Arkansas Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

For the civil unlawful detainer track, Ark. Code Ann. § 18-60-304(3) requires three days' written notice to quit plus a written demand for possession before you can file suit. The three days are calendar days, and the notice must be in writing — an oral demand does not satisfy the statute. Arkansas separately allows a criminal 'failure to vacate' charge under § 18-16-101 after ten days' written notice, but that is a different proceeding with a different clock. The statute does not prescribe a single delivery method, so serve the notice in a way you can prove later, such as personal delivery with a witness plus certified mail.

Under Ark. Code Ann. § 18-17-701(a) a landlord who wants to terminate for a lease violation delivers written notice specifying the acts or omissions and stating that the agreement terminates on a date not less than fourteen days after receipt if the noncompliance is not cured within fourteen days. Where the tenant is simply holding over after the term ended, § 18-60-304(1)-(2) requires only a written demand for possession rather than a cure period.

Ark. Code Ann. § 18-17-704(b) lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy with written notice given at least thirty days before the termination date stated in the notice; a week-to-week tenancy takes seven days. Arkansas has no just-cause or good-cause eviction statute and no statewide rent control, so a landlord may decline to renew for any lawful, non-retaliatory, non-discriminatory reason. Longer-term tenants do not get a longer notice period under Arkansas law.

Unlawful detainer is filed in the circuit court of the county where the property sits under Ark. Code Ann. § 18-60-306, with district courts holding concurrent jurisdiction only where the Arkansas Supreme Court has permitted it by rule or order. Paper filing runs about $165 and e-filing about $185, plus separate service-of-process costs.

Under Ark. Code Ann. § 18-60-307 the tenant is served with the complaint plus a 'Notice of Intention to Issue Writ of Possession' and has five days, excluding Sundays and legal holidays, to file a written objection to the claim for possession. If no objection is filed in that window the clerk issues the writ; if the tenant does object, the court sets a hearing and the tenant must post security at least equal to delinquent and accruing rent to stay in the unit.

Uncontested, expect roughly three to six weeks: three days' notice, filing and service, the five-day objection window, issuance of the writ, and then twenty-four hours after the sheriff serves the writ before forcible removal. A written objection, a defective or undocumented notice, a bond hearing, or slow service can push it to several months.

Only a sheriff acting on a court-issued writ of possession may remove a tenant in Arkansas, so changing locks, shutting off utilities, pulling doors or windows, or hauling out belongings is not a lawful substitute. Arkansas has no single statute setting fixed penalties for a lockout, but a tenant can sue for forcible entry and recover restoration of access, actual damages, costs, and in some cases attorney's fees. Because there is no statutory damages cap or floor, exposure is whatever a judge decides the tenant lost, and the eviction itself typically has to start over.

Act 238 of 2025 (HB1049), signed March 4, 2025, created a Class B misdemeanor for unlawful squatting by people who cannot produce a deed, lease, or rent receipt — a criminal-trespass path aimed at non-tenants that does not replace the unlawful detainer process for anyone who is actually your tenant. No 2024-2026 act changed the three-day nonpayment notice, the fourteen-day cure notice, or the five-day objection window.

Arkansas is the only state that still makes nonpayment of rent a criminal matter, but the criminal failure-to-vacate case under § 18-16-101 produces only a misdemeanor fine of $1 to $25 per day — it does not give you possession, and a Pulaski County judge struck the statute down as unconstitutional in State v. Smith (2015), so prosecutors in some counties will not touch it. The route that actually gets your unit back is civil unlawful detainer in circuit court, and it is unusually technical: the complaint must be accompanied by a sworn affidavit and the statutory Notice of Intention to Issue Writ of Possession, or the clerk will not issue the writ. If your rental is owned by an LLC or corporation, a non-lawyer owner generally cannot file or appear on the entity's behalf. Track your notice dates in writing, because a landlord who files before the three days run has to start over.

• Ark. Code Ann. § 18-60-304
• Ark. Code Ann. § 18-60-307
• Ark. Code Ann. § 18-16-101