Terminating a lease in California isn't as complicated as many people make it to be. Under most circumstances, the requirements to terminate a month-to-month tenancy are the same, unless the tenancy lasts longer than a year.
It's vital to comply with all of the termination clauses according to California law in order to avoid any legal issues between any of the parties involved in the lease. If you're looking to terminate your lease agreement with your former tenant, the following page will outline everything you need to know about this process.
A California lease termination letter, in essence, is a document the former landlord will use to mark the end of the rental agreement. The notice period for this lease termination letter will depend on some factors that we'll explain further in this article.
State law permits landlords to terminate a lease at any moment they consider appropriate, as long as they provide the tenant with the appropriate amount of notice.
In most cases, you will have to deal with 30 days of notice for your rental agreement termination. However, keep in mind that the 30-day period only applies to rental agreements of less than one year, regardless of the date you set for rental payments.
On the other hand, if the property is under a sales contract and complies with the provisions stated in the state statute, the landlord may also be able to send a 30-day notice to their former tenants and reclaim property.
Now, if the rental agreement is longer than a year old, then the landlord must send a 60-day notice to vacate, as long as the unit meets the legal exemptions under the state's law. Both landlords and tenants can serve this notice at least 60 days before the lease agreement ends or before the termination date specified in the letter.
Summarizing, you have two options for a lease termination letter in California, according to § 1946 of the Civil Code.
California has certain rules surrounding ending a lease with written notice. If the landlord doesn't plan to renew the lease past its expiration date, then they must follow these guidelines:
At Fault Just Cause
The at-fault just cause clause is used by landlords to vacate their tenant if they violated the lease terms in any way; which counts as early termination. As opposed to a no-fault just cause scenario, an at-fault just cause scenario requires an eviction notice rather than a termination notice.
In essence, this clause applies in any of the following scenarios:
No-Fault Just Cause
Overall, the no-fault just cause is used by landlords to end tenancies of one year or more, according to the Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Landlords can use the no-fault just cause termination clause under the following circumstances:
Specifics for a 30-day Notice Period
Aside from being used to end tenancies of less than one year, the landlord must comply with the following scenarios:
It's important to note that California's Civil Code requires landlords to include a statement regarding abandoned personal property, which states that:
"Tenants are allowed to reclaim their abandoned personal property at their former address without any additional costs, depending on the length of time that passed before it was reclaimed and the cost of storing said property. The sooner the tenant contacts the landlord, the lower these costs will be."
All of the specifics surrounding this clause can be found in California's Civil Code - Section 1946.2.
Specifics for a 60-day Notice Period
The particular clauses for 60-day notice periods are slightly more complex. Here's an outline of everything you should know.
Overall, landlords can terminate leases of one year or more, as long as they meet the following guidelines:
The only scenario in which you may be able to terminate early is if the tenant fails to comply with the terms of the lease agreement in any way or pay rent. Otherwise, you're not legally allowed to break the lease early without notice.
If you do send notice, then you're able to terminate the lease at any moment you consider appropriate.
Landlords have three options to send the lease termination letter to their tenant:
If you're planning on using mail, make sure to add at least five additional calendar days to the notice period; this is to account for variability in common delivery times for the post office.
Any landlord who fails to provide their tenant with written notice may have to deal with legal consequences. Moreover, these legal consequences will make it much harder for you to look for a new tenant or reclaim any property belonging to you.
Keep in mind that taking these cases to court may require you to spend money on legal fees and penalties, so it's always best if you send notice according to the specified periods on this page.
If there's not a fixed end date for the lease, landlords will have to send a particular notice depending on the payment frequency. In case you're dealing with a monthly tenancy, for example, you will have to send at least a 30-day notice to your tenant if they haven't been renting for over a year.
On the other hand, if the tenant has been renting for over a year, you must send a 60-day notice.
In case you want to end a fixed-term lease, you must consider the following:
On the other hand, you could end a fixed-term lease early if you included a "Break Clause" on the agreement. You could also try to negotiate with the tenant.
There are certain things you must consider before writing a lease termination letter in the state of California. If you want your document to be legally-compliant, then you must ensure the document includes all of the following factors:
As long as the lease termination letter has all of those items, you won't have any problems. On the other hand, if the document is missing any of these, a judge won't be able to proceed with your request.
Drafting a lease termination letter yourself can prove to be complicated, regardless of whether you're ending a fixed-term lease or a monthly one. Thankfully, DoorLoop has a wide range of sources for rental agreements available to you.
Once you go to DoorLoop's "Forms" page, you will gain access to a California lease termination letter template that you can download in the following formats without incurring additional costs:
On the other hand, you can download our customizable version of the document for a small fee; that way, you can draft your lease termination notice without any problems and save some time.
If you are terminating your lease and need the tenant to sign, or you want to sign a new lease with a new tenant, you want to make the process as easy and efficient as possible.
With DoorLoop, you can get your agreements eSigned in a few seconds. You can also get to the eSignature step much faster by creating reusable templates that are autofilled with tenants' information.
DoorLoop also makes it so simple to find the best tenants in the first place by syndicating your listings on popular websites Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, Apartments.com, and more. You can also make sure you're bringing in the best tenants by screening your prospects in seconds through DoorLoop.