Mississippi Landlord-Tenant Laws: The Complete 2026 Overview

Mississippi sets no cap on the deposit amount and requires no interest, but section 89-8-21 fixes the return: a landlord must refund the deposit within forty-five days after the tenancy terminates, together with an itemized statement of any deductions. In practice a written forwarding address operates as a condition precedent, so the clock is most reliable once the tenant supplies one. Unlike states with a punitive multiplier, Mississippi’s remedy for wrongful withholding is the tenant’s actual damages – typically the amount improperly kept – recovered in small claims court, where the jurisdictional ceiling is three thousand five hundred dollars. Deposits are commonly one to two months’ rent, a figure set by the market rather than statute. Because the penalty is modest, the itemized statement and the forty-five-day calendar entry are a landlord’s best protection against a dispute.

Read the full Mississippi security deposit laws guide for permitted deductions, the itemization rules, and the move-out timeline.

Mississippi is not a just-cause state, so a landlord may decline to renew for almost any lawful reason. To evict for nonpayment, the landlord first serves a three-day notice to pay or quit under section 89-8-13. A curable lease violation gets a fourteen-day notice to cure, and ending a month-to-month tenancy takes thirty days. If the tenant does not pay, cure, or leave, the landlord files an unlawful entry and detainer action in Justice Court, obtains a judgment, and only then may the court issue a warrant of removal. Self-help evictions – changing locks, removing doors, or shutting off utilities – are not permitted; only an officer acting on the court’s warrant may physically remove a tenant. The process is faster than in many states, but skipping the written notice or the Justice Court judgment voids the whole eviction.

Read the full Mississippi eviction notice laws guide for the filing steps, the hearing timeline, and the warrant of removal.

Mississippi’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets no advance-notice requirement for a landlord to enter an occupied unit, so the right to enter is governed by the lease rather than a statute. In practice, the widely accepted norm is twenty-four hours’ notice for non-emergency entry – to inspect, make repairs, or show the unit – during reasonable hours. The outer limit is the tenant’s common-law covenant of quiet enjoyment: a landlord who enters repeatedly, at unreasonable hours, or to harass can breach that covenant and face damages or, in a severe case, a constructive-eviction claim. Genuine emergencies such as fire, flooding, or a gas leak permit immediate entry without notice. Because Mississippi supplies no default rule, writing a clear entry-notice clause into the lease is the single best way for both sides to avoid a dispute.

Read the full Mississippi landlord entry laws guide for lawful entry reasons and how to write a compliant lease clause.

Mississippi has no rent control and no statutory cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent. There is likewise no local rent regulation. During a fixed-term lease the rent is locked at the agreed figure, and a mid-lease increase is generally prohibited unless the lease itself expressly allows it; a raise otherwise takes effect only at the end of the term or on a month-to-month tenancy. For a month-to-month tenancy, the landlord must give at least thirty days’ written notice of the increase, the same period used to change or end the tenancy under section 89-8-19. The limits that do apply are anti-retaliation and anti-discrimination: a landlord may not raise rent to punish a tenant for a protected activity such as a good-faith complaint, and may not raise it on a discriminatory basis under the Fair Housing Act.

Read the full Mississippi rent increase laws guide for the notice mechanics and the retaliation window.

Mississippi sets no statutory cap on residential late fees, so the fee is a matter of the lease. Two conditions make it enforceable: it must be written into the lease, and it must be reasonable in relation to the landlord’s actual costs from a late payment. In practice, reasonable fees run about five to ten percent of the monthly rent, or a modest flat amount, with a five-percent fee treated as presumptively reasonable and anything at or above roughly twenty-five percent likely struck down as a penalty. Mississippi provides no statutory grace period, though a three-to-five-day window is a recommended best practice. A returned-check or NSF fee of about forty dollars is enforceable when the lease provides for it, and daily late fees are allowed only if the lease sets them and the running total stays reasonable. Unpaid late fees can be pursued in small claims court, where the limit is three thousand five hundred dollars.

Read the full Mississippi late fee laws guide for the reasonableness range and grace-period practice.

Under section 89-8-23, a Mississippi landlord has a codified duty to maintain the dwelling in a condition fit for habitation and to make necessary repairs. The tenant triggers the duty by giving written notice – certified mail with return receipt is best – and the landlord must act within a reasonable time, generally treated as about seven days for a non-emergency condition, faster for true emergencies such as a gas leak, no water, or a sewage backup. Mississippi’s protections are on the weaker side: repair-and-deduct is not expressly authorized by statute, and rent withholding is not established by Mississippi law and could itself lead to eviction. Retaliation protection is limited compared with tenant-forward states. Where the landlord fails to repair a serious defect, the tenant’s remedies are lease termination, damages, and in some cases injunctive relief, and a defect severe enough to force the tenant out can amount to a constructive eviction.

Read the full Mississippi habitability laws guide for the repair-request procedure and the remedy limits.

Mississippi gives tenants fewer codified early-termination grounds than most states. The clearest is federal: an active-duty servicemember who enters service or receives qualifying permanent-change-of-station or deployment orders of ninety days or more may terminate under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. section 3955, with written notice and a copy of the orders. Under section 89-8-13, a tenant may terminate for a serious, uncured landlord breach after proper written notice. Mississippi has no domestic-violence early-termination statute, so a victim generally routes through a Title 93, Chapter 21 protective order rather than a landlord-tenant remedy. Critically, the Act imposes no clear duty on the landlord to mitigate damages, and the traditional rule is that none exists, so a tenant who simply leaves without a statutory ground can remain liable for rent through the remaining term unless the lease says otherwise. Negotiating a written buyout is often the safest exit.

Read the full Mississippi breaking lease laws guide for each ground and the notice-and-proof steps.

Ending a Mississippi tenancy depends on its type. A month-to-month tenancy is terminated by at least thirty days’ written notice under section 89-8-19, and a week-to-week tenancy by seven days, from either party. A fixed-term lease generally runs to its end date and cannot be cut short without a statutory ground or a mutual written agreement. Mississippi does not require just cause to decline to renew a lease. A tenant who stays past the end date becomes a holdover; the landlord recovers possession through the unlawful entry and detainer process rather than self-help, and Mississippi Code section 89-7-25 governs the holdover and removal mechanics. When any tenancy ends, the forty-five-day deposit return of section 89-8-21 still applies to the move-out, so the termination notice and the deposit clock work together.

Read the full Mississippi lease termination laws guide for notice by tenancy type and holdover liability.

For an actual pet, Mississippi imposes no state cap on pet deposits, pet fees, or pet rent, so a landlord may charge a reasonable amount when the lease provides for it. Assistance animals are treated completely differently. Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a service animal or emotional support animal is not a pet – a landlord may not charge any pet deposit, fee, or rent, and may not apply a breed or weight restriction or a no-pet policy to it. When the disability or the animal’s role is not obvious, the landlord may request reliable documentation from a licensed professional but may not demand certification or registration, and should decide the request promptly, which in fair-housing practice generally means within about ten business days once the needed information is in hand. Service-animal access in public accommodations is reinforced by state law at Mississippi Code section 43-6-155. The tenant remains liable for any actual damage the animal causes.

Read the full Mississippi pet and ESA laws guide for accommodation requests and documentation limits.

Mississippi leaves most of tenant screening to the landlord, so the binding rules are largely federal. With the applicant’s written authorization, a landlord may pull a consumer report covering credit, rental history, income, and eligible criminal records – the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a permissible purpose and consent first, and a seven-year lookback window applies to most non-conviction items. Mississippi does not cap application or screening fees, but they should be reasonable and tied to the actual cost. If a denial, a higher deposit, or a co-signer requirement rests in any part on a consumer report, the FCRA requires a pre-adverse and then an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency and enclosing the FCRA summary of rights, with a short waiting period before finalizing. Blanket criminal-record bans are risky under HUD’s disparate-impact guidance, so an individualized assessment is safer. FCRA violations expose a user to up to one thousand dollars per violation plus actual and, for willful conduct, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

Read the full Mississippi tenant screening laws guide for the FCRA steps and the fair-housing baseline.