No more 60-day notice to Terminate Tenancy

Brought to you by the California Association of REALTORS®
The 60-day notice of termination requirement for month-to-month tenancies will be repealed at the end of this year. Effective January 1, 2006, residential landlords and property managers may give a 30-day Notice to Terminate to their month-to-month tenants (unless rent control or subsidized housing rules apply). Recent efforts by C.A.R.'s Legislative Department helped to successfully defeat legislation to keep the 60-day rule.

The 60-day rule was originally enacted in 2002 as a pilot project to help tenants who purportedly needed more time than the allotted 30 days to make new housing arrangements in a tight rental market. However, C.A.R. has opposed the 60-day rule because, among other things, that length of time is too long for evicting problematic tenants. Many landlords and property managers prefer using a general 30-day notice to terminate, rather than the alternative 3-day notice to perform covenant or quit which may require litigation of issues such as noise, nuisances, or illegal activities by the tenant. Waiting 60 days rather than 30 days under those circumstances places an undue burden on landlords, property managers, and other tenants in the building.

C.A.R. will be revising the standard-form Notice of Termination of Tenancy to reflect this change in the law.