Tennessee 14 Day Notice to Pay or Vacate

In Tennessee, landlord tenant law is administered only for certain counties. These counties are covered by the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act also known as URLTA. The Act was geared to counties that had a population of more than sixty-eight thousand people. This was from a census in the seventies. At that time those counties were: Knox, Anderson, Wilson, Blount,Shelby, Davidson, Hamilton, Maury, Sevier, Madison, Montgomery, Bradley, and Sumner. During the 2008 census, additional counties were added, specifically: Sullivan, Washington, Rutherford and Williamson.

In Tennessee, leases may contain a “waiver of default notice” which is language that tells the tenant that if they breach the lease, no notice must be provided. Prior to November 1, 2014, when a tenant has failed to meet the rental obligations or poses a threat to health and safety; the landlord would provide written notice that if the breach were not fixed within fourteen days, the tenant would have to move out of the rental unit on the thirtieth day.

NOW, only FOURTEEN days is given, therefore, if the tenant does not pay the past due rent, that tenant now has only 14 days to move out or face the legal road to eviction. This legal avenue is called the Forcible Entry and Detainer aka FED. Generally you may start counting out those 14 days the day after the tenant is late with the rent. Check with your local courthouse or with an attorney for the specifics.

Servicing your notice is best handled via personal service. However, if that is not possible, tacking the notice to the tenant’s door is acceptable. It cannot hurt to follow this up with a mailing of the notice but only mailing is not usually accepted as a means of proper service.

Once those fourteen days are over, march yourself to your local courthouse and pay the fee determined by your local court to initiate proceedings as quick as possible.