Free Alabama Landlord Forms
Every Alabama landlord form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the Alabama Code section and the deadline that triggers it — plus the official court form numbers you will need if the tenancy ends in district court.
Every form linked on this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloadable as a PDF with no account, no membership and no paywall. That is the first thing worth saying plainly, because most of the pages competing for this search are not: the largest landlord-association form library puts its Alabama forms behind a membership wall, and the biggest commercial form sites charge for the same documents. Alabama landlord forms are governed by one statute, the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, codified at Alabama Code Title 35, Chapter 9A, and the right form is almost always determined by which section of that statute you are acting under.
The short version
- Nonpayment of rent — a written notice giving seven business days from receipt, under Alabama Code § 35-9A-421(b). It must state the rent and any late fees owed.
- Any other material lease breach — a written notice under § 35-9A-421(a), also measured in business days, not calendar days.
- Month-to-month termination — thirty days before the periodic rental date (§ 35-9A-441(b)). Week-to-week is seven days.
- Entering the property — at least two days notice at a reasonable time (§ 35-9A-303(c)).
- Security deposit — capped at one month’s periodic rent, with real exceptions, and returned with an itemised statement within sixty days (§ 35-9A-201).
- Court — the eviction case is an unlawful detainer started on official form C-59; the tenant has seven days to answer.
Every Alabama Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
Alphabetical form lists are how most sites present this, and they are the least useful arrangement, because a landlord almost never arrives knowing the name of the document they need. They arrive knowing what has happened. The index below is therefore ordered by where you are in the tenancy, and each entry names the Alabama Code section that makes the form necessary and the deadline it starts.
Starting the tenancy
- Alabama residential lease agreement — the master document. Alabama does not require a written lease, but an oral lease leaves you with no written late-fee term, and late fees in Alabama are purely contractual, so an oral agreement effectively means no enforceable late fee at all.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not Alabama law, for any dwelling built before 1978. It is the one federal paperwork requirement on this page that carries real penalties if you omit it.
- Move-in / move-out condition checklist — not required by statute, and the single most valuable optional form on this page. A signed move-in record is what turns a deposit deduction from an argument into a documented fact.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — § 35-9A-303(c), at least two days notice, entry only at reasonable times.
- Rent increase notice — Alabama has no rent control and no statutory rent-increase notice period. For a month-to-month tenancy the practical rule is the § 35-9A-441(b) thirty-day termination notice, because raising rent mid-term requires the tenant’s agreement.
- Late rent notice — a courtesy reminder, not a statutory notice. It does not start any clock and is not a substitute for the pay-or-quit notice below.
- Sublease Agreement
When the tenant breaches
- Seven-business-day notice to pay rent or quit — § 35-9A-421(b), for unpaid rent. The notice must specify the amount of rent and any late fees owed; a bare rent demand can be defective.
- Notice to cure or quit — § 35-9A-421(a), for a material noncompliance other than rent: unauthorised pets or occupants, alterations, or conduct affecting health and safety.
- Unconditional quit notice — for conduct Alabama treats as non-curable. Under § 35-9A-421 an intentional misrepresentation of a material fact in the rental agreement or application cannot be cured, and a tenant may not cure a breach more than twice in any twelve-month period without the landlord’s express written consent.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — used when a fixed term is ending and you do not intend to renew.
- Tenant notice to vacate — the tenant’s side of § 35-9A-441(b). A month-to-month tenant owes the same thirty days the landlord does.
After the tenant moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — § 35-9A-201(c). If you keep any part of the deposit you must give the tenant an itemised list of the amounts withheld within the sixty-day window.
- Security deposit return letter — the covering document that goes with the refund.
Alabama Court Forms: the Official Numbers
If the tenancy ends in court, you leave our forms behind and use the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts forms. These are published at the state judicial forms library, and using the correct numbered form matters — clerks reject the wrong document. The action is an unlawful detainer, governed by Alabama Code § 6-6-310 and following together with § 35-9A-461, and it is filed in district court in the county where the property sits.
| Step | Official form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Start the eviction | C-59 — Statement of Claim Eviction, Unlawful Detainer | The summons is printed on the form itself; there is no separate summons document. |
| Prove service | C-59 (Return of Service section) | Alabama publishes no standalone affidavit of service for unlawful detainer. The return covers personal service, posting plus first-class mail, and certified mail. |
| Tenant responds | PS-01 — Answer to Landlord’s Claim | The tenant has seven days after service to answer. Jefferson County uses a local variant, PS-01-JC. |
| Tenant does not respond | C-25B — Application and Affidavit for Entry of Default Judgment (Unlawful Detainer) | Specific to unlawful detainer; there are generic siblings numbered C-25 and C-25A. |
| Recover possession | C-59A — Writ of Restitution or Possession | Cannot issue until the seven-day appeal window has run. |
| Deposit dispute | SM-01 — Statement of Claim (Complaint), General | Small claims handles disputes up to six thousand dollars under § 12-12-31. Companion forms are SM-03 (answer), SM-06 (counterclaim) and SM-07 (summons). |
| Cannot afford the fee | C-10-Civil — Affidavit of Substantial Hardship and Order | Note the designation is C-10-Civil, not plain C-10; a separate criminal version exists. |
Two things almost every competing page gets wrong. First, there is no official Alabama court form for the pre-suit notice itself. The § 35-9A-421 notice is drafted by the landlord — which is exactly why the fillable notices above exist. Second, Alabama filing fees are set county by county, not statewide. Mobile County publishes three hundred fifty dollars for an unlawful detainer; Jefferson County publishes two hundred sixty-one dollars. Any page quoting one nationwide Alabama figure is guessing. Confirm the current fee with the district court clerk in your county before you file.
Which Alabama Form Do I Need?
Work down this list and stop at the first line that matches your situation. The section reference tells you which statute you are acting under, which in turn fixes your deadline.
- The tenant has not paid rent. Use the pay-or-quit notice under § 35-9A-421(b). Count seven business days from receipt, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. State the rent and any late fees owed.
- The tenant has broken the lease in some other material way. Use the cure-or-quit notice under § 35-9A-421(a), describing the breach and a specific, achievable cure.
- The breach is one Alabama treats as non-curable — an intentional misrepresentation on the application, or a third breach inside twelve months. Use the unconditional quit notice.
- Nobody is at fault and the term is simply ending. If it is month-to-month, give thirty days before the periodic rental date under § 35-9A-441(b). If it is a fixed term ending, use the non-renewal notice.
- You need to get into the property. Give two days notice under § 35-9A-303(c).
- The tenant has moved out. You have sixty days to return the deposit with an itemised statement.
- The notice period has expired and the tenant is still there. Stop using our forms and file form C-59 in district court. Do not change the locks, remove doors, or shut off utilities — Alabama gives the tenant a damages remedy for that.
How to Serve an Alabama Notice — and the Rule That Trips People Up
Alabama’s general notice provision is § 35-9A-144, which says a person gives notice by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other party, and sets out when notice is presumptively received — including a rule that a tenant is presumed to receive a mailed notice three days after mailing.
That three-day mailing rule does not apply to eviction notices. Section 35-9A-144(e) states in terms that the notice provisions of that section do not apply to the notice required to terminate a tenancy or evict a tenant. Alabama therefore has no add-days-for-mailing rule for a § 35-9A-421 notice, and no equivalent of the California provision that adds days when a notice is posted or mailed. Do not add days, and do not assume posting alone is sufficient for a termination notice — posting is expressly authorised for an entry notice under § 35-9A-303(c), and for service of the court complaint, but not for the termination notice itself.
Because § 35-9A-421 measures the period from the tenant’s receipt of the notice, the practical requirement is provable delivery. Hand delivery with a witness, or certified mail with return receipt alongside ordinary first-class mail, both give you a defensible receipt date. An untracked drop-off leaves the receipt date unprovable, which means the cure clock has no anchor and a tenant can contest the whole timeline.
Service of the court complaint is a different question governed by § 35-9A-461(c) and § 6-6-332: personal service by the sheriff or a process server, delivery to a competent adult residing at the premises, or posting on the door with a first-class mailing sent the same day or by the close of the next business day.
Security Deposits: the Cap Has Real Exceptions
Alabama Code § 35-9A-201(a) prevents a landlord demanding or receiving security in excess of one month’s periodic rent — but the same sentence carves out deposits for pets, for changes to the premises, and for increased liability risks. A page that states the cap flatly without those exceptions is misleadingly incomplete, and it is the reason many Alabama landlords wrongly believe a pet deposit is unlawful.
On return, § 35-9A-201(b) and (c) give you sixty days, and the clock runs from termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession, not from termination alone. If you withhold any part, the itemised list must go out inside the same sixty days. Subsection (e) confirms that mailing by first class to the address the tenant provided in writing is sufficient compliance, and subsection (f) supplies the penalty that makes the deadline matter: a landlord who fails to mail a timely refund or accounting owes the tenant double the original deposit. The tenant carries an obligation too — they must give a written forwarding address, and unclaimed deposits are forfeited after ninety days.
Our Alabama security deposit laws guide works through the withholding categories and the double-damages exposure in detail.
Late Fees, Grace Periods and Returned Payments
Chapter 9A contains no grace period and no late-fee cap. Rent is payable at the time and place agreed under § 35-9A-161(c), and that is the whole of it. The consequences are practical: a late fee is enforceable only if it is written into the lease, it remains subject to the general unconscionability provision at § 35-9A-143, and an unreasonably large fee invites a challenge as a penalty. Note also that § 35-9A-421(b) expressly contemplates late fees being included in the pay-or-quit notice, so an Alabama notice that demands only base rent may understate what is owed.
Returned-payment fees are the one charge Alabama does cap, and the cap sits outside the landlord-tenant act: Alabama Code § 8-8-15 permits a bad-cheque charge of no more than the greater of the statutory figure or the actual charge imposed by the depository institution, with the statutory figure standing at thirty dollars. See our Alabama late fee laws guide.
Entry, Repairs and Retaliation
Section 35-9A-303(c) requires two days notice of an intent to enter and limits entry to reasonable times, and it builds in a permitted delivery method that many landlords miss: posting a note on the primary door of entry stating the intended time and purpose is a permitted method of notice for entry. Subsection (d) adds a genuine convenience — where the landlord has given, separately from the lease, a general notice or advance schedule of more than two days for repairs, maintenance, pest control or health and safety service, no additional day’s notice is required. Entry without consent is permitted in an emergency, under court order, or where the tenant has abandoned the unit.
On the repair side, the tenant’s remedy against a landlord who fails to maintain the premises runs through a different section entirely, § 35-9A-401, and it carries its own fourteen-day period. It is worth keeping the two apart: § 35-9A-421 is the landlord acting on the tenant’s breach; § 35-9A-401 is the tenant acting on the landlord’s. Confusing them is one of the commonest errors in Alabama landlord-tenant writing. Our Alabama habitability laws and Alabama landlord entry laws guides cover each side.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. Alabama landlords also commonly want a rental application, a sublease or assignment agreement, a rent receipt, and an abandoned-property notice. Those are not yet published for Alabama, and we have not linked placeholders for them. The forms listed above are the ones that exist, are fillable, and generate a real PDF.
Note also that the Alabama act does not reach every tenancy. Section 35-9A-122 excludes, among others, transient hotel and motel occupancy, occupancy under a contract of sale, residence at an institution incidental to detention or medical or educational service, occupancy by an employee whose right to occupy depends on employment, cooperative and condominium arrangements, and premises rented primarily for agricultural purposes. If your arrangement is on that list, the forms and deadlines here may not apply.
The Alabama Eviction Timeline, Step by Step
Landlords usually want to know not just which form, but how long the whole thing takes. Alabama is a relatively fast state because there is no just-cause requirement and no mandatory pre-filing mediation, but the sequence below has two waiting periods that cannot be compressed, and both of them are commonly miscounted.
| Step | Who acts | How long | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serve the statutory notice | Landlord | Day zero | Our fillable notice — there is no official state form |
| Notice period runs | Tenant may cure | Seven business days from receipt — weekends and legal holidays excluded | — |
| File the unlawful detainer | Landlord | Same day the period expires, at the earliest | C-59 |
| Serve the summons and complaint | Sheriff or process server | Typically a few days; must be at least six days before the return day | C-59 return of service |
| Tenant answers | Tenant | Seven days after service or posting | PS-01 |
| No answer filed | Landlord | Apply for default | C-25B |
| Hearing and judgment | Court | Varies by county docket | — |
| Appeal window | Tenant | Seven consecutive days; if day seven falls on a weekend or holiday it moves to the next business day | — |
| Writ issues and sheriff executes | Court, then sheriff | After the appeal window closes | C-59A |
Two things about that appeal window are worth stating explicitly, because they are where Alabama cases go wrong. First, the writ cannot issue until the seven days have run — a landlord who pushes the clerk for a writ on day five is asking for a defective execution. Second, an appeal does not automatically stay the writ: the tenant must pay all rent that has accrued since filing and keep paying as it comes due. A tenant who appeals without paying does not hold possession.
How to Fill Out an Alabama Pay-or-Quit Notice
The notice is the document most often defective, and because Alabama publishes no official form for it, there is no state template to fall back on. Work through these fields in order.
- Name every tenant on the lease. A notice addressed to one of two named tenants is contestable. Include occupants only if they signed.
- Identify the property exactly as the lease does, including the unit number. A street address that does not match the lease invites an argument that the wrong premises were noticed.
- State the rent owed as a figure, and identify the period it covers. Do not roll several months into an undifferentiated total.
- Add any late fees owed, itemised. Alabama Code § 35-9A-421(b) expressly contemplates late fees being stated in the notice, and a notice demanding only base rent may understate the amount required to cure. Only include fees the lease actually creates — Alabama has no statutory late fee.
- Set the deadline by counting seven business days from receipt, not from the day you wrote or posted the notice. Exclude Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Near a holiday cluster, count it twice by hand.
- State what happens if the tenant does not pay — that the rental agreement terminates and the landlord may seek possession.
- Cite the statute. Naming § 35-9A-421 tells the tenant and the court which power you are exercising.
- Date it, sign it, and record how you delivered it. Keep the certified mail receipt or a dated note of hand delivery with the witness name. Because the clock runs from receipt, proof of receipt is the whole case.
The single most common defect. Counting seven calendar days instead of seven business days produces a notice that expires early, and an early notice supports a motion to dismiss. Alabama moved to business days in 2018, and a number of Alabama county court pages and commercial form sites still publish the pre-2018 figures. If a source tells you the period is a flat seven or fourteen calendar days, it is describing repealed law.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
Not every error is fatal, and it helps to know which are. A defect that shortens a tenant’s statutory period — a cure deadline counted in calendar days, a filing made before the period expired — goes to the landlord’s right to bring the action at all, and is the kind of problem that gets a case dismissed and restarted from day zero. A defect that lengthens a period, or gives the tenant more information than the statute requires, generally works in the tenant’s favour and creates no defect the landlord needs to worry about.
Errors of identity sit in between. A misspelled name or a transposed unit number can usually be cured by amendment if it is obvious who and what was meant, but it hands the tenant an argument, and in a contested case that argument costs a hearing. The practical rule: an over-generous notice is safe, an under-generous notice is not, and an ambiguous notice is expensive. If you discover a defect before filing, serve a fresh notice and start the clock again rather than filing on a doubtful one.
What the Tenant Can Do Back
Every form on this page has a counterpart on the tenant’s side, and a landlord who understands the return fire serves better notices. Four tenant remedies do most of the work in Alabama.
- Double the deposit. The sixty-day deadline is not advisory. A landlord who fails to mail a timely refund or itemised accounting owes the tenant twice the original deposit under § 35-9A-201(f). This is the most frequently triggered penalty in Alabama landlord-tenant practice, and it is triggered by a calendar slip rather than by bad faith.
- The repair route. Where the landlord fails to maintain the premises, the tenant acts under § 35-9A-401 — a different section from the one landlords use, with its own fourteen-day period. Our Alabama habitability guide sets out what counts as a material condition and what the tenant must prove.
- The full statutory period. A tenant is entitled to every one of the seven business days, counted from receipt and excluding weekends and legal holidays. A notice that shortens the period, or a complaint filed before it expires, is a defence to the eviction rather than a technicality.
- Proper service of the lawsuit. The statutory notice and the court complaint are served under different rules. A tenant who was never properly served with the summons can attack the judgment even where the underlying notice was sound.
Self-help is the one area where Alabama offers a landlord no shortcut at all. Changing the locks, removing a door, or shutting off water or power to force a tenant out is not an Alabama remedy in any circumstance, and it converts a straightforward possession case into a damages claim against the landlord. The Alabama eviction notice guide covers the court route in full.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid Alabama Form Sites
It is worth being direct about what the alternatives cost, because the search results for Alabama landlord forms are dominated by pages that do not actually hand you a form. The largest landlord-association site ranks near the top for this query with a page that lists roughly a dozen Alabama form titles and puts every one of them behind a membership wall. The largest commercial legal-forms publisher offers a genuinely deep Alabama landlord-tenant package — and charges for it. Several tenant-screening and property-management platforms rank with single-form funnels whose real purpose is a software signup.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a finished PDF. There is no account, no trial, and no upsell attached to the documents themselves. What we ask in return is straightforward: if you are about to hand keys to someone, run the screening first, because nearly every dispute described on this page is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
Common Alabama Landlord Form Mistakes
- Counting calendar days instead of business days. The § 35-9A-421 periods are business days. A weekend or a legal holiday inside the window pushes the deadline out, and a notice that expires too early is defective.
- Demanding only base rent in a pay-or-quit notice. The statute contemplates late fees being stated as well.
- Adding days for mailing. Section 35-9A-144(e) removes termination and eviction notices from that rule entirely.
- Treating a late rent reminder as a statutory notice. It starts no clock.
- Assuming the deposit cap forbids a pet deposit. Pets are one of the express exceptions.
- Running the deposit clock from termination alone. It runs from termination and delivery of possession.
- Self-help. Changing locks or cutting utilities is not an Alabama remedy, and it hands the tenant a claim.
Alabama Landlord Forms: FAQ
What forms are required to start an eviction in Alabama?
A written notice under Alabama Code § 35-9A-421 — pay-or-quit for unpaid rent, cure-or-quit for another material breach — and then, if the period expires without a cure, official court form C-59, the Statement of Claim for Eviction and Unlawful Detainer, filed in district court.
Can a landlord use a generic template, or must Alabama forms be state-approved?
For the pre-suit notice there is no state-approved form at all, so a correctly drafted template is fine — but it must carry the Alabama statutory elements and the correct business-day period. Once you are in court the position reverses: you must use the official numbered AOC forms.
How should a notice be delivered to a tenant in Alabama?
By a method that proves receipt, because § 35-9A-421 measures the period from receipt. Hand delivery with a witness, or certified mail with return receipt plus ordinary first-class mail, are the defensible options. The three-day mailing presumption in § 35-9A-144 does not apply to termination or eviction notices.
How much notice must an Alabama landlord give before entering?
At least two days, and entry must be at a reasonable time, under § 35-9A-303(c). Posting a note on the main door stating the time and purpose is a permitted method for entry notice.
What is the Alabama security deposit cap?
One month’s periodic rent under § 35-9A-201(a) — but deposits for pets, for changes to the premises, and for increased liability risks sit outside the cap.
How long does an Alabama landlord have to return a deposit?
Sixty days from termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession, with an itemised list of anything withheld. Missing the deadline exposes the landlord to double the original deposit under § 35-9A-201(f).
Is there a grace period or a late-fee cap in Alabama?
Neither. Chapter 9A is silent, so a late fee is enforceable only if the lease says so, and it remains open to challenge as unconscionable. Returned-payment fees are capped separately at thirty dollars by § 8-8-15.
How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in Alabama?
Thirty days before the periodic rental date, under § 35-9A-441(b), from either side. A week-to-week tenancy takes seven days.
What is the small claims limit for an Alabama deposit dispute?
Six thousand dollars, under § 12-12-31. A doubled-deposit claim under § 35-9A-201(f) will normally still fit inside that limit; above it, the case goes on the regular district civil docket.
Is an oral lease enforceable in Alabama?
Generally yes for a month-to-month arrangement, but it is a poor idea. Late fees are purely contractual in Alabama, so an oral lease usually means no enforceable late fee, and no written record of the deposit terms.
Related Alabama Guides
- Alabama landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- Alabama eviction notice laws — the notice periods and the court timeline in detail.
- Alabama security deposit laws — withholding, itemisation and double damages.
- Alabama lease termination laws — ending a tenancy without fault.
- Alabama rent increase laws — why Alabama has no rent control.
- Alabama late fee laws — enforceability and the returned-payment cap.
- Alabama landlord entry laws — the two-day rule and its exceptions.
- Alabama tenant screening laws — background checks and adverse action.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. For this page we worked from the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act itself and from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts forms library, rather than from secondary summaries — several of which still publish notice periods Alabama repealed in 2018.
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Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about Alabama landlord-tenant law and Alabama court forms, not legal advice. Statutory periods and court form numbers change, and filing fees are set county by county. Confirm the current requirements with the district court clerk in your county or with an Alabama attorney before you serve a notice or file a case.
