How much notice must a landlord give a tenant to terminate a lease?

Atty. Tom Olsen: Alice, you're on WDBO. Go ahead.

Alice: Thank you for taking my call. My question is, when there is no lease, how much time does the landlord have to give a tenant before he can have the sheriff evict the tenant, and what type of notice must this be?

Atty. Olsen: Okay. Alice, assuming that your tenant pays rent once a month, let's say, they pay on the first of every month, you are a month-to-month tenancy that requires that either the landlord or the tenant give notice to the other with at least 15 days advance notice.

Now, Alice, there's a little bit of a fine point to that, and that is this, is that if your tenant pays rent on the first of each month, and the next rent is due on November 1, you have to give them notice as of the rental period. We were now within 15 days of November 1, so it is too late for you to give notice for them to move out on November 1. Your next opportunity is for them to be out on December 1, and if you want them to be out on December 1, you need to give them notice by November 15, if that makes sense.

Alice, from a practical point of view, you don't want to give them notice now. You want to wait until after you get the November 1 payment, and then give them notice sometime before November 15th, to be out as of December 1st. Does that make sense to you, Alice?

Alice: It does. Does it have to be certified mail? What type of notice does it have to be?

Atty. Olsen: It does not require certified mail. As far as I know, you can do it in writing. You could mail the tenant a letter. You could post it to their front door. You could email it to them. I believe you could even text it to them.

If push comes to shove, and you're in front of a judge, which if you were, the judge is going to believe you when you say, hey, I gave notice, here's how I did it, text, email, put it on their front door, mail them a letter, they're all good. Nothing about it requires certified mail, Alice.

Alice: Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Atty. Olsen: Alice, we do have a landlord/tenant attorney, his name is Caleb Maggio, and if you have some issues or concerns, want some more detail, if you end up having to evict this tenant, Atty. Caleb Maggio at the Olsen Law Group can assist you with that. You can find out more about Caleb at our website, olsenlawgroup.com.

Alice, thank you for calling. We appreciate it.

Alice: Thank you.

Atty. Olsen: Folks, my name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law, every Saturday between 11 and noon, right here on WDBO.