What landlords cannot do in Indiana

Indiana has no rent control or security deposit cap, and its entry statute sets no numeric notice requirement. But Indiana Code Title 32, Article 31 draws hard lines around lockouts, utility shutoffs, habitability, deposits, and retaliation. Some violations, including deposit and habitability violations, can expose a landlord to the tenant's attorney's fees in addition to damages. Knowing what a landlord cannot do in Indiana protects both sides of the lease, whether you own one duplex in Fort Wayne or forty doors across three counties.

What a landlord cannot do in Indiana

Title 32, Article 31 of the Indiana Code (IC 32-31) governs residential landlord-tenant relationships statewide. Within that framework, you cannot lock your tenant out or cut utilities without a court order, deliver or maintain an uninhabitable unit, keep a security deposit past 45 days without an itemized accounting, retaliate against a tenant who complains, or enforce lease clauses that waive the tenant's statutory rights. Federal law adds fair housing rules and protections for active-duty service members on top of the state code.

If you operate short-term rentals, Indiana's rental laws add a separate layer of local registration and tax rules beyond the landlord-tenant statutes covered here.

Illegal lockouts, utility shutoffs, and self-help evictions

IC 32-31-5-6(c) prohibits self-help eviction in plain terms: "Except as authorized by judicial order, a landlord may not deny or interfere with a tenant's access to or possession of the tenant's dwelling unit." The statute bans changing the locks or adding a device to exclude the tenant. It also bans removing doors, windows, fixtures, or appliances and interrupting, reducing, or shutting off electricity, gas, water, or other essential services.

Two exceptions exist. A landlord may interrupt utility service during an emergency. Good faith repairs or necessary construction can also justify an interruption, and the section does not apply if the tenant has abandoned the unit. Abandonment has a statutory definition: the tenant has failed to pay or offer rent due, and circumstances would lead a reasonable person to conclude the tenant surrendered possession. A lease cannot define abandonment more loosely than the statute does.

Under IC 32-31-6-3, a locked-out tenant can petition for an emergency possessory order, and the court shall order the landlord to return possession and refrain from further violations. The Indiana Small Claims Manual notes that illegal lockouts or utility shutoffs "could result in a judgment for punitive damages against the landlord." The Indiana Court of Appeals put it directly in Robinson v. Valladares: "Resort to self-help instead of legal remedy to satisfy a claim is not favored."

Indiana habitability standards landlords must maintain

IC 32-31-8-5 codifies Indiana's implied warranty of habitability, placing on landlords the responsibility for delivering the rental in "a safe, clean, and habitable condition" and complying with all applicable health and housing codes. Indiana courts recognized an implied warranty of habitability in the landlord-tenant relationship before the legislature enacted IC 32-31-8-5, as illustrated by decisions such as Breezewood Management Co. v. Maltbie. By enacting IC 32-31-8-5, the legislature gave those common-law obligations a firm statutory foundation, making the implied warranty of habitability enforceable as a matter of both case law and statute. The statute also requires reasonable efforts to keep common areas clean and proper.

Beyond delivery, the landlord must maintain in good and safe working condition anything the landlord provided on the premises when the parties signed the lease:

• Electrical systems.
• Plumbing systems "sufficient to accommodate a reasonable supply of hot and cold running water at all times."
• Sanitary systems.
• Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems; a heating system "must be sufficient to adequately supply heat at all times."
• Elevators, if provided.
• Appliances the landlord supplied as an inducement to the rental agreement.

The parties cannot waive these duties. IC 32-31-8-4 declares any waiver of the chapter "by contract or otherwise" void, and the Indiana Supreme Court enforced that rule in Rainbow Realty Group, Inc. v. Carter (2019), holding that a "rent-to-buy" seller who delivered an uninhabitable house violated the statutes and that its attempted contractual waiver was void.

Smoke detectors carry their own rules. IC 32-31-5-7 requires the tenant to acknowledge in writing at move-in that the unit is "equipped with a functional smoke detector," and the parties cannot waive IC 22-11-18-3.5's smoke detector requirements in a lease. Under that statute, a dwelling needs at least one functional detector outside each sleeping area and on each story including basements, and the owner must replace or repair a broken detector within seven working days of written notice.

Indiana recognizes an implied warranty of habitability, and the notice-and-cure process under IC 32-31-8-6 is how a tenant enforces it. Before suing over conditions, a tenant must give the landlord notice of the problem and a reasonable time to fix it; only if the landlord then fails or refuses to repair may the tenant bring an action. A prevailing tenant can recover actual and consequential damages plus attorney's fees and court costs. The court can also grant injunctive relief.

Indiana landlord entry rules and notice requirements

Indiana's entry statute uses a qualitative standard, not a number of hours. IC 32-31-5-6(g) says a landlord "shall not abuse the right of entry or use a right of entry to harass a tenant," shall give "reasonable written or oral notice" of intent to enter, and may enter "only at reasonable times." Several commercial websites claim courts read this as 24 to 48 hours' written notice, but no Indiana appellate or Supreme Court opinion fixes an hour count, and no numeric period appears anywhere in the statute. Some leases specify 24 hours as a contract term, which the state's Renting in Indiana handbook treats as a lease provision, not a statutory floor.

Your tenant, for their part, may not unreasonably withhold consent when you need to inspect, repair, decorate, supply services, or show the unit to buyers, lenders, prospective tenants, or contractors. Two situations excuse notice entirely: an emergency that threatens the safety of occupants or the property, and entry under a court order or after the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the unit. Beyond the notice rules, Indiana law protects a tenant's quiet enjoyment of the unit: the right to possess and use the dwelling without interference from the landlord. Both the anti-lockout provision and the harassment prohibition serve that protection. Repeated entries used to pressure a tenant fall on the wrong side of the harassment prohibition even if each visit came with notice, because the pattern itself becomes an interference with quiet enjoyment regardless of technical compliance.

Indiana security deposit rules and the 45-day deadline

IC 32-31-3-12(a) gives landlords "not more than forty-five (45) days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession" to return the deposit, minus permitted deductions, with an itemized written notice. The landlord's receipt of the tenant's written mailing address starts the clock. In Xihui Wang v. Mingyu Sun (2023), the Court of Appeals held that the landlord's decision to relet the property can start the 45-day period rather than the lease's formal expiration.

Under IC 32-31-3-14, the landlord must send the tenant an itemized list of deductions within 45 days after the rental agreement ends and the tenant returns possession. That list must identify each item of damage and the estimated cost of repair for each. Under IC 32-31-3-13, a landlord may deduct only actual damages beyond ordinary wear and tear, accrued rent and rent from premature termination, last-period rent if the lease so stipulates, and unpaid utility or sewer charges the tenant owed. Ordinary wear and tear is off limits even when the lease says otherwise: in Dorfman Property Management v. Edwards (2018), the court rejected a carpet-cleaning deduction taken "regardless of the move-out condition of the carpet" because routine cleaning and repainting are not actual damage.

A landlord who fails to send an itemized list of deductions within 45 days forfeits the right to retain the deposit. That failure "constitutes agreement by the landlord that no damages are due" under IC 32-31-3-15, and the landlord must remit the full deposit immediately plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs under IC 32-31-3-12(b) and -16. Indiana courts enforce this strictly. Duchon v. Ross (1992) called the itemization requirement "explicit and mandatory," and Pinnacle Properties v. Saulka (1998) held the statute does not allow "substantial or partial compliance."

Indiana sets no cap on deposit amounts; IC 32-31-3 contains no maximum dollar figure or percentage of rent. The statute is also silent on nonrefundable fees, though courts look at substance over labels. In Pinnacle Properties Development Group, LLC v. Gales (2016), a $250 nonrefundable administration fee survived because it paid for pre-lease work like application review, but the court announced no categorical rule.

The legal eviction process in Indiana

For nonpayment of rent, IC 32-31-1-6 requires the landlord to serve a 10-day notice to pay or vacate, giving the tenant "not less than ten (10) days notice." The tenant defeats the notice by paying in full before the period expires. The parties may agree otherwise, so a lease provision can alter the default. As Indiana Legal Services puts it: "What your lease says controls."

Notice requirements shift with the type of tenancy:

• Tenancy type | Required notice | Authority
• Nonpayment of rent (default) | Not less than 10 days | IC 32-31-1-6
• Tenancy at will | One month, written | IC 32-31-1-1
• Year-to-year tenancy | At least 3 months before the year ends | IC 32-31-1-3
• Month-to-month tenancy | At least 30 days | Indiana Courts Small Claims Manual

IC 32-31-1-8 lets landlords proceed without advance notice in specified situations, including when a lease for a specified term has expired and when a tenant remains at sufferance. Even then, the notice exception does not license a lockout. The Small Claims Manual is explicit that "actual eviction with the sheriff's participation will require a prior court order." Every removal of a tenant in Indiana runs through the eviction process in court, from filing through a possession order the sheriff enforces.

Landlord retaliation is illegal in Indiana

The Indiana General Assembly enacted Indiana's retaliation statute, IC 32-31-8.5, through P.L.168-2020. It protects five tenant activities:

• Complaining to a government code-enforcement agency about a violation that materially affects health or safety.
• Complaining to the landlord in writing about a violation of IC 32-31-5-6 or IC 32-31-8-5.
• Bringing an action under IC 32-31-6 or IC 32-31-8.
• Organizing or joining a tenant's organization.
• Testifying against the landlord in court or an administrative hearing.

The second category has specific limits. It covers only written complaints and only complaints about those two statutes.

You commit a retaliatory act if you raise rent in response to protected activity. Cutting or interfering with services also qualifies. So does bringing or threatening an eviction or possession action. Tenants can raise retaliation as a defense in eviction proceedings.

Landlords may still make specified ordinary business decisions. They may decline to renew at the end of a term or raise rent to match "comparable market rentals." They may also reduce services equally for all tenants or evict a tenant who defaulted on rent and failed to cure. Possession actions begun in good faith before the protected activity occurred also fall outside the prohibition. Indiana has no timing-based presumption of retaliation, so a tenant must prove the connection between the complaint and the landlord's response. IC 32-31-8.5-6 also voids any local ordinance on landlord retaliation, keeping the rules uniform statewide.

Fair housing protections in Indiana

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in rentals based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability, and HUD's February 2021 memorandum reads "sex" to include gender identity and sexual orientation. A landlord may not refuse to rent or set different terms based on any protected class. The landlord also may not provide different services or run discriminatory ads, and must make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities. Familial status trips up landlords more often than they expect: refusing families with children, or steering them to certain units, violates federal law. HUD enforces these rules.

Indiana's Fair Housing Act (IC 22-9.5) covers the federal classes and adds ancestry, for eight protected classes statewide. IC 22-9.5-5-5(c) separately prohibits refusing reasonable modifications at the tenant's expense or reasonable accommodations in rules and policies for people with disabilities. Complaints go to the Indiana Civil Rights Commission within one year of the alleged act.

Several Indiana cities protect additional classes:

• Jurisdiction | Additional protections
• Indianapolis-Marion County | Sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, age, and veteran status
• Bloomington and Terre Haute | Housing status and veteran status
• South Bend | Sexual orientation and gender identity
• Columbus | Sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and age over 40

A screening policy that clears state law can still violate the ordinance where the property sits. One statewide limit runs the other way: IC 36-1-3-8.5 bars local ordinances that would require landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers.

Lease clauses Indiana landlords cannot enforce

A signed lease does not make an illegal clause enforceable. Indiana statutes and case law void several categories outright:

• Habitability waivers: IC 32-31-8-4 voids any waiver of the landlord's maintenance and habitability duties, "by contract or otherwise."
• Security deposit waivers: IC 32-31-3-17 voids waivers of the deposit chapter, so no clause can erase the return deadline, itemization duty, or attorney's-fee exposure. Raider v. Pea (1993) enforced this at lease inception.
• Smoke detector waivers: IC 32-31-5-7(b) bars waiving the smoke detector requirements "in a rental agreement or a separate writing."
• Self-help authorization: a clause purporting to let the landlord change locks or cut utilities without a court order conflicts with IC 32-31-5-6.
• Exculpatory clauses: Ransburg v. Richards (2002) voided a clause immunizing a landlord's negligence in common areas as "contrary to public policy," and Hi-Tec Properties, LLC v. Murphy (2014) reached the same result for a mold exculpatory clause.
• Confession-of-judgment clauses: knowingly procuring a cognovit clause is a Class B misdemeanor under IC 34-54-4-1.

Courts also look past labels to substance. Rainbow Realty treated a "rent-to-buy" contract as a rental agreement because "the transaction's purported form and assigned label do not control its legal status."

Rent increases in Indiana

Indiana has no statewide rent control, and IC 32-31-1-20 blocks cities and counties from creating any. A unit of local government "may not regulate rental rates for privately owned real property, through a zoning ordinance or otherwise." The General Assembly passed the statute's 2020 amendment over Governor Holcomb's veto. The amendment also preempted local rules on screening and deposits, as well as lease terms, disclosures, and fees charged by a landlord. A 2025 bill to cap increases at the lesser of 5% plus CPI or 10% (HB 1162) died without passage.

A landlord may violate the retaliation statute by raising rent in response to a tenant's protected complaint, subject to the market-rate exception.

SCRA protections for active-duty service members

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act gives military tenants rights that override lease terms. Under 50 U.S.C. § 3955, a servicemember may terminate a residential lease after either of these events:

• Entering military service.
• Receiving PCS orders or deployment orders for 90 days or more.

The servicemember must deliver written notice and a copy of the orders by hand, private carrier, certified mail with return receipt, or electronic means calculated to ensure receipt. For a monthly-rent lease, termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent payment comes due following delivery. The landlord may not impose an early termination charge and must refund prepaid post-termination rent within 30 days.

Eviction protection runs separately under 50 U.S.C. § 3951. Except by court order, a landlord may not evict a servicemember or dependents during military service from a residence renting for $10,542.60 per month or less (the 2026 threshold). Courts shall stay eviction proceedings for 90 days on request when military service materially affects the servicemember's ability to pay. A landlord who knowingly violates these protections faces criminal exposure of up to a year, and the Attorney General can seek civil penalties up to $55,000 for a first violation and $110,000 after that.

Indiana extends these protections further. IC 10-16-7-23 grants federal SCRA rights to Indiana National Guard members when Indiana orders them to state active duty for at least 30 consecutive days. It also covers Guard members from other states when their state orders them to the same period of active duty, and IC 10-16-20 makes a federal SCRA violation a violation of state law as well. Indiana Legal Services runs a Military Assistance Project handling eviction defense and eviction sealing for servicemembers.

What tenants can do when a landlord breaks the law

Tenants can file most Indiana landlord-tenant claims in small claims court, which handles claims up to $10,000 under IC 33-29-2-4 and does not require an attorney. Outside Marion County township courts, total small claims court fees run $97, plus $28 for sheriff service. Available remedies depend on the violation:

• Emergency possessory relief: for lockouts and utility shutoffs, IC 32-31-6 lets a tenant obtain an order restoring possession and barring further violations, with punitive damages possible. Emergency proceedings do not cover nonpayment of rent.
• Deposit recovery: a tenant can sue for the full deposit plus attorney's fees when the landlord blows the return deadline or skips the itemization.
• Habitability claims: under IC 32-31-8-6, a tenant must submit a formal repair request notifying the landlord of the noncompliance. If the landlord fails or refuses to act on that repair request within a reasonable time, the landlord may become liable and the tenant can recover actual and consequential damages plus attorney's fees and court costs. The court can also grant injunctive relief. Indiana offers no rent-withholding or escrow mechanism; it is one of only five states without one as of 2026, so tenants must keep paying rent while they pursue these claims.
• Discrimination complaints: file with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission within one year, or with HUD under federal law.

Income-qualified tenants can contact Indiana Legal Services for eviction defense, illegal lockout, and substandard-conditions cases at 1 (844) 243-8570 (Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST). Households generally must fall within 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, with a 200% exception depending on expenses. Indiana Legal Help runs a Housing Legal Help Desk weekdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET, and Indiana's courts offer pre-eviction diversion that can pause a filed case for 90 days when both parties agree.

Where Steadily fits for Indiana landlords

An unsafe stairway or another hazardous premises condition can lead to a liability claim, while covered physical damage can interrupt rental income. Steadily writes landlord insurance for rental operations. Policies offer liability limits from $100K to $1M+. Loss-of-rental-income coverage can pay up to 12 months of fair rental value. The policy caps that amount through a sub-limit tied to dwelling coverage. Coverage details for the state, including what Indiana policies typically include, are on Steadily's Indiana landlord insurance page.

Steadily provides insurance. This article does not provide legal advice, and an Indiana attorney should answer questions about a specific dispute. For the insurance side, get a quote in minutes at quote.steadily.com. No phone call is required.

FAQ

These answers summarize Indiana's rules on entry, deposits, eviction, rent changes, retaliation, and habitability. Review the applicable statutes or consult an Indiana attorney for guidance on a specific dispute.

Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities in Indiana?

You cannot change the locks or remove doors or fixtures without a court order under IC 32-31-5-6. You also cannot shut off electricity, gas, or water without one. Emergencies and good faith repairs create narrow exceptions for utility interruptions. Abandonment creates a separate exception to the section.

How much notice must a landlord give before entering a rental?

Indiana requires "reasonable written or oral notice" and entry at "reasonable times," with no fixed hour count in the statute. Emergencies threatening occupants or the property excuse notice, and a lease can set a specific window like 24 hours as a contract term.

How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Indiana?

Forty-five days from lease termination and delivery of possession, with an itemized damage list showing estimated repair costs. The tenant's written mailing address starts the period, and a missed deadline forfeits the entire deposit plus attorney's fees.

Can a landlord deduct for normal wear and tear?

A landlord may deduct only actual damages beyond ordinary wear and tear. The landlord may also deduct unpaid rent and unpaid utility or sewer charges, and Indiana courts have refused to honor lease clauses charging for routine cleaning regardless of move-out condition.

What notice does an Indiana landlord have to give before evicting for nonpayment?

An Indiana landlord must serve the tenant a 10-day notice to pay or vacate before filing for eviction. During those 10 days, the tenant can cure the default by paying all rent owed in full; if the lease sets a longer period, that period controls instead. Even after the notice expires without payment, the landlord cannot remove the tenant on their own; a court judgment and sheriff involvement are still required.

Can a landlord raise rent in the middle of a lease?

The lease terms govern whether a landlord may change rent during a fixed term. Indiana has no rent control, but a landlord who raises rent to punish a tenant's protected complaint commits retaliation.

What counts as landlord retaliation in Indiana?

Retaliation includes raising rent or cutting services in response to a tenant's code complaint, written habitability complaint, lawsuit, tenant organizing, or testimony. It also includes filing or threatening eviction in response to those protected activities. The statute excludes nonrenewal at the end of the term and eviction after a tenant defaults on rent and fails to cure.

What can a tenant do if the rental isn't habitable?

The tenant should submit a repair request to the landlord and allow a reasonable time for the landlord to make the fix. If the landlord refuses or fails to act, the tenant can sue under IC 32-31-8-6 for damages and attorney's fees; the court can also grant injunctive relief. Indiana does not allow rent withholding, so the tenant must keep paying while the claim proceeds.