Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

What you have heard is wrong. You can contractually agree on 60-days notice. The law allows people to put any term in their contract, unless it is contrary to law or public policy. There is no law or public policy against requiring 60-days notice.

Your other alternative, however, is to put in your contract a specific provision regarding delivery of the written notice, e.g., no e-mail OR e-mail will be considered a legally binding written notice, and then enforcing it. The tenant owes you rent for the full notice period, and you can take it out of the deposit or take them to small claims court if the deposit isn't enough after all the deductions.

So, for example, if they call you or email you, you are free to say, "Thanks for the heads-up, but please remember our contract requires formal written notice, so your 30-days will start running from the date you deliver the formal notice to me. Let me know what your actual move-out day will be, and I'll list the place for rent based on that. So if I can get a tenant in early, your rent will be discounted by any rent I can collect from the new tenant if it is within your 30-days." And of course you can substitute "60" for "30" in that monologue if you have that provision in your contract.

To end a periodic rental agreement, such as a month to month tenancy, the tenant must give the landlord proper written notice before the move. (Civ. Code, sect. 1946.) The statute clearly uses the term "written," so phone is insufficient although an e-mail is a legally sufficient writing.

That statute also provides that the amount of notice must be the same amount of notice as there are days between rent payments. So if rent is paid monthly, a tenant must give the landlord written notice at least 30 days before the move.

The statute appears to allow the landlord and tenant to specify different times in the lease agreement, as long as at least 7 days notice is given.