NOTICE TO QUIT AND DELIVER VACANT POSSESSION
Under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882
Mode of service: __________
Date: __________
From (Landlord)
__________
__________
Phone: __________
To (Tenant)
__________
__________
Subject: Termination of your monthly tenancy of __________ and notice to quit
Dear __________,
1. The premises
1.1 This notice concerns the following premises ("the Premises"):
__________
situated at __________.
2. The tenancy
2.1 You are my tenant of the Premises. The tenancy was created by: __________.
2.2 The tenancy began on __________.
2.3 The rent is __________ per month, payable on the __________ of each month. Each month of your tenancy therefore runs from that day in one month to the day before the corresponding day in the next month.
2.4 Rent is reserved and paid by the month, and the Premises are not let for agricultural or for manufacturing purposes. The tenancy is accordingly a tenancy from month to month, terminable by notice under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.
2.5 If any fixed term of the tenancy has already expired and you have continued in occupation with rent being paid and accepted monthly, the tenancy has continued as a monthly tenancy by holding over under section 116 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, and is terminable in the same way.
3. Why I am ending the tenancy
__________
4. Notice to quit
4.1 I hereby terminate your tenancy of the Premises.
4.2 You are called upon to quit, vacate and deliver vacant and peaceful possession of the Premises to me — free of your goods and of every person claiming through or under you — on or before the end of __________, or on the expiry of fifteen clear days from the date on which you receive this notice, whichever of those two dates is later (that later date is called "the Quit Date" in this notice).
4.3 This notice is intended to give you the full notice period required by section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 — fifteen days for a tenancy from month to month — and also any longer period that the terms of your tenancy require.
4.4 Your tenancy will stand determined at the end of the Quit Date, under sections 106 and 111(h) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. From the day after the Quit Date you will have no right to remain in the Premises.
5. How the notice period is counted
5.1 Under section 106(2) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the notice period runs from the date on which you receive this notice.
5.2 The day you receive it is not counted. The fifteen days are counted from the following day (section 9 of the General Clauses Act, 1897).
5.3 If this notice is sent to you by post, you will be taken to have received it at the time it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, unless you prove otherwise (section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897). Refusing to accept delivery, or deliberately avoiding it, will be treated as receipt.
6. Rent up to the Quit Date
You remain liable to pay rent for the Premises up to and including the Quit Date, in the usual way and on the usual date.
7. Arrears and other dues
7.1 Rent due and unpaid as on the date of this notice: __________
7.2 Any arrears shown above must be paid to me in full within fifteen days of your receiving this notice.
7.3 Before you hand over the Premises you must clear all electricity, water, gas, maintenance, society and other charges relating to your period of occupation, and give me the final paid receipts, or the final bill together with the money to pay it.
8. Security deposit
8.1 Security deposit held by me: __________
8.2 I will refund the deposit to you when you hand over vacant possession, after adjusting any arrears of rent, any damages for use and occupation, any unpaid utility, maintenance or society charges, and the cost of making good any damage to the Premises beyond normal wear and tear. I will give you a written statement of every adjustment I make.
9. Handing over
9.1 Please call me on __________ at least three days before the Quit Date so that we can fix a time for a joint inspection and handover.
9.2 At handover you must return all keys, access cards and remotes, and leave the Premises and its fittings, fixtures and appliances in the condition in which you received them, fair wear and tear excepted.
9.3 Section 108(q) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 requires you, on the determination of the tenancy, to put me in possession of the Premises.
10. No waiver
10.1 Any money you tender after the Quit Date, and any money I receive from you for any period after the Quit Date, will be received and appropriated only towards damages for use and occupation of the Premises, and not as rent.
10.2 Receiving such money, and any correspondence, discussion, negotiation or forbearance on my part, will not waive this notice, revive the tenancy, or create a new tenancy of any kind — whether under section 113 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 or otherwise.
11. If you do not vacate
11.1 If you do not deliver vacant possession by the Quit Date, your occupation from the next day onwards will be unauthorised.
11.2 You will be liable to pay damages, also called mesne profits, for use and occupation of the Premises for the whole period of your unauthorised occupation, and to compensate me for any loss I suffer because of it.
11.3 I will be entitled to take proceedings before the competent court or authority for possession of the Premises, arrears of rent, damages, interest and costs — entirely at your risk as to costs and consequences.
12. Reservation of rights
Nothing in this notice gives up any right or remedy available to me under the tenancy, under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, under any rent legislation in force where the Premises are situated, or under the general law. All such rights and remedies are expressly reserved.
13. Please treat this notice seriously
This is a formal notice under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. Please keep a copy. If you are unsure of your position, take legal advice promptly — depending on where the Premises are and what rent you pay, you may have protections under the rent law of that State.
Yours faithfully,
_______________________________
__________
Landlord: __________
__________
Office copy retained, with proof of despatch.
NOT PART OF THE NOTICE — INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SENDER
Remove this page before you serve the notice. It is for you, not for the tenant.
Nothing to stamp, register or notarise
This notice needs no stamp paper, no e-stamp, no registration and no notary. Plain paper or your letterhead is correct and complete. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something you do not need. What the law requires is only this: in writing, signed by you or on your behalf, and served in one of the ways below.
How to serve it — section 106(4)
Section 106(4) allows any of these:
- By post to the tenant. Use registered post with acknowledgement due. This is the strongest and easiest route. Post it to the Premises, and also to any other address you have for the tenant. Send a separate copy to every named tenant.
- By personal tender or delivery to the tenant, or to a member of the tenant's family or a servant at the tenant's residence.
- By affixing it to a conspicuous part of the property — only if posting and personal delivery are both impracticable.
Email is useful as a supplement and creates a dated record, but do not rely on email alone.
What to keep — this is the part that wins or loses the case
- The postal receipt, the tracking printout, and the acknowledgement due card when it comes back.
- If the envelope comes back marked "refused", "not claimed" or "left without address" — keep it sealed and unopened. A refused or unclaimed registered cover is good evidence of service.
- The office copy of the notice, signed and dated by you.
- If you delivered by hand, the tenant's signature on the receipt block below.
- If you affixed the notice, the two witnesses' signed affixation report plus photographs or video showing the date.
Receipt block — for hand delivery only
Get this signed on your office copy:
I, __________, acknowledge that I have received the original of the Notice to Quit dated __________ in respect of __________.
Signature: ____________________ Date: __________ Time: __________
Before you rely on this notice — the rent control question
In most States a Rent Control Act sits on top of the Transfer of Property Act. Where such an Act applies to your property, two things follow:
- The Supreme Court held in V. Dhanapal Chettiar v. Yesodai Ammal (1979) that where the State Rent Act governs, you do not need a section 106 notice in order to sue for eviction — but you do need to plead and prove one of the grounds that Act allows, such as arrears of rent, bona fide personal requirement, subletting, or damage to the building. A quit notice on its own will not get you possession from a protected tenant.
- Several Rent Acts still require a demand for arrears served in the section 106 manner before you can evict on that ground. Clause 7 of this notice does that work.
Rent Acts usually stop applying above a rent threshold, or to certain buildings, or where the tenancy is registered under State legislation modelled on the Model Tenancy Act, 2021. Check what applies in your State before you sue.
Time limit
A landlord's suit to recover possession from a tenant must be filed within twelve years from the date the tenancy was determined (Article 67, Limitation Act, 1963). Do not treat that as a reason to delay — mesne profits and evidence both get harder with time.
Never take possession yourself
Do not change the locks, cut off the electricity or water, remove the tenant's belongings, or put anyone at the door. Even after a valid notice, possession must come from the tenant voluntarily or from a court. Self-help exposes you to criminal proceedings and destroys an otherwise good case.