Landlords Can Terminate Leases: You Have 6 Months to Vacate!

Tenants typically understand the rules if they decide to move out. For instance, they must adhere to a notice period, which is three months for an unfurnished rental, with a few exceptions (condition of the apartment, health issues, job transfer, etc.). However, landlords also have the right to terminate a tenant’s lease before its term ends, under very specific conditions.

Often, a landlord may want to reclaim their property because they plan to sell it. This is a legally valid reason, but the landlord must notify the tenant of their intentions at least six months before the lease ends for an unfurnished property, and three months in advance for furnished ones. In such cases, the tenant has the right of first refusal to purchase the property, be it a house or an apartment. Naturally, there are other reasons that allow a landlord to end a lease. These reasons usually relate to the tenant’s behavior: property damage, failure to pay rent or maintain insurance, unauthorized subletting, misuse of the property, noise disturbances, etc.

There is another lesser-known reason that allows a landlord to evict a tenant. The tenant then has six months to vacate the premises. This is known as the familial reason. Either the landlord wishes to live in the property themselves, or they intend it for their partner, parents, or children. The future occupant’s identity and their relationship to the landlord must be clearly communicated to the tenant. This is what happened to Alice when she received a registered letter from her landlord right before the summer holidays, informing her that he needed the apartment for his son and his pregnant wife.

“He told me I had six months to find another place! It was really hard to take, especially since I was very happy in that apartment,” Alice shares. She also faced the challenge of looking for a place during the summer, a time when she hadn’t planned to save money for a move. “It put a lot of pressure on me and I had to search quickly, fearing that I might end up with nowhere to go,” explains Alice. This unpleasant experience ultimately pushed her to pursue her own home ownership a few months later, “to really feel like it was my own place,” she concludes.