Eviction Notices

There is a new law that was passed on February 28, 2019 that changed No-Cause evictions. Please see this resource: About Just Cause Eviction and Rent Increase Protections to learn more about these.

Remember, in all cases, a landlord cannot retaliate or discriminate against you by giving you a no-cause notice, as explained in the resources ‘Discrimination Against Tenants’ and ‘Retaliation by a Landlord’ on this website. If you live in a mobile home park or some kinds of federally-subsidized housing, the landlord may not be able to use a no-cause notice. ORS 90.427.

If your rental agreement is for a fixed term, your landlord may give you a 30-day for-cause notice (33 days if mailed and not posted) with the opportunity to fix the problem within the term of the agreement. The notice must describe a material violation of the rental agreement done by you, your household members or your guest. If the problem in the notice is “ongoing” (an unauthorized roommate, for example), you are entitled to at least 14 days to fix the problem. If the problem is “not ongoing” (a loud party, for example), your landlord may require you to immediately fix the problem.

If you cause the same problem within six months after receiving a 30-day for-cause notice, the landlord may give a 10-day notice (13 days if mailed and not posted) without allowing you any time to fix the problem

If you rent week-to-week, your landlord may give you a 7-day for-cause notice (10 days if mailed and not posted), with an opportunity to fix the problem in 4 days. If you cause the same problem within six months, the landlord may give you a 4-day notice without allowing you to fix the problem. ORS 90.392.

If you are keeping a pet in violation of the rental agreement, your landlord may give you a 10-day notice to remove the pet or move (13 days if mailed and not posted). ORS 90.405.

Your landlord may give you a 24-hour notice (add 3 days if mailed and not posted) if your pet:

• inflicts substantial personal injury to someone on the premises, other than you;

• seriously threatens to inflict substantial personal injury to someone on the premises, other than you;

• causes major damage to the unit on more than one occasion; or
• commits an act that is outrageous in the extreme on, or very near, the premises.

This notice must describe the incident and tell you that if you remove the pet from the premises before the end of the 24-hour notice period you can stay in the unit. If you do this but then return the pet to the unit at any later time, the landlord can give a new 24-hour notice (add 3 days if mailed and not posted) to move, without giving you another chance to remove the pet. ORS 90.396.

The landlord can give you a 72-hour notice to pay rent or move after your rent is more than 7 days overdue.If your written rental agreement allows, your landlord may also give you a 144-hour notice to pay rent or move after your rent is more than 4 days overdue. The 144-hour notice can be given sooner but must give you longer to pay, so the date you must pay or move works out to be the same as with a 72-hour notice. (If you rent week-to-week, a 72-hour notice can be given if your rent is more than 4 days late). The landlord must give three more days for you to pay or move if the notice is mailed. If you pay, your money is due by 11:59 p.m. of the third day for a 72-hour notice or 11:59 p.m. of the sixth day for a 144-hour notice. ORS 90.394.

The landlord must accept your full payment of rent during the notice period. The landlord does not have to accept a partial payment of rent during the notice period. Also, the landlord does not have to accept any payments offered after the notice period. (If the landlord accepts partial payment of rent, the landlord cannot evict you for non-payment of rent unless the partial payment plan is in writing (ORS 90.417.)

Usually you can mail the late rent within the time periods. BUT if the nonpayment of rent notice was personally delivered to you or posted on your door and then mailed AND if your written rental agreement and the nonpayment of rent notice require this, you must bring (not mail) the rent to the place listed on the notice.(The place for paying rent must be either on the premises or where you always pay rent, and it must be available throughout the notice period). ORS 90.394.

Your landlord may give you a 24-hour notice (add 3 days if mailed and not posted) if you, your pet, or someone in your control:

• inflicts substantial personal injury upon others on the premises; 

• seriously threatens to inflict personal injury or recklessly endangers a person on the premises;

• causes major damage to the unit; or

• commits an act that is outrageous in the extreme on, or very near, the premises. ORS 90.396

“Someone in your control” means a person that you permit to come to or stay in your place when you know or should know that he or she is committing (or is likely to commit) an “outrageous act,” personal injury, substantial damage, or seriously threatening injury or damage. “Outrageous acts” include (but aren’t limited to) drug manufacturing or delivery, gambling, prostitution activity, burglary, or intimidation. The act must be extreme or very serious. If not, the landlord must use a 30-day or a 10-day notice and not a 24-hour notice to evict a tenant.

If you are victim of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault, your landlord is generally not allowed to try to evict you because you are victim of abuse in the past or the present, because of incident of abuse, or because of criminal activity or police contact related to the abuse where you were the victim. However, your landlord is allowed to evict you due to the abuse if the landlord has given you a written warning regarding the conduct of the abuser who is not a tenant and either (1) you permit the abuser to remain on the premises, and the abuser is an actual and imminent threat to the safety of others on the premises, OR (2) you consent to the abuser living with you without the landlord’s permission. ORS 90.453

Your landlord may also terminate you if you have committed a criminal act of physical violence related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking against a household member who is a tenant,by giving you a 24-hour written notice specifying the criminal act and when you must move out. The landlord may give this notice to only the abuser and may not terminate the other tenants living in the unit. ORS 90.445.

If you live in “drug and alcohol-free housing” (see definition below) and have lived there less than 2 years, your landlord may give you a 48-hour notice for consuming, possessing or sharing drugs or alcohol on or off the premises. The notice must tell you what you did wrong and give you 24 hours to fix the problem. If you correct the problem within 24 hours, then you may stay. ORS 90.398

To qualify as “drug- and alcohol-free housing” one tenant in each designated dwelling must be a recovering alcoholic or drug addict participating in an addiction recovery program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. The landlord must be a nonprofit corporation or a housing authority, must provide a drug- and alcohol-free environment, and must provide various forms of support for the tenants’ recovery. There must also be a written rental agreement that states that the housing is alcohol- and drug-free, that the tenant must participate in a program of recovery and in urinalysis testing, and that the tenant may be evicted for not following these rules. ORS 90.243.

If you live in a group recovery home (such are Oxford Houses) and have used or possessed alcohol or drugs within the past week, the home may have a police officer remove you from your housing with 24-hours notice if there is proof of relapse. The landlord is required to give you written notice explaining the reasons for removal, and the deadline for move-out (which must be at least 24 hours after the notice is served). The home must allow you to follow any emergency departure plan previously agreed to at the time of your admission to the group recovery home. A tenant who has been removed in this way has a right to challenge the removal. If a court finds that the group recovery home misused the removal process, the tenant is entitled to damages in the amount of 3 months’ rent and the right to move back in. ORS 90.440

The group recovery home’s landlords are required to send copies of all notices of removal to the Oregon Department of Human Services in order to keep a file available to those who may wish to monitor the process. ORS 90.243.

If the original tenant has moved and you are subleasing in violation of a written rental agreement that prohibits subleasing, and the landlord has not knowingly accepted rent from you, the landlord may give a 24-hour notice (add 3 days if mailed and not posted). ORS 90.403.

If a government inspector posts your dwelling as unsafe and unlawful to occupy, the landlord may give you a 24-hour notice unless the problems were caused by the landlord. ORS 90.380.

If you live in a place because of your employment in or around the rental building (for example, a resident manager), you can be given a written notice of at least 24 hours terminating your employment. If you have not moved out when the time in the notice has expired, your former employer can file an eviction case against you but cannot lock you out or call the police for trespass. ORS 91.120.

Note: Farmworkers who work in fields, and not in and around the rental buildings, may not be evicted with this kind of 24-hour notice.

If the tenant has lived in the same unit for one year or longer and has a fixed term lease, the landlord may terminate the tenancy 90 days before the end of the fixed term lease by giving the tenant a 90 Day Notice of Termination/ Notice of Non-Renewal/ “Three Strikes Notice” for having committed three or more lease violations in the prior 12 months. A “Three Strikes Notice” must explain the reason for termination/ non-renewal. Before a landlord can give a tenant a “Three Strikes Notice,” the landlord must have given the tenant at least three written Warning Notices (“Strikes”) within the last 12 months. Each Warning Notice must:

1. Be given at the time of the violation;
2. Specify the lease violation;
3. State that the landlord may choose to end the tenancy when the lease expires if there are three violations within the 12 months before the lease ends; and
4. States that correcting the third violation is not a defense to the lease termination.

Sufficiently State the Reason: All Three Strikes Termination Notices and Three Strikes Warning Notices must specify the lease violations. If the Notices do not specifically explain how the lease was violated, that is a defense to the eviction.

After the tenant has lived in the home for one year or more, a landlord can terminate a tenancy with 90 days’ notice by giving the tenant a notice for one of these four “landlord-based” reasons:

1. The landlord intends to either demolish the unit or use the unit for something other than a residence;

2. The landlord intends to make repairs or renovations to the unit, and the property will be unsafe to live in;

3. The landlord or landlord’s immediate family member plans to move in and the landlord does not own a comparable unit in the same building that is available for the tenant to move into at the time the tenant receives the notice; or

4. The landlord has accepted an offer to buy the rental unit from someone who plans to move in.

There are no other “landlord-based” reasons allowed than the above four. A landlord can give a Landlord Reason Notice to tenants with either a month to month rental agreement or a fixed term lease, but the landlord cannot end the tenancy in the middle of the fixed term lease.

Sufficiently State the Reason: All Landlord Reason Notices must explain in the Notice the landlord reason for termination and state facts to support the reason. If the landlord’s reason is that they have accepted an offer to buy the rental unit, the notice must be given no more than 120 days from the date the landlord accepted the offer and the notice must also include written evidence of the offer. If the Notice does not explain the landlord reason and/or state specific facts to support the reason, that is a defense to the eviction.

Payment of Relocation Assistance: At the time the landlord gives the tenant a Landlord Reason Notice, the landlord must also pay the tenant one month’s rent as relocation assistance unless the landlord owns four or fewer rental units.

A tenant who lives in the City of Portland and receives a Landlord Reason Notice may be entitled to more relocation assistance than one month’s rent from their landlord. Discuss your situation with an attorney. You may want to contact Legal Aid Services of Oregon at (503) 224-4086.