states: Damages of twice the amount wrongfully withheld, plus the money due, costs and reasonable attorney fees; only costs and the amount wrongfully withheld if the landlord shows an error despite reasonable procedures or a good-faith dispute over the amount (18-16-306(a), 2020 edition on Justia); ending month-to-month (landlord): Oral lease: one rental period's notice, for any reason; ending month-to-month (tenant): Oral lease: one rental period's notice; rent increase notice: At least one rental period's notice before raising rent, for oral and written leases; unpaid rent notice: Three days' written notice to vacate before an unlawful detainer case; entry notice: No entry notice period stated: Nolo's 50-state chart (updated 7/18/2025) cites Ark; court: The complaint is filed with the circuit clerk in the county where the property is; time to answer or appear: Five days after the summons to object in writing; an objection leads to a hearing; who carries out the lockout: The county sheriff removes a tenant who loses; 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): $5,000: 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 Arkansas'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 Arkansas 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.
• Arkansas landlord workbook (Excel). A tenant notice log that dates each notice from the Arkansas rules, a deposit tracker that works out the return date for each move-out, and a rent ledger with a running balance.