Thirty Day Notice for February

When a tenant has an oral month to month lease or tenancy, the appropriate way to terminate it is via the service of a thirty day notice.  The notice is not well named.  One could mistakenly believe that the notice just sets forth that “thirty days from now, the tenant needs to vacate”.  It isn’t that easy.  The thirty day notice has to terminate on the last day of a tenancy period.  For calendar month tenancies, that means the last day of the month.  The notice needs to be served at least 30 days prior to that date.  So, for a month like January with 31 days, the notice needs to be in the tenant’s hands on or before January 1.  For a month like April with 30 days, the notice needs to be in the tenant’s hands on the last day of the prior month (ie. March 31).  Then we get to February which always throws us for a curve.  In a normal February, to get the requisite thirty days, the notice needs to be served on or before the 29th of January.  Because we have a leap year, landlords get an extra day – to terminate as of February 29, 2016, landlords can serve the notice as late as January 30, 2016.  Enjoy that extra day!