North Dakota Landlord-Tenant Laws: The Complete 2026 Overview

North Dakota caps the security deposit at one month’s rent for an unfurnished unit under section 47-16-07.1, with a higher ceiling of up to two months’ rent where the tenant has a felony conviction or a prior eviction judgment, and a separate pet ceiling of the greater of two thousand five hundred dollars or two months’ rent. The return is locked down: a landlord must refund the deposit within thirty days after the tenant surrenders the unit and provides a written forwarding address, together with a written itemized statement of any deductions. Failure to itemize forfeits the right to withhold. The teeth are treble damages – a landlord who withholds without reasonable justification owes three times the wrongfully kept amount. A deposit held for an occupancy of at least nine months also earns the tenant interest.

Read the full North Dakota security deposit laws guide for permitted deductions, the wear-and-tear line, and the move-out timeline.

North Dakota handles an eviction in two short steps, then a court action. For nonpayment, the rent must first be three days past due under section 47-32-01 to create the ground, and the landlord must then serve a three-day written notice of intention to evict under section 47-32-02 before filing – two separate three-day periods. The same three-day notice of intention to evict applies to a material lease violation, and North Dakota does not provide a general cure-or-quit right. If the tenant does not comply, the landlord files an eviction action in the district court for the county where the property sits under chapter 47-32; only a judgment and a sheriff’s execution can remove a tenant. The court may stay execution up to five days for substantial hardship. Self-help – changing locks, removing belongings, or shutting off utilities – is illegal.

Read the full North Dakota eviction notice laws guide for the notice types, correct service, and the court timeline.

North Dakota has no statute setting a fixed notice period before a landlord enters an occupied unit under chapter 47-16. Instead, reasonable notice is required, working alongside the tenant’s common-law right to quiet enjoyment. In practice, the accepted best practice is twenty-four hours’ written notice for non-emergency entry – inspections, repairs, and showings – during normal business hours, roughly eight in the morning to six in the evening. Genuine emergencies such as fire, flooding, or a gas leak permit immediate entry without notice. Entry must be for a legitimate purpose; pretextual, harassing, or repeated unannounced entries violate quiet enjoyment and can support damages, an injunction, and in severe cases lease termination. Because the rule is a reasonableness standard rather than a bright line, spelling out the entry procedure in the lease is the single best way to avoid a dispute.

Read the full North Dakota landlord entry laws guide for the permitted-entry reasons and how to write a compliant notice.

North Dakota has no rent control. There is no statutory cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent, and state law preempts local rent control so no city or county may enact a cap. During a fixed-term lease the rent is locked at the agreed figure unless the lease contains an escalation clause; an increase otherwise takes effect only at renewal or on a month-to-month tenancy. For a month-to-month tenancy, North Dakota requires at least thirty days’ written notice of the increase, and sixty to ninety days is a common best practice. The limits that do apply are anti-retaliation and anti-discrimination: an increase timed shortly after a habitability complaint, a code-enforcement contact, or the assertion of a legal right can trigger a retaliation presumption, and a landlord may not raise rent on a discriminatory basis. Written notice delivered by a provable method – certified mail or a signed acknowledgment – is the defensible practice.

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

North Dakota sets no fixed dollar cap on late fees, but a fee is enforceable only when it is stated in a written lease, represents a reasonable estimate of the uncertain damages a late payment causes rather than a penalty, and is applied only after rent is actually past due. Courts treat fees of about five to ten percent of the monthly rent as presumptively reasonable, while a fee running well above that – a flat twenty-five percent, or compounding daily charges that exceed the monthly rent – is likely to be struck down as a penalty. North Dakota does not mandate a grace period, so any grace window is governed by the lease; a three-to-five-day grace period is the industry norm. A returned-check fee of about forty dollars is enforceable when the lease sets it, and a late fee and an NSF fee can both apply to the same missed payment if the lease provides for each. Unpaid late fees can be pursued in small claims court, which hears amounts up to fifteen thousand dollars.

Read the full North Dakota late fee laws guide for the reasonableness test and grace-period practice.

Under North Dakota Century Code section 47-16-13, a landlord must keep the premises in a habitable condition and repair conditions that render the unit untenantable – working heat, plumbing with hot and cold water, safe electrical systems, structural soundness, and freedom from serious pest or sewage problems – throughout the tenancy, not just at move-in. The tenant triggers the duty by giving written notice, and certified mail with return receipt is strongly preferred because it proves delivery and starts the reasonable-time clock. The landlord must then make a genuine, documented effort within a reasonable time, which shrinks sharply for emergencies – a heat failure in North Dakota’s extreme cold is a same-day emergency. If the landlord fails after proper notice, the tenant’s remedies include repair-and-deduct where authorized, lease termination, damages, and a court order for specific repairs. A tenant who withholds rent before following the statutory notice procedure typically forfeits the remedy, so notice comes first.

Read the full North Dakota habitability laws guide for the repair-request procedure and the response-time scale.

A fixed-term lease in North Dakota is a binding contract, but the law carves out grounds to terminate early without penalty. Under section 47-16-17.1, a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, or who fears imminent domestic violence against the tenant or a minor child, may terminate by giving advance written notice naming the person identified in a protective or restraining order and paying an amount equal to one month’s rent on or before the termination. Active-duty servicemembers have a separate right under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: with qualifying orders and written notice plus a copy of the orders, the lease ends thirty days after the next rent payment is due. When no statutory ground applies, the tenant who leaves early is not automatically liable for the whole remaining term – North Dakota requires the landlord to mitigate by making a reasonable effort to re-rent, so the tenant owes only the gap until the unit is re-rented or the lease ends, less what a diligent re-rental would recover.

Read the full North Dakota breaking lease laws guide for each statutory ground and the duty to mitigate.

Ending a North Dakota tenancy depends on its type, under section 47-16-15. A month-to-month tenancy is terminated by written notice of at least one calendar month from either party, counted from the day after delivery. A fixed-term lease ends on its own date; North Dakota’s rule for non-renewal is at least one calendar month before the end, and many leases add their own thirty-to-sixty-day notice clause. North Dakota does not require just cause to decline to renew, provided the non-renewal is neither discriminatory nor retaliatory. A tenant who stays past the end date without a new agreement becomes a holdover, and North Dakota allows double rent against a willful holdover, with the landlord pursuing possession through an eviction action in district court rather than self-help. Accepting rent after serving a termination notice can waive the termination, so a landlord who must take a past-due payment should do so with a written reservation of rights.

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

For an actual pet, North Dakota expressly permits an additional pet deposit of up to the greater of two thousand five hundred dollars or two months’ rent, separate from the general deposit, and pet rent is allowed with no state cap. Private landlords may also impose breed and weight restrictions on ordinary pets. Assistance animals are treated completely differently. Under the federal Fair Housing Act and the North Dakota Housing Discrimination Act (section 14-02.5), 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 under HUD Notice FHEO-2020-01, but may not demand a diagnosis, medical records, or proof of certification. The tenant remains liable for any actual damage the animal causes. Misrepresenting a pet as a service animal is an infraction under section 25-13-08, carrying a civil fine of up to five hundred dollars.

Read the full North Dakota pet and ESA laws guide for the accommodation process and documentation limits.

North Dakota regulates screening lightly and leaves most of it to federal law. With the applicant’s written authorization, a landlord may pull a consumer report covering credit, rental and payment history, income, and public records such as criminal convictions – the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a permissible purpose and consent first. North Dakota does not cap application or screening fees, but they should be reasonable, tied to the actual cost of the report, and charged consistently to every applicant. If a denial, a higher deposit, or a co-signer requirement rests in any part on a consumer report, the FCRA requires an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency and explaining the right to a free copy and to dispute it. Blanket criminal-record bans are risky under HUD’s 2016 disparate-impact guidance, so an individualized assessment tied to the offense, its recency, and safety is safer. North Dakota fair housing law tracks the federal Act and adds status with respect to public assistance, but does not broadly protect source of income.

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