Maintenance & Repairs Clause
in Your Nashville Lease

What a maintenance & repairs clause actually means

The maintenance and repairs clause is the part of your lease that splits up who keeps the property in good shape: the landlord or you. A normal residential version reads something like: "Landlord shall maintain the structure and major systems; Tenant shall keep the unit clean, promptly report problems in writing, and pay for damage caused by Tenant or Tenant's guests."

That basic division is fair. Problems start when the clause is padded with language meant to push the landlord's legal responsibilities onto you. In a Nashville residential lease, the landlord keeps a floor of duties the lease cannot bargain away: keeping the place fit and habitable, complying with building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety, and keeping common areas clean and safe. Your side of the deal is the day-to-day stuff: cleanliness, reasonable use, reporting issues quickly, and not breaking things.

This page covers residential rentals only. It is not about commercial leases. A business tenant can lawfully be made to maintain almost everything, including HVAC and structural items, because companies are treated as sophisticated parties who negotiated their own terms. As a residential renter, you get a habitability floor a business tenant does not.

How to read this clause in your lease

Open your lease and find the section labeled maintenance, repairs, or "condition of premises." Read it with a few translations in mind so the legalese stops fooling you.

• "Tenant shall maintain the premises" — In context, this means routine upkeep: keeping the unit clean, replacing your own light bulbs and batteries, and basic yard care if your lease assigns it. It does not mean you are now on the hook for a failing furnace, a roof leak, or a code violation. The landlord's habitability duty sits behind this language no matter how broadly it is written.
• "Tenant accepts the premises as-is" — This phrase tries to say you waived any right to repairs by moving in. For health-and-safety conditions, it does not work. An "as-is" clause cannot wipe out the landlord's statutory duty to make repairs needed to keep the place fit and habitable.
• "Tenant is responsible for all repairs" — A blanket version of the same move. A residential landlord cannot lawfully dump the entire repair burden on the tenant. Read it as covering tenant-caused damage, not the landlord's core obligations.

The test is simple: if the broken thing affects your health or safety, or violates a building or housing code, it is almost certainly the landlord's job, whatever the clause says.

What Tennessee law requires in Nashville

Tennessee's protection for renters lives in the URLTA, and the heart of it is the landlord's maintenance duty under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-304. The statute requires your landlord to comply with building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety, to make all repairs needed to keep the property fit and habitable, and to keep shared areas clean and safe. Where a local building or housing code imposes a stronger duty, that stronger code wins. This is what "implied warranty of habitability" means in plain terms: a baseline of livability baked into every covered lease, written or not.

One applicability point matters a great deal, and it works in your favor in Nashville. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-102, the URLTA only applies in Tennessee counties with a population over 75,000. Davidson County clears that line easily, so the statute and its remedies apply to your tenancy. (A renter in a small rural county would fall back on common law and the lease instead.) As a Nashville tenant, you get the full statutory framework.

When the landlord falls short, the law sets out how you respond. For ordinary repair and habitability failures, you give written notice and the landlord gets time to fix it; if they don't, you can terminate, sue for damages, ask a court to order the repair, and recover reasonable attorney's fees (Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-501). A separate, faster track applies when the landlord cuts off essential services like heat, water, gas, or electricity (66-28-502). One thing Tennessee law does not require: air conditioning is not treated as an essential service, though heat, water, and working electrical and plumbing are.

*Presumed/varies by severity — see the section above for the exact rule.

Is an 'as-is' or 'tenant maintains' clause even enforceable?

The landlord's habitability duty is the part of your lease you cannot be made to sign away. A clause that says you accept the unit "as-is," waive all repairs, or take "responsibility for all repairs" cannot override the statutory obligation to keep the place fit and habitable and to comply with health-and-safety codes. Courts treat that duty as a floor, not a default you can negotiate below in a residential lease.

That does not make every repair the landlord's problem. The line runs along health, safety, and code. The landlord owns the structure, the systems that make the place livable, and anything a building or housing code requires. You own ordinary cleanliness, reasonable use, and damage you or your guests cause. So a clause making you replace your own air filters or keep the unit sanitary is perfectly enforceable. A clause trying to make you personally fund a new water heater or fix a code violation is the kind of overreach the statute is designed to defeat.

If your lease leans on "as-is" or "all repairs" language to deny you a genuine habitability repair, treat that language as bluff, not law. But follow the statutory steps below rather than acting on your own assumption, because in Tennessee the wrong self-help move can cost you your tenancy.

The money question: repair-and-deduct in Nashville

Here is where Tennessee is stricter than many renters expect, so read carefully before you touch your rent.

There is no general repair-and-deduct in Tennessee. For an ordinary repair such as a broken dishwasher, a leaky faucet, or a busted railing, you cannot legally hire someone, pay them, and subtract the bill from your rent. No Tennessee statute allows that for general repairs. The only statutory "procure-and-deduct" right is narrow and lives in Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-502: it applies when the landlord deliberately or negligently fails to supply essential services like gas, heat, or electricity. In that situation, after written notice, you may buy the essential service yourself and deduct its actual and reasonable cost from rent, recover damages for the drop in your unit's fair rental value, or move to reasonable substitute housing and be excused from rent for the period the landlord is out of compliance. There is no fixed dollar or one-month cap in the statute, but your deduction is limited to the real, reasonable cost of the service you bought, so keep every receipt.

There is also no rent-withholding or escrow scheme. Tennessee does not let you simply stop paying rent and bank it until repairs happen. A tenant who withholds rent over a repair dispute risks an eviction for nonpayment, which is a serious mistake. The right path for ordinary repairs is written notice, then suing for damages, an injunction, or termination under 66-28-501, not a self-help rent strike.

Worked example. Say you rent a Nashville apartment for $1,650 a month and your heat dies in January. Heat is an essential service. You send written notice, the landlord ignores it, and you buy space heaters and pay for emergency repair totaling $280. Because this is an essential-services failure, you may deduct that $280 (your actual, reasonable cost) from your next rent payment and pay $1,370, keeping every receipt. Now change one fact: the broken item is a dishwasher, not the heat. There is no essential-services right, no repair-and-deduct, and no withholding. Your move is the 14-day written notice and, if it is ignored, a claim for damages, never paying short and hoping.

Normal wear and tear vs. damage

Normal wear and tear versus damage. This distinction drives both repair fights and deposit fights. Normal wear and tear is the gradual decline that happens just from living somewhere: faded paint, lightly worn carpet, small nail holes, loose hinges, an appliance reaching the end of its life. None of that is your financial responsibility; it is the landlord's cost of owning rental property. Damage is different. It comes from neglect, accident, or misuse: a cracked toilet, a hole punched in drywall, a stain from an overflowed tub, a pet-chewed door. You pay for damage you or your guests cause. You do not pay to renovate the landlord's aging building.

Why it matters for repairs: landlords sometimes refuse a legitimate repair by calling it tenant-caused damage. A worn-out water heater that simply failed is normal wear and the landlord's job; a water heater you broke is yours. Documenting the condition with photos at move-in, photos of the failure, and dated notes protects you when that argument comes up.

Timelines. For ordinary repair and habitability problems, the clock is 14 days: you give written notice describing the problem, and if the landlord has not remedied it within 14 days, you gain the right to terminate the lease and pursue damages, an injunction, and attorney's fees (66-28-501). Essential-services failures move faster and on a different track, with no fixed day-count (66-28-502). You give written notice and may act during the period of the landlord's noncompliance, because no one should sit in a freezing or waterless unit for two weeks. Either way, written notice is the trigger. A text or a verbal complaint may help your relationship, but the statute is built around written notice, so put it in writing every time and keep a dated copy.

Red flags to check in your lease

• "Tenant accepts premises as-is" used to deny repairs

  An as-is clause cannot erase your landlord's duty to keep the unit fit and habitable. If they cite it to refuse a health-and-safety repair, the clause is overreaching and the statutory duty still applies.

• "Tenant responsible for ALL repairs"

  A residential landlord cannot lawfully shift the entire repair burden, including structural and habitability items, onto you. Read this as covering tenant-caused damage only; the rest stays with the landlord.

• Being told to just withhold rent, or doing it yourself

  Tennessee has no rent-withholding or escrow remedy. Stopping rent over a repair invites an eviction for nonpayment. Use written notice and the statutory remedies instead, not a rent strike.

• DIY repair-and-deduct for ordinary repairs

  Tennessee allows procure-and-deduct only for essential-services failures like heat, gas, or electricity (66-28-502). Deducting a general repair such as an appliance or fixture from rent has no statutory basis and can put you in breach.

• A rent hike or eviction notice right after you complained

  Raising rent, cutting services, or threatening eviction soon after you report a code or safety problem is prohibited retaliation (66-28-514). A protected complaint within the prior year creates a presumption the landlord must rebut.

What to do if your landlord won't fix it

Work the steps in order and keep everything in writing. In Tennessee your leverage comes from documented written notice and the statutory remedies that follow, not from withholding rent or improvising your own deductions. Start by sending dated written notice that describes the problem and asks for a fix; for an ordinary repair the landlord then has 14 days, and for an essential-services failure like heat or water you can act during the period of noncompliance. If notice doesn't work, escalate to Metro codes enforcement, then to legal aid or General Sessions Court. Move up a step only if the one below it doesn't get the repair done.

Nashville resources & where to get help

You don't have to do this alone. A few Nashville and Tennessee resources can pressure a stalling landlord or help you enforce your rights.

• Metro Nashville codes enforcement (hubNashville / 311). The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County takes complaints about housing and property-maintenance code violations through its hubNashville service (dial 311 within the county, or use the hubNashville web portal). An inspector citing a code violation creates exactly the kind of paper trail the habitability statute rewards.
• Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. The civil legal aid provider serving Nashville offers free help to income-eligible tenants on repair, habitability, and eviction issues. Search for them by name for current intake details.
• Tennessee Fair Housing Council. A statewide nonprofit that assists tenants and publishes a plain-language URLTA guide useful for understanding your rights.
• General Sessions Court, Davidson County. Smaller repair and deposit disputes are typically handled here; the court clerk can explain filing basics, though clerks cannot give legal advice.

Verify current phone numbers and intake hours directly on each organization's official website before you rely on them.

Frequently asked questions