In Delaware, a landlord cannot terminate a rental agreement without first giving the tenant proper notice of the termination. It’s also important to know that a rental agreement cannot be effective for longer than one year unless the agreement was in writing. If there was no formal rental agreement concerning a property, both the landlord and the tenant should assume that the agreement is month-to-month.
When there is a rental agreement that is not month-to-month, the landlord may only end the agreement on the date that the rental term expires. The landlord must also provide the tenant with written notice of the termination of the rental agreement at least 60 days before the rental term ends.
A landlord who is renting a property on month-to-month terms must also provide the tenant with at least 60 days’ written notice of terminating the rental agreement. When the property is a month-to-month rental, however, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement at any point in time as long as the tenant has 60 days notice of the termination. The written notice of termination must indicate that the 60-day period begins on the day after the notice was presented to the tenant.
There are times when a landlord fails to provide a tenant with at least 60 days notice before terminating the rental agreement. When this happens, a tenant may be caused undue stress and financial hardship from the landlord’s disregard for legal restrictions. A person in this situation may wish to seek some legal help while they attempt to stay in the rental for the entire 60-day period or pursue compensation for expenses that have resulted from their sudden loss of housing.
Source: State of Delaware, “Property Residential Landlord-Tenant Code“, October 07, 2014