Moving out and moving on can be tricky when you are bound by the terms of a lease. Properly informing your landlord of your intent to leave can save you money in fees and penalties. With this, most tenants will need to provide a 60-day notice to their landlord to properly start the process of moving out. It’s not good enough to just write down on a piece of paper that you’re leaving. You should carefully craft the letter to ensure that it meets the requirements of your lease. You should also use it as an opportunity to list your expectations of the lord. Here’s how to write a 60-day notice to a landlord.
Consult the terms of your lease first
Your lease is a private contract between you and the landlord, and it obligates you to do certain things under the law. If you’re in a standard landlord-tenant relationship, then you’ll need to provide notice two months prior to moving out. This is true even when the lease term is coming to an end, as most annual leases convert automatically to month-to-month leases at the end of the term. Understand this so that you can present the letter 60 days prior to the end of your lease if you’d like to move out at the end of the lease term.
Make your intentions clear
The highest purpose of a 60-day notice is to make it clear to the landlord that you will be moving out at that time. This is important for both practical and legal purposes. If you fail to make it clear in your letter that the point is to give notice to your landlord, then they could have a cause of action against you upon your move-out. Ensure that the language is unambiguous.
Cite specific parts of your lease
When looking at your lease, you may find that the landlord has used specific terms to denote your obligations on the 60-day notice. For instance, the landlord might have called it a “notice of intention to vacate.” If those specific terms are found in the lease, then you should plan to use them in your letter. Let your landlord know that according to the terms of the lease, you are filing a notice of intention to vacate for his records and convenience. This will leave no room for confusion that can later come back to bite you.
Identifying the property in question
Many landlords own multiple properties. One of the most important steps when crafting a notice letter is to strictly define the property in question. Ensure that the address is correct, that your name is included and that you indicate in the subject line that your letter is a “60-day notice.”
Expectations on the deposit
You’ll likely want to get your deposit back in full, less any incidental cleaning costs. In order to make this happen, you should provide a forwarding address and state the amount of the deposit in the letter. Outline your expectation that at the end of the term, the landlord should mail that specific amount to you at your chosen address. This will ensure that your landlord knows that you mean business about collecting what is yours.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!