Arkansas Rent Control Preemption Statewide

Arkansas Code 14-54-1409 expressly prohibits any municipality from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing any ordinance or resolution that controls the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential or commercial property. Arkansas Code 14-16-601 imposes the same prohibition on counties. The statutes contain no local-option exceptions. As a result, no city or county in Arkansas can impose rent caps, rent stabilization programs, or limits on rent increases. Act 459 of 2025 extended this preemption to also bar local regulation of rental application fees and security deposit amounts. Landlords statewide may set and increase rent freely, subject only to anti-retaliation and anti-discrimination law.

Any local ordinance attempting to cap rent, stabilize rent, or regulate application fees or deposit amounts is void and unenforceable under state preemption.