Free Notice of Non-Renewal of Lease (All States)

Direct answer: a landlord who does not want to renew a lease must give the tenant written notice at least as far ahead as the state’s law and the lease require, and in a growing number of places must also state a lawful reason. The period is state law. New York uses 30, 60 or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has been there (Real Prop. Law 226-c); California requires 60 days to end a periodic tenancy, or 30 days if the tenant has lived there under a year (Civ. Code 1946.1); the model Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act uses 60 days for month-to-month. Whether a reason is needed is also state law: California requires just cause for covered tenancies after twelve months, and Oregon limits no-cause endings after the first year. The form below prepares the notice for any state; the guide beneath it explains the national rules, links every state-specific version we publish, and shows where landlords most often go wrong.

Start with the state, because it decides the notice period and whether you must state a reason. Then enter the tenancy dates, the period your state and lease require, and the date the tenancy ends. Check your state’s page in the table further down before you choose the end date. In New York, Real Property Law section 226-c requires the Good Cause Eviction Law notice under section 231-c to be attached to a non-renewal; use our New York notice of non-renewal, which covers it.

A notice of non-renewal is a landlord’s written statement that a lease or tenancy will not be continued after its current term, and that the tenant must leave by a specific date. It is sometimes called a non-renewal letter, a lease non-renewal notice, or, for a month-to-month tenancy, a notice of termination of tenancy. It differs from every eviction notice in one essential way: it does not claim that the tenant did anything wrong. It simply exercises the landlord’s right, where the law allows it, to end the relationship when the agreed term runs out.

That right is narrower than many landlords assume. A fixed-term lease generally ends on its end date, but many leases contain automatic renewal or month-to-month conversion clauses, and some states convert a long tenancy into a protected one. Periodic tenancies, such as month-to-month, end only by proper notice. And in states and cities with just-cause laws, a landlord may decline to renew a long-term tenancy only for a reason the law recognizes. The notice is therefore both a courtesy and a legal act, and it must satisfy the rules of the place where the property sits.

At least the period your state’s statute requires for this type of tenancy, or the longer period your lease promises, measured to the date the tenancy is to end. There is no national number. The table shows what four sources actually say, checked against the official texts.

Three patterns stand out. First, periods increasingly depend on the length of the tenancy, not only on the rental period: New York’s tiers and California’s one-year line both reward long-term tenants with more time. Second, the numbers in the model act are bracketed, which means each state that adopted it chose its own, so neighboring states that share the same statutory structure can still require different periods. Third, the lease can add time but generally cannot take it away where a statute sets a minimum; the model act, for instance, bars a rental agreement from providing that the tenant “agrees to waive or forego rights or remedies under this Act” (URLTA section 1.403(a)(1)).

In much of the country no reason is required, but a growing list of states and cities require just cause for longer tenancies, and nowhere may the reason be discriminatory; most states also bar a retaliatory non-renewal. Three verified examples show how different the rules can be:

• California. Civil Code section 1946.2 provides that “after a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a residential real property for 12 months, the owner of the residential real property shall not terminate a tenancy without just cause, which shall be stated in the written notice to terminate tenancy.” The section defines at-fault and no-fault just causes and has its own exemptions, so a California landlord must first decide whether the tenancy is covered.
• Oregon. ORS 90.427 lets a landlord end a tenancy without cause during the first year of occupancy on at least 30 days’ notice. After the first year, a fixed-term tenancy becomes month-to-month when the term expires unless the parties agree to a new term, the tenant gives notice, or the landlord has a qualifying reason; the qualifying landlord reasons (such as demolition, conversion, certain renovations, owner or family occupancy, or a sale to a buyer who will live there) require at least 90 days’ notice stating the reason and supporting facts.
• New York. Real Property Law section 226-c requires the non-renewal notice to append or contain the Good Cause Eviction Law notice described in section 231-c; where the unit is covered by that law, a lawful basis must be stated. Our New York notice of non-renewal walks through coverage in detail.

Outside such rules, a landlord may decline to renew for any lawful reason or none. But two federal and near-universal limits always apply. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful “to refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin,” and extends the same protection to disability (42 U.S.C. 3604). And retaliation statutes, modeled on URLTA section 5.101, protect tenants who complain to a housing code agency, complain to the landlord about maintenance, or join a tenants’ organization. A non-renewal that follows closely on protected activity invites scrutiny, so document the legitimate reason and its timing even where no reason must be stated on the notice.

The form’s reason field is optional for that reason: leave it blank only where your state and city allow a no-reason non-renewal, and fill it in, with supporting facts, wherever the law requires a stated cause.

Use your state’s own page to confirm the notice period, whether a reason is required, and any local rules before you serve. Each state page below carries a notice written to that state’s statute. Two Illinois local forms are included because Cook County and Chicago set their own notice periods.