Lease Termination Letter

In this article, we will give you information on what is a lease termination letter, when and for what it might be used. You will also learn how to fill it out correctly and know when it should be provided.

What is a Lease Termination Letter?

A lease termination letter is a special form that you have to fill in if you are willing to end the current lease contract or if it is coming to its end and you are not going to prolong it for the next period of time.

When to use a Lease Termination Letter

Most of the lease contracts include an agreement about informing a landlord in advance about the tenant’s will to end the contract. If you have some problems and want to end the period of renting an apartment in advance, you will be required to provide an official letter to your landlord. Unless you do so, your rental contract will be prolonged automatically for the next month or even year.

The majority of landlords ask for a lease termination letter because it is unprofitable for them to leave their apartment without a tenant. Therefore, they will need to know in advance whether they have to look for another tenant or not.

When preparing the documents for termination of a current rent contract, keep in mind the requirements and regulations of a particular state. The most important rule is that according to some local laws, a tenant is required to provide a lease termination letter some days or months before the end of the rent period.

An undoubted advantage of a lease termination letter is the fact that it is a document that proves that a landlord had received a warning about the end of the rent. In the future, if a judge is involved in the process of eviction, a tenant will have proof that they did everything according to the laws and have a right to end a rental contract in advance. For both landlord and tenant to be safe, please keep documenting all the documents you have sent to each other.

What might be a reason to end a lease contract earlier than its original ending date? A tenant might not be satisfied with the living conditions. A landlord might not have responded to the tenant’s questions and requests concerning some repairs that were needed to be done. You can include the reason for canceling the agreement in a lease termination letter. It might be something very serious that contradicts the Implied Warranty of Habitability.

A particular date when you are required to provide a lease termination letter can vary depending on the regulations of a state you live in. Usually, if you rent an apartment and pay for it from month to month, you will have to provide the document at least 30 days before the end of a lease contract. So please prepare it in advance. If we are talking about a fixed-term lease, you might need to provide a letter even earlier, for example, 60 or 90 days in advance. Be careful and study the regulations of your state precisely. Otherwise, your letter may be taken into consideration neither by a landlord nor by a judge that might be involved in the process.

Keep in mind that there might be some particular cases in which a landlord is unable to end a lease contract in advance or has a right not to do so. It is better to go through your lease agreement first. If you have some doubts, have a talk with an attorney.

What should be included in a Lease Termination Letter

Every lease termination letter should include the following information:

The name of the landlord (a person who owns a property);
The name of the tenant (a person who rents this property);
Full information about the primary rental contract (name of the agreement, the date when it started, and when it was going to end);
Information on eviction process (on which particular date a tenant will move out from the apartment and leave it empty without their belongings);
A new address of a tenant to which some further letters and all the other documents and deposits will be sent (different from the current address of the apartment);
Justification of ending the renting period (the reason why a tenant decided to end the contract in advance);
The lease end date.

It is highly recommended to attach a copy of a lease termination letter, too. You might also want to send some additional agreements like a move-in and move-out checklist and include suggestions on the dates of the final meeting with a landlord and an inspection.

How a Lease Termination Letter Works

In this section, we will give you all the needed instructions on how to fill out the form.

However, if you are still not sure about some clauses of the contract, we advise you to contact an attorney to make sure you did not make any mistake.

At the very top of the form, you are required to write down your name, the date, and other essential contact information;
At the beginning of the letter, address your tenant;
Then you should give information on the address of the apartment, the dates when the contact started to be valid and when it will end. Do not forget the most important one - the reason for ending the agreement in advance;
The second paragraph includes information about a walkthrough completed during the moving-in process;
Mention that the same procedure should be done when the tenant will be moving out;
It is extremely important to ask for a new address of a tenant. They will move out from the current apartment, so a landlord needs to know to which address they should send all future letters and deposit;
Do not forget to put your signature at the end of the letter.