Free Nevada 5-Day Notice to Quit (NRS 40.254)

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Nevada has no 5-day pay-or-quit for residential rent. Unpaid rent runs on a single 7-judicial-day notice under NRS 40.253(1)(a). Nevada’s real 5-day notice is the notice to surrender under NRS 40.254 — the second-step notice on the no-cause, lease-violation and nuisance track, giving the tenant 5 judicial days to contest by affidavit. Build a compliant NRS 40.254 notice below.

5-Day Notice to Quit NRS 40.254 Judicial Days Free PDF

A Nevada 5-Day Notice to Surrender under NRS 40.254 is the second notice a landlord serves to convert an existing unlawful detainer into a summary eviction. NRS 40.254 reaches an unlawful detainer under NRS 40.250 (holdover after the term), NRS 40.251 (expired no-cause notice), NRS 40.2514 (nuisance, waste, unlawful business, unlawful subletting) or NRS 40.2516 (failure to perform a lease condition). It must name the justice court, give the tenant 5 judicial days to contest by filing an affidavit, and advise the tenant of the right to ask the court to stay the removal order for up to 10 days under NRS 70.010(2). Service must follow NRS 40.280. It does not apply to unpaid rent: NRS 40.254 does not list NRS 40.2512, so a nonpayment case runs on the single 7-judicial-day notice under NRS 40.253(1)(a) and needs no second notice. The form below builds a compliant notice; our Nevada eviction notice laws guide covers the full process, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable tenants in the first place.

The Nevada 5-Day Notice to Surrender under NRS 40.254 is the second written notice on the no-cause and lease-violation track. It presupposes that the tenant is already guilty of an unlawful detainer — because a fixed term expired (NRS 40.250), because a no-cause notice under NRS 40.251 ran out, because of nuisance, waste, unlawful business or unlawful subletting (NRS 40.2514), or because a 5-day notice to perform a lease condition under NRS 40.2516 went uncured. This second notice moves the matter toward a court-ordered summary eviction in the justice court that has jurisdiction over the rental.

The notice does four things in one document. First, it fixes the tenant in unlawful detainer. By continuing to hold the premises after the underlying notice expired without cure or surrender, the tenant is in unlawful detainer under NRS 40.250, 40.251, 40.2514 or 40.2516. The notice states that status and identifies the ground and the earlier notice it rests on.

Second, it opens the 5-judicial-day contest window. Under NRS 40.254(1)(c)(1) the tenant must be told of the right to contest by filing an affidavit with the justice court before that court’s close of business on the fifth judicial day after the day of service, stating why the tenant is not guilty of unlawful detainer. NRS 40.254(1)(b) requires the notice to identify the court so the tenant knows where to file.

Third, it advises the tenant of the 10-day stay. NRS 40.254(1)(c)(2) requires the notice to tell the tenant of the right to ask the court to stay execution of an order for removal, or an order for nonadmittance, for a period not exceeding 10 days under NRS 70.010(2), stating the reasons a stay is warranted. A notice that omits this advisory is defective on its face, and most templates omit it.

Fourth, it warns of summary eviction. The notice states that if the tenant does not surrender or file a timely affidavit, the landlord may file its own affidavit and the court may issue a summary order for removal under the NRS 40.253 procedure that NRS 40.254 borrows — directing the sheriff or constable to post the order and remove the tenant. The form on this page assembles all four elements and computes the 5-judicial-day deadline from the date of service.

Two different tracks run through NRS Chapter 40, and the commonest Nevada mistake is to blend them. The nonpayment track lives in NRS 40.253 and NRS 40.2512. NRS 40.253(1)(a) authorizes a single notice to pay rent or quit — the tenant must pay or surrender before the close of business on the seventh judicial day following the day of service — and NRS 40.2512(1)(b) sets the same seven judicial days for residential property (five days is the figure for commercial premises, and ten days for a mobile home lot). NRS 40.253(1)(b) provides a shorter four-full-day option, but only where the landlord elects it and the rent is reserved by a period of one week or less and the tenancy has not continued more than 45 days.

Nonpayment needs no second notice, and gets no five-day window. NRS 40.253(3)(b)(1) says the notice must advise the tenant of the right to contest “by filing, within the time specified in subsection 1 for the payment of the rent or surrender of the premises, an affidavit”. For a residential nonpayment case that time is the same seven judicial days. There is no separate five-judicial-day affidavit period for unpaid rent, and NRS 40.254 — the section that creates the five-judicial-day window — lists NRS 40.250, 40.251, 40.2514 and 40.2516 but not NRS 40.2512.

The other track is this page’s subject. NRS 40.254 is the supplemental summary-eviction remedy for a tenant already guilty of an unlawful detainer under NRS 40.250, 40.251, 40.2514 or 40.2516. The landlord serves the underlying notice first — 30 days for a month-to-month or 7 days for a week-to-week no-cause termination under NRS 40.251(1)(b), 3 days’ notice to surrender for nuisance or waste under NRS 40.2514, or 5 days to perform a lease condition under NRS 40.2516 — and then serves this NRS 40.254 notice to surrender to invoke the summary procedure. That is Nevada’s genuine two-notice structure.

The summary-eviction machinery is set out in NRS 40.253(3) through (6), which NRS 40.254 adopts with its own notice requirements substituted. The notice must identify the court with jurisdiction, advise of the affidavit right, and advise of the NRS 70.010(2) stay. If the tenant files a timely affidavit, the court sets a hearing; if not, the landlord files its own affidavit and the court may issue a summary order for removal. The order directs the sheriff or constable to post it in a conspicuous place within 24 hours of receipt, and to remove the tenant not earlier than 24 hours but not later than 36 hours after posting. Where the unlawful detainer rests on the controlled-substance ground in NRS 40.2514(5), NRS 40.254(3) entitles the landlord to reasonable attorney’s fees incurred at a contested hearing.

Service rules are at NRS 40.280, which governs the notices required by NRS 40.251 to 40.260 — this notice among them — and requires service by a sheriff, constable, licensed process server, or an authorized agent of a Nevada-licensed attorney, not by the landlord personally, using one of three statutory methods, with a signed proof of service filed before a summary order can issue. One operational rule binds the whole framework: the ground, the sequence and the service must be exact. Serving this notice on a nonpayment case, skipping the underlying notice, self-serving, omitting the stay advisory, or miscounting judicial days each hands the tenant a defense and restarts the clock.

The single most important thing to understand about this page is that the NRS 40.254 notice is not the first step, and is not a rent notice at all. It presupposes an unlawful detainer that some earlier notice already created.

Step one — the notice that creates the unlawful detainer. For a no-cause termination that is a notice of at least 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy, or at least 7 days week-to-week, under NRS 40.251(1)(b) — and that notice must itself contain a statement advising the tenant of the NRS 40.251(2)–(4) extensions available to a tenant who is 60 or older or has a physical or mental disability, and to a federal, tribal or state worker during a shutdown. For nuisance, waste, unlawful business or unlawful subletting it is 3 days’ notice to surrender under NRS 40.2514. For an uncured lease violation it is 5 days to perform or surrender under NRS 40.2516. Only when that notice has expired without cure or surrender does anything on this page apply.

Step two — this NRS 40.254 notice to surrender. It is not a fresh demand for anything; it is the declaration that the tenant is now in unlawful detainer, the opening of the 5-judicial-day affidavit window, and the mandatory advisory about the 10-day stay under NRS 70.010(2).

And the case that does not use this notice at all — unpaid rent. If the only problem is that the rent was not paid, the landlord serves one notice: the 7-judicial-day notice to pay rent or quit under NRS 40.253(1)(a). When it expires unpaid and no affidavit was filed inside that same 7-judicial-day window, the landlord goes straight to its affidavit of complaint under NRS 40.253(5). Serving an extra “5-day” notice adds no rights, is not authorised by NRS 40.254, and simply delays possession. Use our Nevada 7-day notice to pay rent or quit instead.

The NRS 40.254(1)(c)(1) contest window is measured in judicial days, not calendar days: the tenant may file before the court’s close of business on the fifth judicial day after the day of service. The count excludes the day the notice is served, every Saturday and Sunday, and Nevada legal holidays. Five judicial days routinely spans a week or more of the calendar, and treating them as calendar days produces a short notice a tenant can defeat.

What counts as a judicial day. A judicial day is a day the courts are open for business. The day of service itself never counts — the count begins the next judicial day. Weekends are always excluded, and Nevada state holidays observed by the courts are excluded as well. When a holiday falls on a weekend, the observed weekday is the day excluded.

Nevada legal holidays that fall inside a typical count include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Nevada Day (the last Friday in October), Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after, and Christmas Day. Nevada Day is a distinctive Nevada holiday that out-of-state landlords routinely forget, and it lands in late October — a common eviction-season window.

Worked example. A 5-day notice served on a Monday of a normal week (no holiday) opens the count on Tuesday and closes at the end of the fifth judicial day, which is the following Monday — Saturday and Sunday are skipped. The tenant has until that court’s close of business on the Monday to surrender or file a contesting affidavit. Note that the statute measures against the court’s close of business, not the landlord’s office hours.

Worked example with a holiday. A 5-day notice served in late October that spans Nevada Day (the last Friday in October) loses that Friday from the count as well as the weekend. What looks like five calendar days on the wall calendar can stretch to eight or nine actual days. The generator on this page carries the Nevada court holidays for 2026 and 2027 so the computed deadline always reflects the correct judicial-day count.

Why the cushion helps. Because a miscount is the most common reason a correctly-drafted Nevada notice is later thrown out, many landlords give a day or two beyond the statutory minimum. Extra days work in the tenant’s favor and create no defect, while a short count is fatal. If you serve near a holiday cluster — the Nevada Day / Halloween window or the Thanksgiving pair — recount by hand before the landlord files its summary-eviction affidavit.

Complete the form below to generate a Nevada 5-Day Notice to Surrender under NRS 40.254. The form computes the 5-judicial-day contest deadline from the date of service, states the unlawful-detainer ground and the earlier notice it rests on, and includes the affidavit-contest language, the mandatory NRS 70.010(2) stay advisory, and the summary-eviction warning. Confirm the underlying NRS 40.251, 40.2514 or 40.2516 notice has already expired, and arrange service through a sheriff, constable, or licensed process server under NRS 40.280. Do not use this form for unpaid rent — use the 7-judicial-day notice under NRS 40.253(1)(a) instead.

NRS 40.280 controls how the notice is served, and Nevada is stricter than most states on who may serve it. The notice must be served by a sheriff, constable, licensed process server, or an authorized agent of a Nevada-licensed attorney. Unlike California and many other states, the landlord may not personally serve the notice. Three methods of delivery are authorized.

Proof of service

Before the justice court can issue a summary eviction order, the landlord must file a signed statement of the date and manner of service. Under NRS 40.280 that statement includes the badge or license number of the sheriff, constable, or licensed process server who served the notice. If service was performed by an agent of a Nevada-licensed attorney, the statement also carries a declaration signed by the attorney, with the attorney’s bar number, that the attorney was retained for the eviction and believes the service complied with the law.

Documentation retention

Retain the original signed notice, the proof of service, any date-stamped posting photographs, and the earlier 7-day notice and its proof. If the summary eviction proceeds, these become the court record. If the tenant pays or files an affidavit, the documentation supports the landlord’s response and any hearing.

The NRS 40.254 notice opens a contest window that is central to the Nevada summary-eviction design. Because the summary process can end a tenancy without a full trial, the statute builds in a tenant right to be heard — and a second right, to ask for a short stay even after losing.

The tenant’s affidavit. Before the court’s close of business on the fifth judicial day after service, the tenant may file an affidavit or answer with the justice court identified in the notice, stating the reasons the tenant is not guilty of unlawful detainer — for instance, that the underlying notice was never served or was defective, that the breach was cured in time, or that the landlord failed to maintain habitability under NRS Chapter 118A. Filing a timely affidavit converts the matter from an administrative posting into a contested hearing.

The 10-day stay. Separately from the affidavit, NRS 40.254(1)(c)(2) requires the notice to advise the tenant of the right to ask the court to stay execution of the removal order, or of an order for nonadmittance, for a period not exceeding 10 days under NRS 70.010(2), stating the reasons the stay is warranted. This is a distinct right from contesting the eviction, and it survives a tenant who does not contest.

The landlord’s affidavit. If the tenant does not surrender or file an affidavit within the 5 judicial days, the landlord files its own affidavit. NRS 40.254(2) prescribes its contents: the date the tenancy commenced and its term with a copy of the rental agreement, the date the tenancy or agreement terminated, the date written notice to surrender was given under NRS 40.251, 40.2514 or 40.2516 with the facts supporting it, a copy of the notice with a statement that it was served in accordance with NRS 40.280, and a statement that the claim for relief was authorised by law. On that record the court may proceed to a summary order for removal.

The summary order and removal. A summary order for removal directs the sheriff or constable to post the order in a conspicuous place at the premises within 24 hours of receiving it, and to remove the tenant not earlier than 24 hours but not later than 36 hours after posting. The landlord never performs the lockout — only the sheriff or constable executes the order, and a landlord who locks out, removes belongings or cuts an essential service instead is exposed under NRS 118A.390 to actual damages plus up to $2,500 fixed by the court. After removal, NRS 118A.460(3) requires the landlord to give the former tenant a reasonable opportunity to retrieve essential personal effects during the 5-day period following the eviction.

• Using it for unpaid rent. NRS 40.254 lists NRS 40.250, 40.251, 40.2514 and 40.2516 — not NRS 40.2512. A nonpayment case runs on one 7-judicial-day notice under NRS 40.253(1)(a); this notice adds nothing and delays possession.
• Skipping the underlying notice. Serving this notice without first serving and expiring an NRS 40.251, 40.2514 or 40.2516 notice collapses the sequence. The unlawful detainer must already exist.
• Omitting the 10-day stay advisory. NRS 40.254(1)(c)(2) makes it mandatory content. Most templates omit it, and its absence is visible on the face of the notice.
• Letting the landlord serve it. NRS 40.280 requires a sheriff, constable, licensed process server, or attorney’s agent. A landlord-served notice is not valid service and stops the summary eviction.
• Counting calendar days. The 5 days are judicial days — the day of service, weekends, and Nevada holidays (including Nevada Day) are excluded. A calendar-day count is short and defective.
• Turning it into a money demand. This notice is about possession, not arrears. Folding in rent, late fees or utilities invites a dispute over the amount that has nothing to do with the ground for the unlawful detainer.
• Failing to identify the justice court. The notice must name the court with jurisdiction so the tenant knows where to file a contesting affidavit. Omitting it undermines the contest right the statute requires.
• Filing without proof of service. The court cannot issue a summary order until a proof of service with the server’s badge or license number is on file.

Nevada tenants served with an NRS 40.254 notice to surrender retain significant statutory rights. Understanding them helps a landlord appreciate why the ground, the sequence and the service must be exact.

Right to contest by affidavit. The tenant may file an affidavit before the court’s close of business on the fifth judicial day after service, stating why the tenant is not guilty of unlawful detainer, which forces a hearing before any removal. Right to request a stay. Under NRS 70.010(2), as NRS 40.254(1)(c)(2) requires the notice to explain, the tenant may ask the court to stay execution of a removal order for up to 10 days on stated reasons.

Right to raise habitability. Under NRS Chapter 118A (NRS 118A.290 and its habitability provisions), a tenant may assert that the landlord failed to maintain the premises, and habitability defenses can be raised in the summary proceeding. Right to proper service. If the notice was served by the landlord rather than a sheriff, constable, or licensed process server, or if the judicial-day count was short, the tenant can move to have the eviction dismissed on those grounds.

Right against self-help eviction. Nevada strictly prohibits self-help evictions. A landlord who changes locks, removes doors, shuts off utilities, or removes belongings without a court order exposes itself to civil liability under NRS Chapter 118A. Only the sheriff or constable, acting on a court order, may remove the tenant. Right against retaliation and discrimination. The federal Fair Housing Act and Nevada law prohibit eviction decisions based on protected characteristics or in retaliation for a tenant asserting habitability or other legal rights.

Nevada justice courts (Las Vegas, Reno/Washoe, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and the rural townships) each administer summary evictions, and local filing practices vary. Always confirm the current forms and procedures with the justice court that has jurisdiction, and see our guide to Nevada eviction procedure for the full process.

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