Notice to Vacate Letter: Free Template and NY Rules

A notice to vacate letter is a short written notice in which you, the tenant, tell your landlord that you are moving out and on what date. In New York, a month-to-month tenant should give at least one full month’s notice before the end of a rental period, and a tenant with a lease should follow the notice clause in that lease. Below you’ll find a template you can copy, a filled example, the New York rules, and the steps that help you get your security deposit back.

What is a notice to vacate letter?

It’s a formal letter from a tenant to a landlord or property manager that ends the tenancy on a specific date. People search for it under many names: moving letter to landlord, intent to vacate letter, move-out notice, 30-day notice to landlord. It’s the same document.

Putting it in writing does three things for you. It creates a dated record of when you gave notice, it fixes the exact day your rent obligation ends, and it starts the move-out process that leads to your security deposit refund. A phone call or a chat in the hallway does none of that.

This page covers the tenant’s letter. A landlord’s notice ending a tenancy is a different document with its own rules in New York (see the table below).

How much notice do you need to give in New York?

The short answer: one full month for a month-to-month tenancy, and whatever your lease says for a fixed-term lease. Here is how New York law splits it.

How to count the notice period

Count back from the last day of a rental period, not from any day you like. If your rent is due on the 1st and you want to be out by October 31, your landlord should have your letter by September 30. Mail takes days, so send it a week earlier and keep the proof of delivery.

Before you send anything, read your lease once more. It may set a longer notice period, a specific address for notices, or a required delivery method, and those terms are what your landlord will hold you to.

What to include in your notice to vacate letter

A good letter is short. It needs these details, and nothing that can be read two ways:

1. Your full name and the names of every tenant on the lease
2. The rental address, including the apartment or unit number
3. Your landlord’s or property manager’s name and address, exactly as they appear in your lease
4. The date you write the letter
5. A clear sentence that you are ending the tenancy
6. The exact move-out date (a calendar date, not “end of next month”)
7. The lease clause or tenancy type you are giving notice under
8. A request for a pre-move-out inspection
9. Your forwarding address for the security deposit and the itemized statement
10. How and when you will return the keys
11. Your signature, and the signature of every tenant on the lease

A reason for leaving is optional. You can add one line if it helps, for example a job in another city. Leave out complaints, apologies and negotiations about repairs: put those in a separate message so the notice itself stays clean.

Notice to vacate letter template

Copy this sample, replace everything in brackets, and delete any line that doesn’t apply to you.

Filled example: moving letter to landlord

Here is the same template filled in for a month-to-month tenant in Brooklyn who pays rent on the 1st and wants to leave at the end of October.

Jordan sends it on September 22, so the letter arrives well before September 30, one full rental period before the move-out date.

How to write a notice to vacate, step by step

1. Read your lease. Find the notice period, the address for notices and any required delivery method.
2. Pick your move-out date. Make it the last day of a rental period, then count back to get your send-by date.
3. Fill in the template. Use the landlord’s name and address from the lease, not from memory.
4. Get every signature. If two tenants are on the lease, a letter from one of them may not end the tenancy for both.
5. Send it with proof. Use one of the methods below.
6. Keep a copy. Save the signed PDF, the mailing receipt and any reply in one folder until your deposit is back.

How to deliver your notice with proof

The notice only counts if you can show your landlord got it on time. Choose a method that leaves a record.

Certified mail with return receipt

You get a mailing receipt when you send it and a signature when it’s delivered. This is the strongest record if there’s ever a dispute about the date.

Email

Email works if your lease allows it or your landlord already handles notices that way. Attach the signed letter as a PDF, ask for a written reply confirming receipt, and keep the sent message.

Hand delivery

Bring two copies. Ask your landlord or the building manager to sign and date one, and keep that one.

If your lease doesn’t say how to deliver notices, send the email and the certified letter on the same day. It costs little and removes any doubt.

After you send it: inspection and security deposit in New York

Pre-move-out inspection

Under New York General Obligations Law 7-108, once either side gives notice to end the tenancy, the landlord must tell you in writing that you can ask for an inspection before you move out. The inspection takes place no earlier than two weeks and no later than one week before the tenancy ends, with at least 48 hours’ written notice, and you can be there. The landlord then gives you an itemized list of proposed deductions, and you get the chance to fix those items before you leave.

Ask for it in your letter, as the template does. It’s the best way to know about any deduction while you can still do something about it.

Security deposit return

In New York, a security deposit can’t be more than one month’s rent. For most market-rate apartments, within 14 days after you move out, the landlord must return the deposit and give you an itemized statement for any amount kept. If the landlord misses the 14 days, the landlord loses the right to keep any part of the deposit. More on amounts and rules in our guide to security deposit rules.

On move-out day

1. Take dated photos and a video of every room, including inside the fridge, oven and closets.
2. Return every key and ask for a written receipt.
3. Transfer or close utilities in your name for the move-out date.
4. Keep your forwarding address active so the deposit and statement reach you.

If a bill shows up weeks later, check what a landlord can charge after move-out before you pay it.

What not to do

1. Don’t give notice only by phone or text. Without a written, dated letter, it’s your word against your landlord’s.
2. Don’t write a vague date. “Around the end of October” gives the landlord room to charge you for November.
3. Don’t send it late. A letter that arrives on the 3rd may push your end date a full month later.
4. Don’t treat the deposit as last month’s rent unless your landlord agrees to it in writing.
5. Don’t leave before a fixed-term lease ends without a plan. Read our guide to breaking a lease first.
6. Don’t skip the inspection or the photos. They are your evidence if deductions come later.

Moving out of a month-to-month rental

Month-to-month is the simplest tenancy to leave: one letter, one rental period of notice, and you’re done. That flexibility is the main reason people choose month-to-month rentals when they are in a city for a semester, an internship or a first job.

If your next place is a room in New York, SharedEasy rents private and shared rooms in shared homes in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, and in Los Angeles. Leases start at one month and run month-to-month, rooms in NYC are from $840 a month, all-in (utilities, WiFi and weekly cleaning of common areas), and your room is ready within 24 hours of the agreed check-in date. That makes it easy to line up your move-in with the move-out date in your notice. Already a SharedEasy resident? We contact you 60, 45, 30 and 15 days before your move-out date with reminders and extension options (on a one-month contract, starting at 20 days), and your move-out instructions arrive the week before you leave.

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