It is important to realize that changes may occur in this area of law. This information is not intended to be legal advice regarding your particular problem, and it is not intended to replace the work of an attorney.
If your landlord wants to terminate your tenancy, he or she typically
must give you some kind of written notice. The landlord must wait until
the amount of time stated in the notice has passed before being able
to get a court to evict you. And if a court case is filed, you are
entitled to notice and a hearing if you want to remain a tenant and
if you believe you have legal defenses against an eviction. Your landlord
may not get around this process by locking you out, or by shutting
off your utilities or other essential services.
Legal requirements for eviction notices vary depending on the type
of tenancy you have. For example, an eviction notice for a month-to-month
tenancy has different legal requirements than does a notice for a tenant
with a lease for a specific time (often six months or one year).
If you have a month-to-month tenancy, you pay rent once a month and
your rental agreement continues until either you or your landlord ends
it. To end a month-to-month tenancy, you or your landlord must give
each other written notice. This notice can be given at any time, but
it must allow for at least 30 days before the actual date of termination.
The notice must clearly state the date that the tenancy will end. In
private rental housing, it is not necessary for either party to give
a reason for ending the tenancy, although a landlord may not give such
a notice for an illegal reason. A landlord may base a court eviction
proceeding on a 30-day notice given by a tenant. However, in some kinds
of housing, including some government subsidized housing programs,
a landlord cannot evict a tenant with a 30-day no-cause notice.
A landlord in a month-to-month tenancy may also give you a 30-day eviction
notice for cause. The cause for the notice must be either for not living
up to your rental agreement or not complying with your duties set forth
in the law. The notice must tell you the reason for eviction and must
say that the rental agreement will end at least 30 days after you get
the notice. If you can fix the problem by making repairs, paying damages,
or otherwise, your landlord’s notice must also say that you can
avoid eviction by fixing the problem within 14 days. The time period
to fix the problem in a manufactured dwelling facility is the full
30 days. If you do not fix the problem within the 14 days, or 30 days
if you are a homeowner renting space in a facility, your landlord may
file a court eviction case after the 30-day notice period has gone
by. If you do deal with the problem and your landlord is satisfied,
your rental agreement will not end. However, if the same problem happens
again within six months of the first notice, your landlord can end
the rental agreement with a 10-day written notice that clearly states
the problem and date of termination. In a facility, the second notice
must provide 20 days for the tenant to move out.
In most kinds of housing, a landlord of a month-to-month tenancy may
also attempt to evict you with a 72-hour notice for not paying your
rent. This may happen if you have not paid rent within 7 days of its
due date. If you receive this type of notice, it must state that your
landlord intends to end your rental agreement if you do not pay the
rent within 72 hours. If you do not pay the rent within the 72 hours,
your landlord may immediately file a court eviction proceeding. In
calculating the 7-day period, the day the rent is due counts. For example,
if your rent is due on the first of the month, your landlord may give
you a 72-hour notice on the eighth of the month. Your landlord may
not evict you in 72 hours for non-payment of rent when the only money
you owe is a late charge. In the alternative, your landlord can give
you notice after four days that would give you 144 hours to pay the
rent.
In a month-to-month rental agreement, your landlord can also issue
a 24-hour written notice to end your tenancy under very limited circumstances.
The law specifies the reasons. You may receive a 24-hour eviction notice
if you have intentionally injured someone other than a member of your
household, intentionally damaged the property, or committed an act
that is “outrageous in the extreme.” An outrageous-in-the-extreme
act is not specifically defined by law, but does include prostitution
or promotion of prostitution, violence, manufacture or delivery of
drugs, intimidation and burglary. A landlord may not use a 24-hour
notice or otherwise attempt to evict someone for being the victim of
a crime such as domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault, however.
The landlord may give a 24-hour notice to any person living in a house
where the tenant had a written rental agreement that prohibits sub-leasing.
This is enforceable if the landlord has not taken rent from the person
who is not covered by the rental agreement. A tenant who lied about
criminal convictions on a rental application may, under limited conditions,
get a 24-hour notice.
In housing operated by a housing authority or a nonprofit organization
as “drug and alcohol free housing,” a tenant for less
than two years who violates the drug or alcohol policy may be subject
to a 48-hour notice with one day to correct the problem.
You may have a lease for a specific time — often six months or
one year. This time period is called the term of a lease. The
valid parts of your lease will determine when it can be terminated
or renewed. During the term of your lease, neither you nor your landlord
can terminate the lease without cause, unless your lease states otherwise.
Your landlord may end the tenancy during the term for non-payment of
rent, serious violations of the lease, or for intentional dangerous
behavior as described before. Although your written lease agreement
cannot shorten the number of days required by law for notices of termination,
the lease may make notice periods longer. For example, a lease that
allows the landlord to give you a 24-hour notice of non-payment of
rent would not be permitted. However, you could hold your landlord
to a lease that requires a 96-hour notice of non-payment. If a fixed-term
lease contains nothing about its termination or renewal, the lease
simply ends without notice from either party on the date stated in
the lease. At the end of the lease, a residential tenant cannot be
evicted automatically. Instead, the lease simply turns into a regular
month-to-month tenancy. The new month-to-month agreement would be subject
to the notice requirements of the law covering such tenancies. The
lease could, however, contain a provision that allowed the tenancy
to end without any formal notice. In that situation, the tenant would
be expected to move at the end of the term without notice.
Just as the law establishes very specific requirements for eviction
notices, it also requires that notices be served in very specific ways.
Even if the notice is correct, it may have no effect if it is not served
the right way.
Notices may be served by either personal delivery or by first class
mail. A lease or other written rental agreement can outline additional
ways to serve notices. First class mail is specifically defined. It
does not include certified or registered mail or any other type of
mail that may delay actual delivery of mail to the tenant. If your
landlord chooses to serve a for-cause eviction notice by mail, you
would get three extra days to correct the cause in the notice. The
termination of the tenancy would also be extended by three days.
A 72-hour (or 144-hour) notice for not paying rent is considered to
be served on the day it is both mailed to the tenant and attached securely
to the main entrance of the tenant’s dwelling unit. The same
is true for a 24-hour notice of termination for outrageous or dangerous
behavior.
It is important to know that your landlord cannot evict you in retaliation
for your having asked to have repairs done, or for asserting other
legal rights under the rental agreement or the landlord-tenant laws.
For information about illegal retaliation and other defenses to an
eviction, read topic Eviction Defenses.
For information related to evictions from mobile home parks and floating homes, read
Rights of a Mobile Home Owner Threatened With Eviction From a Mobile Home Park
and Reasonable Rules in Mobile Home Parks and Floating Home Facilities.
Legal editor: Edward Johnson, February 2009