Free California Notice to Vacate

Section 1946.1, for a residential dwelling. It opens with the words “Notwithstanding Section 1946,” and then fixes the periods: subdivision (b) requires an owner to give notice at least 60 days before the proposed date of termination, and subdivision (c) reduces that to at least 30 days where a tenant or resident has resided in the dwelling less than one year. Civil Code § 1946 is the general rule for a hiring for an unspecified term and gives a flat 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy, with no 60-day step. Neither section is in the Code of Civil Procedure.

Less than the landlord, in most cases. Civil Code § 1946.1(b) says a tenant giving notice shall give notice for a period at least as long as the term of the periodic tenancy — 30 days on a month-to-month tenancy — however long the tenant has lived there. The 60-day period in that same subdivision binds owners only. Subdivision (e) adds that once an owner has served a termination notice, the tenant may serve their own notice for at least the length of the periodic term, provided the tenant’s proposed termination date falls before the owner’s. A tenant served with 60 days can therefore leave in 30.

Yes, for a pending sale. Civil Code § 1946.1(d) permits 30 days’ notice regardless of tenancy length when all six of its conditions are met: the dwelling or unit is alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit; the owner has contracted to sell it to a bona fide purchaser for value and established escrow with a title insurer, underwritten title company, licensed escrow agent or licensed real estate broker; the purchaser is a natural person or persons; the notice is given no more than 120 days after escrow was established; no notice was previously given under the section; and the purchaser in good faith intends to reside there at least one full year after termination.

Yes, and it is easy to leave out. Civil Code § 1946.1(h) requires an owner’s notice to contain, in substantially the same form, a paragraph telling the tenant that state law permits former tenants to reclaim abandoned personal property left at the former address subject to certain conditions, that reclaiming it may or may not be possible without additional cost depending on storage costs and elapsed time, and that those costs will generally be lower the sooner the former landlord is contacted. Civil Code § 1946(a) carries the identical paragraph for notices given under that section. A notice omitting it falls short of the statutory form.

Civil Code § 1946.1(f) gives two routes: the manner prescribed in Code of Civil Procedure § 1162, or sending a copy by certified or registered mail. Section 1162(a) allows personal delivery to the tenant; or, if the tenant is absent from both their residence and their usual place of business, leaving a copy with a person of suitable age and discretion at either place and mailing a copy to the residence; or, if neither place can be ascertained and no suitable person is found there, affixing a copy in a conspicuous place on the property, delivering a copy to a person residing there if one can be found, and mailing a copy addressed to the property.

No. Civil Code § 1946.1(i) states that a landlord or its agent shall not charge a tenant a fee for serving, posting, or otherwise delivering any notice described in that section. Civil Code § 1946(b) carries the same prohibition for notices under that section, and Code of Civil Procedure § 1161, paragraph 6, extends it to the three-day notices. All three sections were amended effective January 1, 2025, so notice templates, management agreements and fee schedules drafted before that date may still contain a service or posting charge that the current statutes do not permit.

The tenancy does not simply roll over; the tenant becomes a holdover. Code of Civil Procedure § 1161, paragraph 1, makes a tenant guilty of unlawful detainer when the tenant continues in possession, in person or by subtenant, after the expiration of the term, where the expiration is of a nondefault nature and occurs without the landlord’s permission. That is the ground pleaded in an unlawful detainer action once a properly served notice to vacate expires. Paragraph 5 covers the mirror situation: a tenant who gave written notice under Civil Code § 1946, or whose written offer to surrender the landlord accepted in writing, and then failed to deliver possession on the stated date.

No, and § 1946.1 says so. Subdivision (g) provides that the section may not be construed to affect the authority a public entity otherwise has to regulate or monitor the basis for eviction. Civil Code § 1946.2(i) goes further for just cause, handing control to a local ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019, or to a later ordinance that meets the statute’s definition of more protective. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica and other California cities set their own permitted grounds, procedures and relocation amounts. Treat the state periods as a floor and read your local ordinance before fixing a date.