Lease Termination Form

Introduction

If you are a landlord, you cannot expect not to feel the need of a landlord lease termination letter. There may arise some situations when you need to send this letter to your tenant for releasing property. If a tenant violates any clause or term of the agreement, damages the property or engages in any illegal activities, a landlord has the right to issue a lease termination letter against the tenant. Besides this, if the landlord decides to renovate or sell his property for any reason, he can terminate the lease of his property.

What is a landlord lease termination letter?

A lease termination letter landlord to tenant serves as a notice or an official document that signifies a lease agreement will be expiring soon. A landlord may issue this letter for a number of reasons, such as –

• If the tenant breaches any policy of the agreement without taking landlord’s permission
• If the tenant fails to pay the rent in due course of time
• Implementation of new ordinances or codes as per the state authority

Under all these above-mentioned circumstances, a lease termination letter can be issued by a landlord to protect his property. However, the termination procedure depends upon the tenancy factor. For example, a joint lease termination is different from an individual or single property lease termination.

Why does a landlord require a lease termination letter?

Being a landlord requires periodic tenancy; you need to prepare a correct notice in which the period of tenancy should be written in correct format either in terms of days, month or year. The notice must give a minimum period of time to both landlord and the tenant before the tenancy agreement comes to an end.As per state law, a tenancy notice must confront to these basic elements –

• The letter should be in writing
• It must include proper name and address of the tenant
• Mention the date when the  tenancy is going to end
• The notice should be signed by the authorized person or the owner of the property

Terms and conditions of a notice period

A tenant should be provided a minimum 21-days’ notice period to release the property. However, if the landlord gives written notice for ending tenancy agreement and the tenant wants to move out of the property before the mentioned time period, the tenant is liable to serve 21 days of notice period.Furthermore, if there exists a group of tenants in the agreement and one of the tenants gives notice to the landlord to end the tenancy, this may lead to the termination of the lease for all tenants.

How to write a lease termination letter?

All tenancy agreements are formed over a course of time of six months or a year after which both tenant and the landlord either need to renew their agreement or release the property. While such type of tenant and landlord relationship is seen from legal perspective, not renewing the lease agreement with the tenant may bring a lot of permissible troubles for the landlord. This fact is taken more seriously if a tenant is occupying the property for many years. Therefore, the best way to inform tenants is to write a landlord lease termination letter that includes the reason for termination, how much time they are going to get for releasing a property and what are the things they must take into consideration. Remember, giving a property on rent is no less than a business decision.

• Reasons for issuing lease termination notice

In a lease termination letter, the landlord must state the reason for issuing the notice. The reason may include various factors such as safety issue, noise complaint, breach of any clause or term of the agreement, selling the property and so on.

• Mention the dates clearly

Make sure the dates are clearly mentioned in the lease agreement and the tenant should abide by it. There are possible chances that a tenant may not agree to leave the property within the specified time period. Therefore, issuing such a legal agreement with a firm deadline can make this task easier for landlords to release their property from occupancy.

• Include a tenant checklist

When the tenants get a checklist on how to leave the property, they are more liable to leave it in good condition. Therefore, in a lease termination letter, a checklist should be included mentioning the cleaning chores they should do, what cost will be charged from them if the landlord needs to do it on behalf of the tenant and other specific items that should be left in good condition.

• End the letter with a follow-up response

Always end a lease termination letter with a follow-up response. This makes sure that the recipient has read the letter and clearly understood its possible consequences.

• If possible, include a reference letter

If your find that your tenant has treated your property well and not done any kind of damage, then you can do a favor by issuing a reference letter with the notice. This document must highlight the important qualities of your tenant such as how good they are, how carefully they look after your property and the so on. Sometimes, landlords sell their property of they need money or for any other reason. This sort of reference letter is the best way to say goodbye to your tenants with letters of gratitude.Some other points to keep in mind in lease letter

• Mention the date when the letter is written
• State the date when the tenant must vacate the property
• The circumstances that may lead to prior break of the agreement
• The tenant’s name and contact information
• Include  the address of the property which is subjected to vacate in the rental agreement

Types of lease termination letter

The type of lease termination letter depends on the type of property you have. However, it is divided into four main sections. Let’s have a look at them –

1. Commercial lease termination letter
2. Rental lease termination letter
3. Lease termination agreement
4. Lease termination notice

Let’s discuss each of them in brief –

Commercial lease termination letter

A commercial lease termination letter must include some specific details about the property along with terms and conditions of the lease agreement which both landlord and tenant are liable to abide by. Here are some tips on how to write a commercial lease termination letter.

• Mention the name of the parties in the agreement

This is an important provision of the letter where the name of both parties (tenant and landlord) should be mentioned without any spelling error along with contact details such as phone number, email id and permanent residential address.

• An introduction or opening paragraph

The opening paragraph of a commercial lease termination letter should clearly state what the purpose of the letter is. It should signify the reason behind your decision of breaking the lease. However, it is not necessary that you need to give a concrete reason for taking such a decision, still giving a small hint can make your task easier.

• Address of the premises

The address of the leasing property should be mentioned in the letter.

• Termination fee

If the tenant is liable to pay any termination fee while leaving the property, it should clearly be mentioned in the letter to avoid further confusion.

Rental lease termination letter

A rental lease termination letter is issued by a landlord to notify tenants to release his/her property within a specific time period. However, to write this letter, certain fundamental guidelines should be followed. Here are a few tips on how to write a rental lease termination letter.

• State the reason clearly for termination

The letter must state the reason for termination to avoid further doubt or question. However, mentioning a specific reason is not necessary, still, this sort of act is considered a courtesy.

• A checklist for the tenant

If you want to get back your property in good condition, make sure you mention a checklist in the letter which tenants should follow while leaving the property.

Lease termination agreement

When you feel the need to terminate your lease agreement, make sure to accomplish the whole process through a formal request, and the best way to do this is to write a lease termination letter which will be treated as an official document. If any sort of dispute arises in future between the landlord and tenant, both of them can use this document as a proof of termination. So, a lease termination agreement letter must include all important points to avoid further inconveniences. Here are a few tips on how to write a lease termination agreement letter –

• Mention the things that you want in good condition before the tenant leave your property.
• State the reason for breaking the lease agreement. If you are terminating the agreement early, your reason should not be vogue. Rather it should be direct and specific to avoid future consequences.
• End your letter with a follow-up request which makes sure that the agreement is read by the recipient, and he/she clearly understands its consequences.
• Once the final draft of the letter is ready, both the parties should sign on the document to use it as legal evidence.

Lease termination notice

A lease termination notice is issued when a landlord wishes to terminate a tenancy agreement. Here are some tips on how to write a lease termination notice –

• Include tenant’s name and address in the letter
• Include the address of the rental property on which the notice is issued

Common points to mention all lease termination letters

• Mention rental lease termination date

While writing a lease termination letter, specifically mention the date when a landlord is going to end the rental agreement or how much time a tenant will get to vacate the property. This is an important point to include in such documents to treat as legal evidence.

• Start the letter with a direct statement

Yes! That’s an important point to consider in this type of document where a landlord should get into the point right from the opening paragraph without making it too lengthy or vogue to read.

• Signature

Once the final draft of the letter is ready, both the parties (landlord and tenant) should sign on the document. This makes sure that both landlord and tenant read the letter and understands its possible consequences.

Download lease termination letter templates online

Different types of lease termination letters follow different formats. If you are finding it difficult to structure a professional lease termination letter, take the help of online lease termination letter template. There are thousands of free templates available in different categories which you can choose according to your requirement and give it a personalized look with your words. They are easy to download and are helpful in maintaining a proper format.