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A 3 Day Notice informs your tenant that they have 3 days to pay overdue rent, or they have 3 days to move out. A three day notice can be served as soon as the rent isdue, and in most states is a requirement before evictions proceedings can begin. If you have a written lease, you should review it to recall what day of the week payment is officially due, and to make sure the lease doesn’t specify a longer amount of notice before bringing a landlord tenant action in court (i.e. a 30 day notice).

Calculating the three day period incorrectly when giving the notice or filing the case in court prior to the expiration of the three day time period will likely result in your landlord tenant action being dismissed. Weekends and holidays observed bystate agencies should not be included when calculating the three day time period. For example: a 3-day notice served on Tuesday, July 3 would expire on Monday, July 9, because you would not count holidays (July 4), or weekends (Saturday, and Sunday). So make sure you don'tstart your evictions proceeding before the expiration of the notice period, or your case will be dismissed.

You can only request rent amounts that are overdue in your 3 Day Notice. Do not include a demand for money that is not “rent”, such as utilities, security deposits, late fees or other costs. If you have a lease in effect with your tenant and any of the preceding items are defined as “additional rent” in the lease, then you may include it in the amount due in the 3-day notice. If youlist items other than rent in your three day notice or money that is not due yet (future rent), your evictions action can be dismissed by the court. 

The 3-day notice should be personally delivered to the tenant. In some states,oral notification is sufficient (i.e. it is not necessary to give your tenant written notice if you orally tell them they have to pay rent or move out within 3 days). A landlord tenant attorney in your area such as landlord tenant lawyer long island can advise you of your state’s laws via e-mail or telephone.

If personal service is not an option, you can also mail the 3-day notice to the tenant.  However, please note that you typically must add five days each way for mail time, depending on your court's requirements.  In other words if you use the mail to deliver an eviction notice suffolk county, you have to allow 13 days before commencing an evictions proceeding (3 days + 5 days + five days).

There are some situations where delivering the notice via the mail is the onlyoption or where the tenant will always be allowed to mail a response to a three day notice. This usually happens when the landlord uses a P.O. Box or an out-of-town address for the tenant to mail rent to.

If your tenant pays you the full amount of money due as per your 3-day notice, you must accept the money, and you can no longer bring a non-payment proceeding against your tenant to evict them. If the tenant only has some of the rent, you do not have to accept it. If you accept partial payment of some of the money due, then the 3-day notice has been partly complied with, and you can no longer evict the tenant for non-payment of rent. If you accept rent and you would still like to get rid of your tenants, instead of initiatinga non-payment eviction proceeding, you must bring what’s called a holdover eviction proceeding. You should consult with a landlord tenant attorney in your jurisdiction for more information on thesteps necessary to bring a holdover proceeding.

If there are any defects in your 3 Day Notice, or if you bring an incorrect type of evictions action, landlord tenant courts will dismiss your case. If you’re not from Suffolk County or Nassau County, consult with your county’s court for theirrequirements, or consult with a nassau landlord tenant lawyer. The consequence of a dismissal is that a new and correct three day notice must becorrectly served, and the action has to be started again from scratch.  This would allow the tenants to remain in the property for up to months longer than necessary. 

Another conceivable consequence to bringing a defective eviction proceeding is that you may be held responsible to your tenants for legal fees and costs associated with defending the evictions proceeding. This is why it is almost always better to hire a professional to handle the matter for you as quickly and expeditiously as possible. Good luck!

Tags: landlord tenant lawyer long island, nassau landlord lawyer, suffolk landlord lawyer, suffolk landlord tenant lawyer