Tenant Warnings and Termination Notices
Enforcing the terms and conditions of the lease agreement is critical to protecting the safety and rights of tenants and neighbors. Warnings and notices are issued to tenants whose actions violate rental terms. Failure of a tenant to comply with lease terms and conditions can result in lease termination and possible eviction from the rental premises.
Warning Notices
A warning notice, oral or written, may be appropriate for a tenant’s first time violation of a lease term or condition that is not a material default of the lease or a potential threat to neighbors or property. A tenant whose previous behaviors have never been a problem may be responsive to an oral request by the landlord to remedy the situation. The landlord should document in writing the details of the landlord tenant-conversation regarding the lease violation and what the tenant must do to correct the violation. A copy of the writing should be placed in the tenant’s file.
A landlord could instead send a written warning letter to the tenant that provides details of the problem behavior including date and time; the expected corrective action by the tenant to remedy the problem; citation of the specific lease term or condition that has been violated; and the consequences if the tenant fails to take corrective action for compliance.
A warning letter can be effective in some problem situations but in many other situations, it only serves to delay serving the inevitable notice of termination of tenancy. A warning letter is an informal writing and does not qualify as a formal termination notice. Property management experience may serve to guide the landlord toward the most appropriate and/or effective type of notice for the tenant problem behavior.
If a tenant has repeatedly violated terms and conditions of the lease, it is very likely a warning letter will not produce the desired change in the tenant’s behavior. If the problem situation involves dangerous behaviors such as criminal activity, drugs, or threats of violence, a landlord should immediately begin the termination process to end the tenancy.
Tenants who choose to ignore a warning letter or refuse to comply with lease terms and conditions will need to be served with a formal notice for termination of tenancy.
Formal Notices
Terminating a tenancy due to a tenant’s material breach of his lease agreement begins by providing the proper notice according to the statutes of the state where the rental property is located. The type of termination notice and the notice period depends upon the circumstances of the breach as well the law of the particular state.
All states have addressed the termination notice issue by statute and, while terminology and notice periods may differ among the states, the substance of the notices will be similar. A termination notice properly prepared and served must be done before an unlawful detainer lawsuit can be filed. Without proper termination of the tenancy an unlawful detainer judgment cannot be issued. A court ordered judgment is required to evict the tenant.
Notice to Pay Rent or Quit
Since failure to pay rent is the most common reason to initiate eviction actions, the Notice to Pay Rent or Quit is the notice most often used. A Notice to Pay Rent or Quit demands that the tenant pay his rent within the statutory period a (specified number of days) and, if not paid, to move out (Quit), ending his occupancy.
If delinquency exists in the payment of any portion of rent due, a Notice to Pay Rent or Quit may be served on the delinquent tenant, in most states, as early as the day following the rent due date. If rent is due on the first, a notice may legally be served on the next day absent a grace period being specified in the lease agreement or by state law.
A few states will not allow service of a termination notice (either a Pay Rent or Quit Notice or an Unconditional Quit Notice) until the rent is a certain number of days late. In these states, tenants enjoy a statutory grace period plus the time specified in the Pay Rent or Quit Notice in which to come up with the rent.
Statutes generally require the landlord to provide the Notice a minimum number of days before the lease can be terminated and a lawsuit for possession filed with the Court. The Notice gives the tenant a few days (usually 3 to 10 days in most states) to pay all rent owed or to move out.
Notice to Cure or Quit
A Notice to Cure or Quit demands that the tenant comply with one or more terms of the lease agreement (Cure) and, if the tenant does not comply, to end his occupancy (Quit). Notices to Cure or Quit are typically given after a violation of a term or condition of the lease agreement, such as nuisance, waste or illegal use. Usually, the tenant has a specified amount of time in which to cure the violation.
Unconditional Notice to Quit
An Unconditional Quit Notice orders the tenant to vacate the rental premises and does not allow the tenant to cure any violation of the lease agreement. These notices are the strongest of all termination notices and mean exactly what they say. The tenant must move without an opportunity to pay back rent, correct some other lease violation, or otherwise change his behavior. In most states, Unconditional Quit Notices are used when the tenant has:
- Been late with the rent on more than one occasion,
- Repeatedly committed a material lease agreement violation,
- Committed serious waste or damage to the premises, or
- Engaged in illegal activity, such as drug dealing on the premises.
In a few states, the Unconditional Quit Notice is the only notice statute for any type of violation including late rent or breach of the lease agreement.
Many states have provisions for all three types of termination notices and specify which notice should be used for a particular situation. Some states may give the landlord a choice of which notice to use, for example, a Pay or Quit Notice or the Unconditional Quit Notice for unpaid rent. The tenant does not have the option to choose a type of notice that would provide him more relief.
Service of Notices
To be legally effective, the landlord’s notice to the tenant to pay, cure, or quit must be properly served. State statutes are specific about how and when notices must be served. The procedures set out by statute to serve the notices are designed to provide the greatest likelihood that the person so named in the notice actually receives the notice.
Second Chance
A landlord is not required by law to allow a tenant a second chance in curing any breach of the lease agreement, but may extend that option as desired depending upon the circumstances. If the landlord accepts the tenant’s payment of rent for the entire notice period, the Pay or Quit Notice is cancelled. If the landlord accepts a partial payment of rent, while the original Notice is effectively cancelled, the landlord can immediately serve the tenant with a new Pay or Quit Notice for the balance still owed.
Some landlords may sometimes be willing to work with the tenant by setting up a payment schedule for past due rent amounts. Any agreement between the landlord and the tenant should be documented in writing. A tenant default on the agreement will allow the landlord to take action to terminate the tenancy.
Notice Deadlines
When the noticed deadline expires, and the violation has not been cured, the tenant is not automatically evicted. In almost every state a landlord must file and win an eviction lawsuit before law enforcement officers can physically evict a tenant who refuses to leave the premises after receiving a termination notice.