Lease Termination Letter

Last Updated: April 30, 2024 by Roberto Valenzuela

A lease termination letter provides notice (from either the landlord or the tenant) to end a rental agreement, most often a month-to-month lease. State laws specify different notice requirements for different rental situations, such as month-to-month, fixed-term, or no lease.

State-Specific Lease Termination Notice Templates

Lease Termination Letter Explained

A lease termination letter complies with state legal requirements to provide notice that a rental agreement will end on a particular date. This is most common in a month-to-month rental situation, since most month-to-month agreements are open-ended and don’t specify a final date of termination. Most states also apply the same requirements to a situation with no written agreement where the tenant pays rent monthly (often called a “tenancy at will”).

Lease termination letters can also be used at the end of a fixed-term lease by either the landlord or tenant. This is often done even when not a legal requirement, to prevent any ambiguity about lease status or move-out date. A few states also do require notice of termination even with a fixed-term lease.

note

A lease termination letter is the standard way to end the appropriate type of lease, and is NOT the same as a notice of early termination (used when either the landlord or the tenant have legal grounds to break a lease before its end date), or a notice to quit (an initial eviction letter given by the landlord to the tenant for a lease violation).

Steps To Terminate A Lease

This is a basic outline for terminating a month-to-month rental agreement or providing notice of termination in states where it’s also legally required for fixed-term leases:

Step 1: Check State Notice Requirements

These are the month-to-month rental agreement and fixed-term lease termination notice requirements by state:

Month-to-Month Fixed-Term  Leases with No End Date
Alabama 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Alaska 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Arizona 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Arkansas 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
California 30 days No state requirement 60 days
Colorado 21 days No state requirement No state requirement
Connecticut 3 days 3 days 3 days
Delaware 60 days 60 days No state requirement
Florida 30 days 60 days No state requirement
Georgia 30 days No state requirement 30 or 60 days
Hawaii 28 or 45 days No state requirement No state requirement
Idaho 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Illinois 30 days 60 days 60 days
Indiana 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Iowa 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Kansas 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Kentucky 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Louisiana 10 days No state requirement (if lease isn’t extended) No state requirement
Maine 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Maryland 30 days 3 months No state requirement
Massachusetts 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Michigan 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Minnesota 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Mississippi 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Missouri 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Montana 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Nebraska 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Nevada 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
New Hampshire 30 days 30 days 30 days
New Jersey 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
New Mexico 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
New York 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
North Carolina 7 days No state requirement No state requirement
North Dakota 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Ohio 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Oklahoma 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Oregon 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Pennsylvania 15 days 30 days 15 days (if lease is >1 year)
Rhode Island 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
South Carolina 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
South Dakota 15 or 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Tennessee 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Texas 30 days No state requirement At least one month
Utah 15 days No state requirement No state requirement
Vermont 60 or 90 days No state requirement No state requirement
Virginia 30 days 3 months 3 months
Washington 20 days No state requirement No state requirement
Washington, DC 30 days 30 days 30 days
West Virginia 30 days No state requirement No state requirement
Wisconsin 28 days No state requirement No state requirement
Wyoming No state requirement No state requirement No state requirement

States with Special Requirements

A few states do not take a “one size fits all” approach for termination notices. The following states apply special, more detailed rules:

  • Colorado: Advance notice requirements depend on lease duration:
    • One year or longer: Three months
    • Six months or more, but less than one year: One month
    • One month or more, but less than six months: 21 days
    • One week or more, but less than one month: Three days (also applies to a tenancy at will)
    • Under one week: One day
  • Georgia: 60 days of advance notice required from the landlord, 30 days required from the tenant
  • Hawaii: 45 days of advance notice required from the landlord, 28 days required from the tenant
  • Oregon: 30 days of advance notice until the tenant has been on the property for more than one year, then 60 days (from both landlord and tenant)
  • Rhode Island: 30 days of advance notice from the landlord when the tenant is 62 years of age and younger, then 60 days afterward
  • Vermont: 60 days of advance notice from the landlord until the tenant has been on the property over two years, then 90 days
note

Larger cities often have special requirements for advance notice. For example, at the state level in Illinois, most tenancies may terminate with 30 days of notice, but the city of Chicago requires at least 120 days of notice to terminate tenancies that have lasted three years or longer. Check local notice requirements carefully.

Calculating Notice Periods

Timing a lease termination letter can often be confusing for both tenants and landlords, because the notice typically takes effect on the next date that rent is due rather than the 30th day after the notice is given. A notice given in the middle of a rental period typically causes the lease to terminate at the end of the next rental period.

example

When rent is due on the first of the month, a 30-day termination letter given on September 10th will terminate the lease on November 1st. Terminating at the end of September would require notice delivered by August 31st at latest, to allow at least 30 days of notice before the end of the next rental period. Note that missing the timing just a few days can push termination off for an entire month, or more.

Step 2: Write Termination Letter

Month-to-month rental agreements normally end by sending a lease termination notice to the other party, using the appropriate amount of advance notice required by state law. Each lease termination letter should include the following:

From Landlord From Tenant
  • Date
  • Rental property address
  • Any updated contact information
  • Notice date of delivery
  • State notice requirements (in days)
  • Signature and printed name
  • Certification of service with:
    • Date delivered
    • Method of delivery (by hand, by mail, etc.)
    • Landlords name, address and phone number
  • Date
  • Rental property address
  • Any updated contact information
  • Notice date of delivery
  • State notice requirements (in days)
  • Security deposit return (amount)
  • Address to mail the security deposit
  • Signature and printed name

Step 3: Proof of Service

The ideal method (in legal terms) for delivering a lease termination letter to the other party is hand delivery in person. This is the gold standard for delivery and will be accepted as a valid form of service in all states.

When hand delivery to the other party in person isn’t possible, most states will also accept hand delivery to a person of suitable age and discretion on the property, who can accept the notice on the other party’s behalf. For landlords delivering to tenants, this is preferably a member of the tenant’s family who lives on the rental property with the tenant.

If no form of hand delivery is possible, most states allow posting the notice at a conspicuous place on the property, such as the entry door, AND/OR delivering the notice by registered or certified mail with a return receipt to get signed confirmation of delivery to the other party.

warning

While hand delivery in person is an acceptable form of service in all states, requirements can otherwise differ dramatically, including city to city within the same state. A lease won’t terminate without valid notice, so check state and local laws carefully to ensure full compliance.

Sources