Part 1 General Provisions 66-28-101 – 66-28-108
Part 2 Rental Agreements 66-28-201 – 66-28-205
Part 3 Landlord Obligations 66-28-301 – 66-28-305
Part 4 Tenant Obligations 66-28-401 – 66-28-406
Part 5 Enforcement and Remedies 66-28-522 – 66-28-521
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 66 > Chapter 28 - Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act

  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Agent: means an authorized person who acts on behalf of or at the direction of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
  • Benefit: means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain, enhancement or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Bodily injury: includes a cut, abrasion, bruise, burn or disfigurement, and physical pain or temporary illness or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Bureau: means the United States drug enforcement administration, United States department of justice, or its successor agency, except when used as the Tennessee bureau of investigation. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Controlled substance: means a drug, substance, or immediate precursor in Schedules I through VII of §. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
  • County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Deadly weapon: means :
    (A) A firearm or anything manifestly designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Defendant: means a person accused of an offense under this title and includes any person who aids or abets the commission of such offense. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • delivery: means the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another of a controlled substance, whether or not there is an agency relationship. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • Distribute: means to deliver other than by administering or dispensing a controlled substance. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Drug: means :
    (A) Substances recognized as drugs in the United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopaths Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
  • Force: means compulsion by the use of physical power or violence and shall be broadly construed to accomplish the purposes of this title. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Government: means the state or any political subdivision of the state, and includes any branch or agency of the state, a county, municipality or other political subdivision. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. Source: Federal Reserve
  • Law enforcement officer: means an officer, employee or agent of government who has a duty imposed by law to:
    (A) Maintain public order. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Livestock: means all equine as well as animals that are being raised primarily for use as food or fiber for human utilization or consumption including, but not limited to, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and poultry. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Manufacture: means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, conversion or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container, except that "manufacture" does not include the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for the individual's own use or the preparation, compounding, packaging, or labeling of a controlled substance by:
    (A) A practitioner as an incident to administering or dispensing a controlled substance in the course of professional practice. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Marijuana: means all parts of the plant cannabis, whether growing or not. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Minor: means any person under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Obtain: includes , but is not limited to, the taking, carrying away or the sale, conveyance or transfer of title to or interest in or possession of property, and includes, but is not limited to, conduct known as larceny, larceny by trick, larceny by conversion, embezzlement, extortion or obtaining property by false pretenses. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Owner: means a person, other than the defendant, who has possession of or any interest other than a mortgage, deed of trust or security interest in property, even though that possession or interest is unlawful and without whose consent the defendant has no authority to exert control over the property. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association or any other legal entity. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Pharmacist: means a licensed pharmacist as defined by the laws of this state, and where the context so requires, the owner of a store or other place of business where controlled substances are compounded or dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Practitioner: means :
    (A) A physician, dentist, optometrist, veterinarian, scientific investigator or other person licensed, registered or otherwise permitted to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to or to administer a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research in this state. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • Property: means anything of value, including, but not limited to, money, real estate, tangible or intangible personal property, including anything severed from land, library material, contract rights, choses-in-action, interests in or claims to wealth, credit, admission or transportation tickets, captured or domestic animals, food and drink, electric or other power. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • Services: includes labor, skill, professional service, transportation, telephone, mail, gas, electricity, steam, water, cable television, entertainment subscription service or other public services, accommodations in hotels, restaurants or elsewhere, admissions to exhibitions, use of vehicles or other movable property, and any other activity or product considered in the ordinary course of business to be a service, regardless of whether it is listed in this subdivision (a)(38) or a specific statute exists covering the same or similar conduct. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession thereof, and any area subject to the legal authority of the United States. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC