Lease Termination & Early Termination Laws by State

A 50-state comparison for residential rentals, with every state verified against official sources — the statutes, the enrolled acts where the published code runs behind them, and, where a rule comes from the courts, the opinions themselves. It covers how a tenancy lawfully ends other than by a for-cause eviction: the notice each side gives, whether a reason is required, what happens when a lease term ends, holdover, the landlord's duty to re-let, early-termination fees, and the tenant's statutory routes out of a lease. Each row shows its own verified date, and each state links to its own page with what every figure means on a calendar, who it applies to, and full citations.

In 32 states a landlord's headline notice to end a month-to-month tenancy is 30 days, but 7 states publish no single figure, the day counts are measured from 10 different anchors, 11 states require a reason for some or all tenancies, and 12 states give a victim of domestic violence no statutory way out of a lease.

Notice, reasons, re-letting, and domestic-violence exits

Day counts are the statutory periods exactly as each statute states them, and they do not measure the same thing: in some states the days run from the day the notice is delivered, in others the tenancy can end only at the end of a rental period, on the next rent-due date, or on the first of the following month, and some states state a different period for different tenancies or no single figure at all. A blank count does not mean no notice is required. The linked state page carries what each figure means on a calendar, who it applies to, and full citations. Where a state requires a reason to end a tenancy, the notice period is only part of the answer; where a city adds its own rules, that city's page is linked from the state's row.

No figure appears here unless it was verified against official state sources on the date shown — see how we verify.

Lease end, holdover, electronic notice, and military exits

The second table covers what happens when a fixed-term lease reaches its end date, what a tenant who stays on may owe, whether a termination notice may be delivered electronically, and what each state adds to the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act for military households.

A holdover measure is shown as the statute states it; several are ceilings a court may award up to, or attach only to a wilful holdover, and the state page carries each qualifier. An electronic-notice cell of “Not addressed” means the statute is silent on delivery methods or on electronic delivery, not that it is permitted.

No figure appears here unless it was verified against official state sources on the date shown — see how we verify.