Is It Legal to Require 60 Days Notice to Terminate Tenancy in Tennessee?

Full question:

Is it legal to require 60 days notice to terminate a month to month continuance of a 13 month lease?

• Category: Landlord Tenant
• Subcategory: Lease Termination
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Tennessee

Answer:

The answer will depend on whether you have a written lease and the terms it contains. It is legal to put a 60 day early termination clause in a lease. A tenant without a lease is generally considered a tenant-at-will. Tennesse law requires at least 30 days notice to terminate a monthly tenancy at will. If you wish to use the legal system to resolve the dispute, you may wish to review the contract infornation below.

Contracts are agreements that are legally enforceable. A contract is an agreement between two parties that creates an obligation to do or refrain from doing a particular thing. The purpose of a contract is to establish the terms of the agreement by which the parties have fixed their rights and duties. An oral contract is an agreement made with spoken words and either no writing or only partially written. An oral contract may generally be enforced the same as a written agreement. However, it is much more difficult with an oral contract to prove its existence or the terms. Oral contracts also usually have a shorter time period within which a person seeking to enforce their contract right must sue. A written contract generally provides a longer time to sue than for breach of an oral contract. Contracts are mainly governed by state statutory and common (judge-made) law and private law. Private law generally refers to the terms of the agreement between the parties, as parties have freedom to override many state law requirements regarding formalities of contracts. Each state has developed its own common law of contracts, which consists of a body of jurisprudence developed over time by trial and appellate courts on a case-by-case basis.

An unjustifiable failure to perform all or some part of a contractual duty is a breach of contract. A legal action for breach of contract arises when at least one party's performance does not live up to the terms of the contract and causes the other party to suffer economic damage or other types of measurable injury. A lawsuit for breach of contract is a civil action and the remedies awarded are designed to place the injured party in the position they would be in if not for the breach. Remedies for contractual breaches are not designed to punish the breaching party. The five basic remedies for breach of contract include the following: money damages, restitution, rescission, reformation, and specific performance. A money damage award includes a sum of money that is given as compensation for financial losses caused by a breach of contract. Parties injured by a breach are entitled to the benefit of the bargain they entered, or the net gain that would have accrued but for the breach. The type of breach governs the extent of damages that may be recovered.

Restitution is a remedy designed to restore the injured party to the position occupied prior to the formation of the contract. Parties seeking restitution may not request to be compensated for lost profits or other earnings caused by a breach. Instead, restitution aims at returning to the plaintiff any money or property given to the defendant under the contract. Plaintiffs typically seek restitution when contracts they have entered are voided by courts due to a defendant's incompetence or incapacity.

Rescission is the name for the remedy that terminates the contractual duties of both parties, while reformation is the name for the remedy that allows courts to change the substance of a contract to correct inequities that were suffered. In order to have a rescission, both parties to the contract must be placed in the position they occupied before the contract was made. Courts have held that a party may rescind a contract for fraud, incapacity, duress, undue influence, material breach in performance of a promise, or mistake, among other grounds.

Specific performance is an equitable remedy that compels one party to perform, as nearly as practicable, his or her duties specified by the contract. Specific performance is available only when money damages are inadequate to compensate the plaintiff for the breach.

Promissory estoppel is a term used in contract law that applies where, although there may not otherwise be an enforceable contract, because one party has relied on the promise of the other, it would be unfair not to enforce the agreement. Promissory estoppel arises from a promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or forebearance of a definite and substantial character on the part of the promisee and which does induce such action or forebearance in binding if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise. Detrimental reliance is a term commonly used to force another to perform their obligations under a contract, using the theory of promissory estoppel. Promissory estoppel may apply when a promise was made; reliance on the promise was reasonable or foreseeable; there was actual and reasonable reliance on the promise; the reliance was detrimental; and injustice can only be prevented by enforcing the promise. Detrimental reliance must be shown to involve reliance that is reasonable, which is a determination made on an individual case-by-case basis, taking all factors into consideration. Detrimental means that some type of harm is suffered.

Reasonable reliance is usually referred to as a theory of recovery in contract law. It was what a prudent person might believe and act upon based on something told by another. Sometimes a person acts in reliance on the promise of a profit or other benefit, only to learn that the statements or promises were either incorrect or were exaggerated. The one who acted to their detriment in reasonable reliance may recover damages for the costs of his/her actions or demand performance. Reasonable reliance connotes the use of the standard of an ordinary and average person.

Please see the following TN statutes:

66-28-203. Prohibited provisions.

(a) No rental agreement may provide that the tenant:

(1) Authorizes any person to confess judgment on a claim arising out of
the rental agreement;

(2) Agrees to the exculpation or limitation of any liability of the
landlord to the tenant arising under law or to indemnify the landlord for
that liability or the costs connected with such liability.

(b) A provision prohibited by subsection (a) included in an agreement
is unenforceable. Should a landlord willfully provide a rental agreement
containing provisions known by the landlord to be prohibited by this
chapter, the tenant may recover actual damages sustained. The tenant
cannot agree to waive or forego rights or remedies under this chapter.

66-28-512. Termination of periodic tenancy — Holdover remedies.

(a) The landlord or the tenant may terminate a week-to-week tenancy by
a written notice given to the other at least ten (10) days prior to the
termination date specified in the notice.

(b) The landlord or the tenant may terminate a month-to-month tenancy
by a written notice given to the other at least thirty (30) days prior to
the periodic rental date specified in the notice.

(c) If the tenant remains in possession without the landlord's consent
after expiration of the term of the rental agreement or its termination,
the landlord may bring an action for possession and if the tenant's
holdover is willful and not in good faith, the landlord, in addition, may
recover actual damages sustained by the landlord, plus reasonable
attorney's fees. If the landlord consents to the tenant's continued
occupancy, § 66-28-201(c) applies.