Calculate the notice period for a tenancy

Which notice period applies to a rented flat?

For open-ended residential tenancies, Section 573c BGB governs ordinary notice: it must be given no later than the third working day of a month and takes effect at the end of the month after next. The month in which notice arrives in time already counts.

Tenants always have three months, however long they have lived in the flat. For landlords the period grows with the length of the tenancy.

• Tenant: 3 months.
• Landlord, flat let for less than 5 years: 3 months.
• Landlord, 5 to under 8 years: 6 months.
• Landlord, 8 years or more: 9 months.

By the third working day: the grace period

For the current month to count, the notice must reach the recipient by the third working day. These three days are called the grace period (Karenzzeit). If notice arrives later, the end of the tenancy moves back by one month.

Working days are Monday to Saturday. The Federal Court of Justice ruled that Saturday counts in the grace period (judgment of 27.04.2005, VIII ZR 206/04). If Saturday is itself the third working day, receipt by the following working day is enough. Rent payments are different: there, Saturday does not count.

• Public holidays where the recipient lives are not working days. Only holidays at the start of a month matter for the grace period: New Year's Day, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, 3 October and All Saints' Day. Of these, only Epiphany, Corpus Christi and All Saints' Day depend on the federal state, so only notices in January, June and November.
• Assumption Day on 15 August never falls within the first three working days. Whether your municipality in Bavaria is Catholic or Protestant therefore makes no difference to the notice period.
• Notice is received once it reaches the letterbox early enough for the recipient to read it the same day. A letter dropped off in the evening is only received the next day.

Worked example

A tenant gives notice on her flat. The letter is in the landlord's letterbox on Tuesday, 03.11.2026.

1. Working days in November 2026: the 1st is a Sunday. Monday the 2nd, Tuesday the 3rd and Wednesday the 4th are the first three working days.
2. The notice is received on 03.11., so in time. November counts as the first month of the notice period.
3. The three-month period covers November, December and January. The tenancy ends on 31.01.2027.
4. If the letter only arrives on Thursday, 05.11.2026, the tenancy ends one month later, on 28.02.2027.
5. Saturday as third working day: in April 2027 the 3rd working day falls on Saturday, 03.04. Notice then has to arrive by Monday, 05.04.2027.

Notice period for landlords: 3, 6 or 9 months

The landlord's period depends on how long the flat has been let to the tenant. It is counted from moving in, not from signing the contract, until notice is received.

The period is only one requirement. For ordinary notice the landlord needs a legitimate interest (Section 573 BGB), for example personal use or serious breaches of duty by the tenant. The reason belongs in the notice letter.

• The tenant can object to the notice if it would cause unreasonable hardship (Section 574 BGB). The landlord should point out this right, its form and deadline in the letter.
• After conversion into condominiums, notice for personal use is blocked for at least three years, in many cities for up to ten years (Section 577a BGB).

Special cases: two-family house, furnished room, fixed-term tenancy

• Two-family house with the landlord living in it: the landlord may give notice without a legitimate interest, but the period is extended by three months (Section 573a BGB). This also applies to living space within the landlord's own flat.
• Furnished room in the landlord's own flat: notice by the 15th of a month, effective at the end of that month (Section 573c (3) BGB).
• Fixed-term tenancy: it ends on the agreed date. Ordinary notice before then is only possible if the contract allows it.
• Waiver of notice: both sides can waive ordinary notice for up to four years. After that, the statutory periods apply.
• Special termination rights of the tenant: after a rent increase (Section 561 BGB), after a modernisation is announced (Section 555e BGB), and on the tenant's death for heirs and landlord (Section 564 BGB). These have their own, sometimes shorter periods.
• Termination without notice: for rent arrears or serious breaches of contract, the tenancy can end without a notice period (Section 543, Section 569 BGB). There is a template for termination without notice for this.

Delivering notice and proving receipt

Notice must be in writing and signed by hand (Section 568 BGB). An email, fax or scanned letter is not enough. With several tenants or landlords, all must sign, or the notice must be addressed to all of them.

Whoever gives notice must prove in a dispute that and when it was received. So it pays to use a method with proof.

• Hand it over in person against a signature on a copy.
• Have a messenger who knows the content put it in the letterbox and note the date and time.
• Registered mail with proof of delivery (Einwurf-Einschreiben): the post office records the delivery. With signed-for registered mail (Übergabe-Einschreiben), receipt only counts once it is collected if nobody is at home.

Common mistakes when giving notice

• Counting from the day the letter was sent instead of the day it was received.
• Sending notice by email: it is void, the period does not start.
• Skipping Saturday and assuming one day too many.
• Giving three months' notice as a landlord although the tenant has lived in the flat for more than five years.
• Addressing the notice to only one of two tenants.