Landlord’s wishing to terminate a month-to-month tenancy may do so in most circumstances by serving a 30 or 60 day notice of termination on the tenant. The landlord can use a 30 day notice if the tenant has lived in the property for less than a year, or a 60 day notice if the tenant has lived in the property for a year or more.
Once the landlord serves a 30 or 60 day notice of termination on the tenant, normally the landlord cannot withdraw this notice. However, the notice may be withdrawn by implication if the landlord decides to accept rent that covers a period AFTER the 30/60 day notice expires. This is a trap for landlords.
A landlord may have no intention or desire to withdraw the 30/60 day notice of termination. But say, for example, the notice expires on the 15th day of the month, and the rent is due on the 1st of ever month. If the tenant tenders full payment for 1 month on the 1st, and the landlord accepts this payment (when in fact the landlord should only be accepting 15 days of rent), then the tenant can make an argument that the landlord withdrew his termination notice. In this example, the landlord would have needed to make clear that the acceptance of rent is NOT a waiver of the landlord’s termination notice.
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