Tennessee Ordinances (2026)

Tennessee's Apiary Act of 1995 requires every beekeeper who owns one or more colonies to register each apiary location with the state apiarist, then re-register every three years. New…

Tennessee's Right to Farm Act shields established agricultural operations, including livestock and poultry, from local nuisance ordinances and most municipal restrictions on existing…

Tennessee state law sets baseline dog-at-large and dangerous dog standards, but enforcement and leash specifics are largely delegated to counties and municipalities under T.C.A. Title…

Tennessee classifies wild animals into five classes under TWRA rules and prohibits private possession of Class I species like big cats and great apes statewide, regardless of city…

Tennessee animal cruelty statutes apply uniformly statewide and treat aggravated cruelty as a felony, allowing prosecution of hoarding cases regardless of city or county ordinances.

Tennessee regulates vapor product retailers under T.C.A. 39-17-1504 and related statutes, requiring age verification, restricting youth access, and prohibiting sales to those under 21.

Because Tennessee prohibits marijuana sale and distribution, no recreational or full medical dispensaries may legally operate, and municipalities cannot authorize dispensary land uses…

Tennessee prohibits all marijuana cultivation, possession, and personal use under Tenn. Code Title 39 Chapter 17, leaving no authority for municipalities to legalize home growing.

Tennessee sets a statewide juvenile curfew under T.C.A. § 39-17-1702. Minors 16 and under must be off public streets after 10 pm on weeknights and 11 pm on weekends; 17-year-olds after…

Tennessee prohibits local governments from setting minimum wages above the federal floor under T.C.A. 50-2-112, reserving wage authority exclusively to the state.

Tennessee bars local governments from mandating paid sick or family leave on private employers under T.C.A. 50-2-112, leaving leave decisions to employer discretion.

Tennessee preempts local predictive scheduling and fair workweek ordinances under T.C.A. 50-2-112, preventing cities from regulating private employer scheduling practices.

Tennessee's Water Quality Control Act and TDEC rules require erosion and sediment controls on regulated construction sites, with state inspectors empowered to enforce requirements…

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation administers NPDES stormwater permits statewide, requiring construction sites disturbing one or more acres to obtain coverage…

Tennessee's partition fence statute requires adjoining landowners using land for crops or livestock to share fence costs equally. The law applies statewide and cannot be overridden by…

Tennessee allows consumer fireworks (DOT 1.4G) statewide, sold only by State Fire Marshal-permitted retailers to buyers 16 or older. Under T.C.A. § 68-104-116, cities and counties may…

Tennessee Division of Forestry requires burn permits during wildfire season for any outdoor burning of leaves, brush, or debris, with criminal liability for escaped fires.

Tennessee makes the 2008 NFPA 58 Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code its statewide minimum standard for propane storage and handling, enforced by the State Fire Marshal's Division of Fire…

Tennessee Division of Forestry has statewide authority over wildfire prevention, declares hazard seasons, and may issue burn bans during drought conditions affecting all residents.

Tennessee allows permitless concealed and open carry for adults 21 and older (or qualified 18-20 year olds) under T.C.A. 39-17-1307 and 1351, with optional enhanced and concealed…

Tennessee law preempts virtually all local regulation of firearms, ammunition, and components, reserving authority exclusively to the state legislature under T.C.A. 39-17-1314.

Open carry of handguns is lawful in Tennessee under permitless carry, but rifles and shotguns are subject to general unlawful-carry rules in T.C.A. 39-17-1307.

Tennessee allows eligible adults to carry handguns openly or concealed in private motor vehicles without a permit under T.C.A. 39-17-1351 and 39-17-1307, preempting stricter local…

Tennessee Department of Health regulates mobile food units statewide through Rule 1200-23-01, requiring food service permits, commissary agreements, and inspections that cities cannot…

Tennessee bans gambling outright, but Title 3, Chapter 17 lets a qualifying 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(19) nonprofit run one raffle, reverse raffle, cakewalk, cake wheel, or bingo event per…

Tennessee's gambling statute contains no exemption for private, social, or friends-only wagering. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-501(1) defines gambling as risking anything of value on a…

Tennessee has no general homeowners' association assessment statute, so a subdivision HOA's dues, budget, and late fees come from its recorded declaration rather than from state law…

A Tennessee condominium association must hold at least one meeting of the members every year, and notice of any meeting must go out not less than 10 and not more than 60 days in…

Since July 1, 2026 a Tennessee homeowners' association may not prohibit a property owner from installing an electric vehicle charging station for personal use on the owner's own…

Tennessee law voids any homeowners' association covenant or rule that prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, a property owner from flying the flag of the United States or an…

Tennessee sets no dollar cap on association fines. The only fining statute in the state is T.C.A. § 66-27-402(a)(11) in the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, which lets a unit owners'…

A Tennessee condominium association has an automatic lien on a unit from the moment an assessment or a fine falls due, and T.C.A. § 66-27-415(a)(1) lets it foreclose that lien by…

Tennessee does not cap rentals, set a minimum lease term or fix a vote threshold for adopting a leasing amendment. What it does instead is grandfather you: under T.C.A. § 66-27-703 an…

Tennessee runs one of the loosest cottage food regimes in the country. The Tennessee Food Freedom Act, T.C.A. § 53-1-118, exempts homemade food items from state licensing, permitting…

Tennessee licenses family child care homes (up to seven children) and group homes (eight to twelve) through the Department of Human Services under T.C.A. § 71-3-501 et seq. A DHS…

Tennessee does not issue a microenterprise home kitchen permit because it does not require one. Under the Tennessee Food Freedom Act, T.C.A. § 53-1-118, producing and selling homemade…

The Tennessee General Assembly has never passed a checkpoint statute. The phrases sobriety checkpoint and checkpoint return zero results in a full-text search of the Tennessee Code…

Tennessee has never enacted a statute granting a right to record police, and a full-text search of the Tennessee Code turns up no such provision. What it has instead, since July 1…

Tennessee got its first identification statute on July 1, 2025, and it deliberately stops short of a duty to identify. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-16-611 lets an officer ask for your name…

Tennessee has not legislated on consent to search a vehicle. There is no statutory logging duty, no odor rule, and no clause saying lawful possession of anything cannot justify a…

Tennessee imposes no statewide duty to cut weeds already growing on your land. Instead, Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0080-06-24-.02 bans propagating, selling, offering for sale, or releasing…

Tennessee rebuilt this area in 2025. Public Chapter 255 repealed Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-191, the old low speed and medium speed vehicle section, effective April 24, 2025, and folded…

Tennessee Code Title 55 Chapter 16 governs abandoned vehicles statewide, defining when vehicles may be towed, requiring notice to owners, and setting redemption rights that apply…

Tennessee rewrote its towing law twice in two years. The Modernization of Towing, Immobilization, and Oversight Normalization Act of 2025, at T.C.A. §§ 55-31-101 to 55-31-307, deleted…

Tennessee state law in T.C.A. Title 13 authorizes municipalities to declare and abate blighted property, but sets statewide due process and notice procedures cities must follow.

In URLTA counties, Tenn. Code 66-28-505 gives a tenant 14 days to cure nonpayment of rent or another remediable breach before the lease terminates. Dangerous or violent conduct allows…

In URLTA counties, Tenn. Code 66-28-304 requires landlords to comply with building and housing codes, make repairs to keep the unit fit and habitable, keep common areas clean and safe…

In URLTA counties, a Tennessee landlord must give at least 24 hours' notice before entering to show the unit to prospective tenants in the last 30 days of tenancy, may enter without…

In URLTA counties, Tenn. Code 66-28-201(d) caps any late fee at 10% of the rent past due and requires a five-day grace period before a fee may be charged. If the grace period ends on a…

In URLTA counties, Tenn. Code 66-28-512 lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy with at least 30 days' written notice before the periodic rental date, and a week-to-week tenancy…

Tennessee has no statewide rent control and no cap on rent increases. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-35-102, no local government may enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance controlling…

Tennessee's Short-Term Rental Unit Act limits how local governments can regulate vacation rentals and grandfathers properties operating before local bans took effect.

Tennessee sets no statutory cap on security deposits. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-301, landlords in counties over 75,000 must hold deposits in a separate account, let the tenant…

Tennessee adverse possession requires 7 years of possession when the claimant holds recorded color of title (Tenn. Code 28-2-101 to -102), or 20 years of open, continuous, hostile…

Tennessee limits local zoning interference with bona fide farm operations under T.C.A. 13-7-114 and Right to Farm protections in T.C.A. 43-26-103, preserving rural land use rights.

Tennessee imposes statewide sales tax on short-term rental stays and authorizes local hotel-motel occupancy taxes, with marketplace facilitators required to collect on behalf of hosts.

Tennessee cities cannot ban political signs on private residential property; content-neutral size, setback, and duration rules are allowed under First Amendment limits (Reed v. Town of…

Tennessee preempts local plastic bag bans and fees under T.C.A. § 7-51-2002 (enacted 2019), which makes the state the exclusive regulator of auxiliary containers such as bags.

Tennessee has no solar-access law overriding HOA covenants, so a homeowners association may restrict or prohibit rooftop solar panels. The Solar Access Law of 1979 (T.C.A. § 66-9-201…

Tennessee enforces solicitation refusal at private residences through trespass law, allowing posted no-soliciting signs to create criminal liability for non-compliant door-to-door…

Tennessee's Home Solicitation Sales Act regulates door-to-door sellers statewide with disclosure, contract, and three-day cancellation rules that apply alongside any local permit…

Tennessee Department of Health regulates public swimming pools statewide under the Public Swimming Pool Inspection Act (T.C.A. § 68-14-301 et seq.) and Rule 1200-23-05, requiring…

Tennessee does not impose a statewide flavor ban on tobacco or vape products, and local flavor bans are generally preempted by uniform state licensing under Title 39, Chapter 17, Part…

Tennessee sets a statewide goal to cut per-capita municipal solid waste sent to landfills and incinerators by 25 percent, enforced against each of the state's municipal solid waste…

Tennessee allows auxiliary road lighting lamps, but T.C.A. § 55-9-402(a)(2) lets only two of them burn at any one time on top of the two required headlights. Anything that shows to the…

Tennessee is one of the few states whose statute names the windshield as a lawful place to put a device. Section 55-8-199(b)(2)(A) permits a device "mounted on the vehicle's…

Tennessee prohibits lane splitting outright. Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-182(c) says no person shall operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of…

Tennessee draws a hard line on plate covers. Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-4-110(b) says no tinted materials may be placed over a license plate "even if the information upon the license plate…

A radar detector is legal to own, carry and use in a private passenger vehicle in Tennessee. A full text search of the Tennessee Code returns no provision using the phrase "radar…

Tennessee allows studded tires, but only during a fixed statewide season that runs from October 1 through April 15 each year. Outside that window Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-9-106(a) bans any…

Tennessee sets a single figure for every window on a car: aftermarket film may not drop visible light transmittance below 35 percent, and nothing except the manufacturer's standard…