Free Oregon Month-to-Month Rental Agreement

ORS 90.427 is the longest and most demanding periodic-tenancy section in this wave, and its structure is unusual. A tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy at any time on thirty days’ written notice. A landlord may do the same — but only during the first year of occupancy. Once that year has passed, ORS 90.427(3)(c) allows a landlord to terminate only for a tenant cause under a named list of sections, or for one of four qualifying landlord reasons, and the qualifying-reason route carries ninety days’ notice, a stated reason with supporting facts, and a payment to the tenant.

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Watch: Free Oregon Month-to-Month Rental Agreement explained

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An Oregon month-to-month agreement has to be read against a statute that changes what the landlord may do on the tenancy’s first anniversary. That single fact shapes everything else: the occupancy start date is the most consequential piece of information in the document, because it decides whether a landlord has a thirty-day no-cause route or must find a cause, give ninety days and write a cheque. ORS 90.427 also converts a fixed term that ends after the first year into a month-to-month tenancy by default, so a good many Oregon periodic tenancies began life as year leases. The generator above records the occupancy start date and where the tenancy stands against the first-year line.

• The date the tenant’s occupancy began — the fact the whole of ORS 90.427 turns on
• The full names of the landlord and of every adult tenant, since the first-year definition reaches any of the tenants
• The address of the premises, including the unit number
• The rent, the interval it covers, and the day it falls due
• That a tenant may terminate at any time on thirty days’ written notice
• That a landlord’s no-cause route ends with the first year of occupancy
• Whether the dwelling is in the same building or on the same property as the landlord’s primary residence with not more than two units, which engages subsection (8)
• The address each party sends notice to
• The security deposit, where it is held, and what the tenant is told about its return
• Which utilities and services each party pays for, and the pet, smoking and guest rules

• Treating thirty days as the landlord’s period generally. It is the first-year period only. After the first year ORS 90.427(3)(c) removes the no-cause route rather than lengthening it — except where subsection (8) applies to a landlord living on a property of not more than two units.
• Serving a qualifying-reason notice without the payment. ORS 90.427(6)(a)(C) requires payment of one month’s periodic rent at the time the landlord delivers the notice, unless the landlord has an interest in four or fewer residential dwelling units.
• Giving ninety days but not the reason and supporting facts. (6)(a)(A) requires both to be specified in the notice. A bare ninety-day notice does not satisfy the subsection.
• Assuming a new tenant restarts the first year. (1)(a) defines the first year of occupancy as all periods in which any of the tenants has resided in the unit for one year or less.
• Underestimating the penalty. Under (9)(a) a landlord who terminates in violation of the relevant subsections is liable for three months’ rent in addition to actual damages, and the tenant has a defence to an action for possession.

It depends entirely on who is giving it and how long the tenant has lived there.

• A tenant, at any time: written notice not less than thirty days before the date designated in the notice — ORS 90.427(3)(a).
• A landlord, during the first year of occupancy: written notice not less than thirty days before the designated date — ORS 90.427(3)(b). No cause is needed.
• A landlord, after the first year of occupancy: ORS 90.427(3)(c) permits termination only for a tenant cause, or for a qualifying landlord reason on ninety days’ notice with a payment.

A week-to-week tenancy sits outside this structure: under ORS 90.427(2), either party may terminate it on written notice given at least ten days before the termination date specified in the notice.

This is the provision that makes Oregon different from every other state on this site. In Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Virginia a landlord ending a periodic tenancy gives a period of notice and needs no reason. In Georgia the landlord’s period is longer than the tenant’s, but the route exists. In Oregon, after the first year of occupancy, the no-cause route is simply gone.

ORS 90.427(3)(c) leaves two doors. The first is a tenant cause, with notice as specified in a list of nine other sections — ORS 86.782(6)(c) on a sale of property, 90.380(5) on renting a dwelling in violation of building or housing codes, 90.392 on termination for cause, 90.394 on failure to pay rent, 90.396 on acts or omissions justifying termination twenty-four hours after notice, 90.398 on drug or alcohol violations, 90.405 on a tenant keeping an unpermitted pet, 90.440 on a group recovery home, and 90.445 on a tenant who commits a criminal act of physical violence. Each has its own notice requirements, and ORS 90.427 does not restate them — nor have we read them for this page, so nothing here should be taken as a statement of what any of those sections requires.

The second door is a qualifying landlord reason under subsections (5) and (6), and that is where most of the section’s weight sits.

ORS 90.427(5) permits a landlord to terminate a month-to-month tenancy at any time on written notice of not less than ninety days if one of four things is true:

• Demolition or conversion. The landlord intends to demolish the dwelling unit, or to convert it to a