Termination of Tenancy

Your landlord can’t simply tell you to move whenever he decides he doesn't want you to live in his property anymore. Instead, your landlord is required by law to give you notice before he or she can terminate your tenancy.

If you have a month-to-month tenancy— the most common type of tenancy— your landlord generally must give you notice a full rental period before requiring you to vacate the property. If, for example, you pay rent on the first of the month and are given notice on the tenth, you have until the end of the next month to move.

Please keep in mind that there are some situations in which your landlord can require you to leave with less notice than a full rental period, such as:

• 10-day notice for a serious breach of the rental agreement
•  7-day notice for failure to pay rent
• 24-hour notice for engaging in or knowingly permitting others to engage in illegal activity at the premises
• 5-day notice for failure to pay utility bills
• 24-hour notice for intentionally causing more than $400’s worth of damage to the property

You will frequently have an opportunity to correct the problem that caused your landlord to give you notice:

• If you receive notice of a breach of your rental agreement, you can prevent the termination of your tenancy if you fix the problem within 10 days of receiving notice. However, if you breach the agreement in the same way again within six months of the first breach, your landlord can evict you with only a five-day notice and you will not be allowed to correct the problem.
• If you receive notice for failure to pay rent, you can prevent the termination of your tenancy by paying the rent in full within 7 days of receiving notice. You may also offer to partially pay the rent, but the landlord does not have to accept your offer to do so. If your landlord does accept the partial repayment and you do not pay the rest, he or she must serve you another notice before attempting to evict you.
• If you receive notice for failure to pay utility bills, you can prevent the termination of your tenancy by restoring the utility services and repaying any amount your landlord paid to the utility company within three days of receiving notice. If the same problem occurs again within six months, your landlord can evict you with a three-day notice and you will not be allowed to restore the service.