Legal Precedent on Delivering Eviction Notices

In 2003, Mr. Busch successfully argued a case in the Oregon Court of Appeals that helped expand the way eviction notices could be served to tenants, setting new legal precedent. The case remains the law today.

In that case, the tenants in an extended stay hotel were actively avoiding the landlord whenever the hotel's employees tried to serve them with an eviction notice.

On the first occasion, the front office manager attempted to hand-deliver a notice to one of the tenants when she came to the front desk to have her room key cards reprogrammed. However, the tenant walked away, refusing to accept it. The manager followed the tenant to the parking lot and attempted to hand the notice and another key card to the other tenant, who was waiting in their car. As the manager knocked on the car window, the tenant backed away quickly and drove off.

On a second occasion, another employee attempted to hand-deliver the notice to the tenants as they walked from their room to their car. Again, however, the tenants got into their car and nearly ran into the employee as they drove from the hotel parking lot.

After these failed attempts, the hotel manager waited until she knew that defendants were in their room because their car was in its parking space. She then slipped the termination notice under tenants’ door and knocked.

Mr. Busch convinced both the trial court and the Court of Appeals that under the circumstances, the landlord adequately served the notice because: (1) The tenants were in their room, (2) the notice was slipped under the door, and (3) the manager loudly knocked and announced that the tenants had been served. The Court of Appeals found that the tenants acted in bad faith when they avoided the landlord’s service attempts. That prohibited them from arguing that they were not properly served with the eviction notice.

This case emphasized that both landlords and tenants must act in good faith during a tenancy. However, while the case is still a valid precedent, this type of delivery for an eviction notice should not be attempted without first consulting with an attorney.