Quiet hours in Rutherford County, TN — also called the noise ordinance, nighttime noise rules, or residential quiet time — define the hours during which excessive noise is prohibited.
In Murfreesboro and Rutherford County's cities, amplified sound must not be plainly audible across a neighbor's property line between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM, and residential zones drop to a 48 dBA nighttime limit. Unincorporated county land has no dedicated decibel curfew.
Rutherford County itself sets no dB noise curfew for unincorporated land; noise there is handled as a nuisance under T.C.A. 5-1-118 (adoptable by a two-thirds county-commission vote) plus general disorderly-conduct law, and the incorporated cities carry the real rules. In Murfreesboro, City Code sec. 21-108(A) makes it unlawful to play any instrument, TV, or amplification device 10:00 PM-7:00 AM so as to be plainly audible across the nearest occupied dwelling's property line. Section 21-106(B) Table 2 also caps residential exterior sound at 55 dBA daytime (7 AM-10 PM) and 48 dBA at night (10 PM-7 AM). Smyrna and La Vergne have parallel ordinances.
Each violation is a separate offense; any noise continuing or recurring within a half hour counts as a new offense. Punishable under Murfreesboro City Code sec. 1-8; a first non-commercial-speech offense gets a written warning.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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