Ending a Month-to-Month Tenancy: 30- and 60-Day Notices

What it requires

• Give 60 days’ written notice to end a month-to-month tenancy, or 30 days if the tenant has lived there less than a year.
• Thirty days also works when you sell a separately saleable house or condo to an individual who will live there at least a year, escrow is open, the notice comes within 120 days of opening it, and no earlier notice was given under this rule.
• Serve the notice as Code of Civil Procedure 1162 allows or by certified or registered mail, and include the required statement about reclaiming abandoned property.
• Don’t charge the tenant a fee for serving, posting, or delivering the notice.
• This no-cause route works only where just cause doesn’t apply. After 12 months under AB 1482, or from the start of a covered tenancy in Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville, you need a listed cause.

Owner checklist

• Confirm just cause doesn’t apply first
• Count tenancy length to choose 30 or 60 days
• Include the abandoned-property statement
• Serve under CCP 1162 or by certified mail