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Create a Notice to Quit
What this document does
A landlord's notice determining a tenancy and calling on the tenant to deliver up possession. Where the tenancy is month to month and there is no written notice clause, s. 106 of the Transfer of Property Act fixes fifteen days running from receipt. Note that State Rent Control Acts override s. 106 wherever they conflict, and most prescribe their own grounds, periods and forum — a tenancy inside a Rent Act is usually not determinable by a bare notice at all.
Notice
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Notice to Quit
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What else is in it — 5 clauses, 5 optional
- 01
Who the notice is from and to
The head of the notice: the place and date it bears, who it issues from, and everyone it is addressed to. Recipients are entered here rather than through the party picker — a notice is served on its recipients, not agreed with them, and the Sender is its only signatory.
- 02
Subject
The one line a recipient reads first, and the line the notice is later found by in a file. Written by the Sender rather than composed from the facts — those live on other clauses, and a clause cannot read another clause's data.
- 03
The tenancy
What is let, to whom, since when, and on what terms. The premises must be described well enough that a court could identify them from the notice alone — a vague description is the commonest defect in a notice to quit.
- 04
Determination of the tenancy
The operative paragraph: the tenancy is determined and possession is called for. The period forks — where s. 106 governs, fifteen days from receipt is fixed by statute and is not the Sender's to vary; where the lease has its own notice clause, that clause governs and the period is whatever it says.
- 05
Delivery of possession
The call to hand the premises back, and where the keys are to go. Separate from the determination paragraph because they are two different things: the tenancy ends by the notice, and possession is delivered afterwards.
After it is drafted
Getting it to the recipient
A notice takes effect when it reaches the person it names rather than when it is signed, so how it travels matters about as much as what it says. Registered post with acknowledgement due is the usual choice because it produces both a receipt and a card that comes back; courier and email do the same job where the agreement or the statute allows them. Whichever route it goes by, what it leaves behind is the part worth having.
Keeping the proof it was sent
The postal receipt, the acknowledgement card when it comes back, the courier's tracking printout, the delivery report on an email — whichever way it travelled, that record is what shows the notice went out and when. It tends to matter more later than the notice itself, because a recipient who says nothing reached them is answered by a receipt rather than by a copy of the letter. An envelope that comes back refused or unclaimed is worth keeping unopened for the same reason: refusing a notice is generally not treated as having escaped it.
Letting the period run
The period this notice gives runs from when it reaches the recipient, not from the date it carries — which is why the proof of sending matters for working out when it ends. Moving before it expires tends to undercut the notice, since the point of naming a period is to have given it. If a reply arrives, it is worth keeping with the proof of service: what the other side admits in writing can matter as much as what they refuse.
If they do not give up possession
This notice ends the tenancy; it does not obtain possession, and the gap between those two is where landlords get into trouble. Taking possession without an order — changing a lock, cutting a supply, moving belongings out — is not open to a landlord however clear the position looks, because s. 6 of the Specific Relief Act lets a person put out of possession sue to be put back without even having to prove title. Where the tenant stays on, the route is an eviction suit, and where a Rent Act applies it is that Act's forum and its grounds rather than the general law. This is the point to take it to a lawyer.