Do I need to give notice to terminate my lease early?

In the case of renting a house, although the contract clearly states that the parties cannot terminate the contract before the term, in reality there are still some exceptional cases that force the termination of the rental contract before the specific term as follows:

- If the lessor commits the following acts, the lessee can unilaterally terminate the lease contract, such as not repairing the house when it is seriously damaged; unreasonably increasing the price or not giving notice as agreed...

- The tenant has committed acts such as not paying rent for 3 months or more; using the rented house for the wrong purpose; arbitrarily breaking, expanding, or renovating the rented house; lending or subleasing without the lessor's consent; causing disorder and having been reported 3 times without remedying...

According to the provisions of Article 132 of the 2014 Housing Law, it is stipulated that:

"Article 132. Unilateral termination of housing lease contract

1. During the housing lease term as agreed in the contract, the lessor shall not unilaterally terminate the housing lease contract and reclaim the leased housing, except in the cases specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. The lessor has the right to unilaterally terminate the lease contract and reclaim the leased house in one of the following cases:

a) The lessor of state-owned housing or social housing leases out without proper authority, to the wrong subjects, or without meeting the conditions prescribed by this Law;

b) The tenant does not pay the rent as agreed for 03 months or more without a valid reason;

c) The tenant uses the house for purposes other than those agreed upon in the contract;

d) The tenant arbitrarily breaks, expands, renovates, or demolishes the rented house;

d) The lessee converts, lends, or sublets the rented house without the consent of the lessor;

e) The tenant causes disorder and environmental sanitation, seriously affecting the lives of people around, and has been recorded by the landlord or the head of the residential group, village, hamlet, village, commune, village, or hamlet for the third time but still fails to remedy the situation;

g) Belonging to the case specified in Clause 2, Article 129 of this Law.

3. The lessee has the right to unilaterally terminate the housing lease contract when the lessor commits one of the following acts:

a) Do not repair the house when it is seriously damaged;

b) Unreasonably increasing the rental price or increasing the rental price without notifying the tenant in advance as agreed;

c) When the right to use the house is restricted due to the interests of a third party.

4. The party unilaterally terminating the housing lease contract must notify the other party at least 30 days in advance, unless otherwise agreed by the parties; if the violation of the provisions of this clause causes damage, compensation must be paid in accordance with the provisions of law."

Accordingly, regardless of the reason, the parties to the lease must still comply with the notice period.

However, for whatever reason and whether the tenant or the landlord is the one who must comply with the notice period.

Thus, when wanting to terminate a rental contract early, the following conditions must be met:

- Follow the agreement of the parties if the parties have an agreement on termination of the lease contract.

- Give the other party at least 30 days notice of termination of the lease.