How much notice can a landlord give for unpaid rent?
Short Answer
In NL, once rent is 5 days overdue (3 week to week) a landlord may give notice ending the tenancy at least 10 days after service (3 week to week). Paying in full before that date cancels it, except from the third notice in 12 months (s.19).
Where rent is overdue 5 days or more on a monthly or fixed-term tenancy, the landlord may give notice ending the tenancy on a date not less than 10 days after the notice is served (s.19(1)(b)). Week to week, rent must be overdue 3 days or more, and the date is not less than 3 days after service (s.19(1)(a)).
Residential Tenancies counts it this way for rent due on the 1st: rent is not overdue until the 2nd, so the earliest day to give the notice is the 7th and the earliest move-out date the 18th, if the notice is served that day (Policy 07-007; week to week, the 5th and the 9th).
The notice is the official Landlord's Notice to Terminate Early - Cause, signed, stating the termination date, and served under section 35 (s.19(4)); the time runs from service, and a notice sent by registered mail is served on the fifth day after mailing (s.35(5)). If the tenant pays all the overdue rent, including any late fee, before the date in the notice, the tenancy is not ended (s.19(2)), except where this is the third or later such notice in 12 months (s.19(3)).
The Act also still contains a 2020 provision (s.19(5)–(7)) extending the period to at least 30 days after service for a tenant who lost work or hours because of the Public Health Emergency declared on March 18, 2020, and who gives the landlord proof (a letter from the employer or a statutory declaration, s.19(6)). The emergency it depends on was cancelled effective March 14, 2022, so it no longer applies.
If the tenant neither pays nor leaves, the landlord applies to the director: only an order, enforced by the sheriff, removes a tenant (s.47).
- Section 19; Residential Tenancies Policy 07-007, Residential Tenancies Act, 2018 (Newfoundland and Labrador)