Chicot County, Arkansas Eviction Risk: Low

Chicot County, Arkansas scores 2.2/10 (Low) for eviction risk, averaged across 6 incorporated places in this rural delta county. That number lands Chicot at rank 15 of 75 Arkansas eviction laws counties, meaning 14 counties carry higher risk and 60 are more landlord-friendly, placing Chicot firmly in the higher-risk third of the state despite its Low label. With a total county population of roughly 6,846 and an average rent of $627, the local rental market is thin, and the underlying economic stress, a poverty rate of 27.4% and a rent burden averaging 26.4% of income, means collections pressure is real even when formal eviction filings stay modest.

The intra-county spread runs from 1.7 to 2.6, a range wide enough to matter operationally. A landlord holding units in the county's lower-risk corridors faces a materially different environment from one holding in its highest-stress city. Renter share sits at 36.9% of households, a meaningful pool for this market size but one concentrated in a handful of small communities where vacancy risk and tenant-quality variance can swing returns sharply.

The cities inside Chicot County

Dermott is the highest-risk city in the county at 2.6/10 and also the most populous, with 2,330 residents. That combination, more tenants and more risk, warrants the tightest screening standards of any location in Chicot County. Eudora (2.2/10, pop. 1,868) and Portland (2.2/10, pop. 444) both land at the county average, representing a middle tier where conditions are manageable but not low-effort.

At the lower end, Lake Village comes in at 1.7/10 with a population of 2,144, the lowest risk score in the county and the second-largest city. Jerome (1.9/10) and Halley (1.8/10) round out the picture as very small communities with correspondingly thin rental markets. The spread between Dermott and Lake Village underscores that risk in Chicot County is hyper-local: two cities a short drive apart can represent meaningfully different operating conditions for a landlord.

State-level laws that apply here

Under the Arkansas eviction process governed by Ark. Code § 18-17 (Residential Landlord-Tenant Act), landlords must serve a 3-day notice for nonpayment of rent, a 14-day notice for a lease violation with opportunity to cure, and a 30-day notice to terminate a tenancy at the end of a lease term. Once a complaint is filed, an uncontested case typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; a contested case can run 90 to 150 days.

Arkansas eviction costs add up quickly in a contested situation. Court filing fees run $165 to $250, sheriff lockout fees range from $40 to $120, and attorney fees commonly fall between $500 and $2,500, making it worth preserving the landlord-tenant relationship where possible through proactive lease enforcement. Arkansas security deposit limits and Arkansas tenant protections are set at the state level, with no local rent control permitted, no just-cause eviction requirement, and source-of-income protection not recognized under state law, all of which keeps the regulatory framework relatively predictable for landlords operating anywhere in the state.

With a poverty rate of 27.4% and roughly 36.9% of households renting, Chicot County carries genuine economic headwinds that do not fully surface in a low aggregate score, so reviewing the individual city scores in the grid above before committing to any specific location is strongly advised.