Livingston County, Kentucky Eviction Risk: Low

Livingston County is a small rural county in western Kentucky eviction laws with a total population of 3,366 and an average eviction risk score of 2.5/10 - placing it in the Low risk category. The county ranks 48th out of 120 Kentucky eviction laws counties, meaning 47 counties carry higher risk and 72 are more landlord-friendly. That middle-third position reflects a community where the tenant protection framework is limited by state law, but the combination of low rents, a modest renter share, and stable rural conditions keeps day-to-day eviction pressure relatively contained.

The county seat of Smithland and the larger community of Ledbetter (population 1,785) anchor the rental market. Ledbetter carries the highest local score at 2.8/10, driven by a slightly higher concentration of cost-burdened renters relative to other parts of the county. Grand Rivers, a small lakeside town of 436 residents, scores 2.2/10, while Salem (population 780), Smithland (population 203), and Burna (population 123) all score 2.1/10. Carrsville, the smallest incorporated community at 39 residents, comes in at the county low of 1.8/10. Average rent across the county runs $962 per month, well below Kentucky's larger metro benchmarks. Even so, renters here allocate an average of 35.2% of income to rent - a figure that signals real affordability strain given that 24.9% of residents live below the poverty line. Only 24.1% of households rent, so the renter pool is small and concentrated in the county's few incorporated places.

Kentucky landlords in Livingston County operate under KRS § 383.500 et seq. (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act), a landlord-favorable framework with no rent control, no just-cause eviction requirement, and a state preemption statute that bars any local municipality from enacting rent regulations. The state has not extended source-of-income protections. A non-payment case begins with a 7-day notice, a lease-violation cure notice runs 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. Uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 45 days; contested cases run 45 to 120 days. Court filing fees range from $150 to $250, sheriff lockout fees from $40 to $150, and attorney fees - when retained - from $500 to $2,500. KRS § 383.705 prohibits retaliatory eviction and KRS § 383.595 codifies the landlord's habitability obligations. Fair housing complaints are handled by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. For landlords, the legal cost structure here is among the lowest in the state; for renters facing eviction, there is no local legal aid backstop or right-to-counsel program in a county of this size.

Livingston County's 2.5/10 average score spans a narrow band from 1.8/10 (Carrsville) to 2.8/10 (Ledbetter) across its 6 tracked communities, reflecting a consistent low-risk profile with no outlier hotspot pulling the average upward.