Tom T. Hall, Paint Creek, and HB128: Johnson County Kentucky Landlord Law
Tom T. Hall grew up in Olive Hill and began his career playing in eastern Kentucky honky-tonks before Nashville made him famous. But Paintsville claimed him, and Johnson County claims the broader legacy of US-23 — the Country Music Highway — a stretch of northeastern Kentucky that produced Loretta Lynn from Van Lear, Patty Loveless from Pike County, Billy Ray Cyrus from Flatwoods, and a half-dozen other artists whose combined record sales run into the tens of millions. The highway itself is a secondary US route running northeast through the Big Sandy region from Ashland toward the Virginia border. The concentration of musical talent it produced is one of those American cultural accidents that nobody quite planned — a convergence of Scots-Irish ballad tradition, Baptist church singing, coal camp entertainment culture, and the particular loneliness of the hollows that shaped a generation of voices.
Johnson County was established in 1843, named for Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth Vice President whose political career was built largely on his claimed role in killing Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. Johnson’s campaign slogan — “Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumsey” — is one of the stranger entries in American political history, but it worked well enough to get him elected, and Kentucky honored him by attaching his name to this county in the Big Sandy watershed. The county seat of Paintsville takes its name from a more poetic origin: the paint markings — symbols and designs left on trees by Cherokee and Shawnee hunters — that early Anglo settlers found along Paint Creek when they arrived. Paintsville recorded about 3,500 residents in 2020 and functions as the county’s commercial hub, sitting at the confluence of Paint Creek and the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River.
The Big Sandy Rental Market After Coal
Johnson County’s story through the 20th century was coal’s story: underground mines following the Appalachian seams, company towns, union organizing, the economic rhythms of a resource extraction economy. The county’s 22,188 residents in 2020 represent a significant decline from the population that coal employment sustained at its peak. The contraction of the 2010s accelerated trends that had been developing for decades, and Johnson County today is working through the same post-coal transition that has defined eastern Kentucky broadly — navigating from an economy organized around a single extractive industry toward something more diversified and more durable.
For landlords, the practical effect of this transition is a rental market that is smaller and more economically mixed than it was a generation ago. Paintsville ARH Hospital is the county’s most significant anchor employer, serving the medical needs of a multi-county region and employing physicians, nurses, technicians, and administrators at income levels that make ARH workers among the most reliable rental applicants in the market. Johnson County Schools employs a substantial workforce of teachers and support staff. Big Sandy Community and Technical College, which has a campus in Paintsville, contributes faculty, staff, and student demand. County and state government provide additional stable public employment. Screen these applicants with standard documentation and apply your income ratio consistently.
A meaningful share of the rental pool receives transfer payments — Social Security disability, veterans’ benefits, and similar income sources that are stable but fixed. These can be entirely adequate for rental qualification purposes; apply your income ratio to the documented transfer payment amount the same way you would to wage income. Request award letters or benefit statements as verification, and request bank statements showing consistent monthly deposits if needed. Disability and veterans’ benefits are typically direct-deposited with the same regularity as a paycheck.
Creek Hollows, the Levisa Fork, and Flood Risk
Johnson County’s terrain is the rugged creek-and-ridge topography of the Big Sandy watershed. The Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy runs through the county from south to north, and Paint Creek, Mud Creek, Blaine Creek, and dozens of smaller tributaries drain the surrounding ridges into the main stem. Nearly all of the county’s buildable land — and most of its housing stock — is in the narrow creek bottoms and hollows where these waterways have created the limited flat ground that human habitation requires.
That geography creates real flood risk. The Big Sandy watershed has a history of significant flood events, and the Levisa Fork in particular has seen major flooding in wet years. A creek bottom property that sits comfortably in a dry summer can be inundated in a wet spring. Before renting any property along the Levisa Fork, Paint Creek, or other county waterways, verify flood zone status through FEMA’s flood map service, check the property’s flood history with the current owner or county records, and disclose known flood risk to prospective tenants in writing. HB128’s habitability duty covers structural integrity and weatherproofing — in a flood-adjacent location, that obligation extends to drainage management, foundation conditions, and the moisture and mold consequences of periodic high-water events.
HB128 in Paintsville
All residential evictions in Johnson County are Forcible Detainer actions filed in District Court at the Johnson County Justice Center, 230 Court Street, Paintsville, KY 41240, phone (606) 789-4725. Paintsville is a small city; parking is available near the justice center on Court Street. Call ahead to verify current civil hearing dates and filing requirements before making the trip. Bring your lease, notice with proof of service, and complete payment and communications records. The 14-day nonpayment notice must fully expire before filing; the 14-day cure period and 30-day minimum termination period apply for lease violations.
HB128 compliance in Johnson County: written 14-day notice to pay or vacate for nonpayment; 14-day notice to cure or quit for violations, termination no sooner than 30 days; one month’s written notice for month-to-month termination; security deposits at two times monthly rent maximum in a separate account, returned within 30 days with itemized deductions; $250 or 2x penalty for improper withholding; nonwaivable habitability across 13 categories; 24-hour advance notice for standard entry; self-help eviction prohibited at three times periodic rent. Lead paint disclosure required for virtually every rental in the county — the housing stock is overwhelmingly pre-1978. Get the signed acknowledgment in your file before the tenant moves in.
Tom T. Hall wrote story songs — detailed, observational accounts of ordinary lives in specific places. The best landlord practices have something of that quality: specific documentation of specific conditions in specific units, at specific dates, with specific signatures. The story of a tenancy is told in the paper trail. Make sure yours is worth reading.
This guide is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. HB128 applies to leases made on or after its effective date; prior Kentucky law governs older leases. Consult a licensed Kentucky attorney for guidance specific to your situation. Last updated: March 2026.
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