Alabama Eviction Notice
Alabama eviction notice: the 7-business-day pay-or-quit and cure-or-quit rules under Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421. Free template. Attorney review available.
Introduction
Before an Alabama landlord can file an eviction lawsuit, state law requires serving written notice on the tenant first, and this page produces that specific notice document, not a general explainer of Alabama eviction law. Which version to serve turns on the reason for the eviction. Fall behind on rent, and the tenant gets 7 business days in a pay-or-quit notice. Commit a fixable lease violation, and the tenant gets the same 7 business days, but in a cure-or-quit notice instead. For the most serious grounds, illegal drug activity, illegal firearm use, criminal assault, or a repeat violation, the law removes the cure option entirely and gives the tenant a flat 7-day unconditional notice to quit. That third notice type carries an unusual twist: Alabama counts its three notice periods on two different clocks within the same statute section. Sections 35-9A-421(a) and (b) both specify "seven business days," excluding weekends and holidays, for the cure-or-quit and pay-or-quit notices. Subsection (d), the noncurable-default notice, drops the word "business" and calls for only "a seven-day notice." The Act's definitions section treats "day" as a calendar day unless stated otherwise (Section 35-9A-141(3)), so that one notice period runs on calendar days, not business days, an asymmetry inside a single code section. A second wrinkle: Section 35-9A-144(e) carves this pre-filing notice out of the delivery-method rules that otherwise apply under the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Ala. Code Sections 35-9A-101 through 35-9A-461), so no statute prescribes how to deliver it, only that the tenant actually receive it before the clock starts. Neither track has a mandatory state form: a pay-or-quit notice must state the rent and late fees owed, a cure-or-quit notice must describe the acts or omissions in breach, and getting the notice type, day count, or content wrong can get a case dismissed before it reaches a hearing.
Key Things to Know
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A landlord must put the reason for ending a tenancy in writing and serve that notice on the tenant before an eviction lawsuit can be filed; that written notice is what this page generates.
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Not every violation gives a tenant a chance to fix things: illegal drug activity, illegal firearm use or discharge, criminal assault on the premises, and a second violation of substantially the same kind within 6 months of an earlier cured one are all noncurable under Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421(d), triggering a 7-day unconditional notice to quit. Unlike the two notice types below, subsection (d) never uses the phrase "business days," it says only "a seven-day notice," and because the Act defines "day" as a calendar day by default (Section 35-9A-141(3)), this is the one notice period on this page that runs in calendar days rather than business days.
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Rent unpaid on its due date triggers a 7-business-day pay-or-quit notice under Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421(b). The notice has to spell out the rent and late fees owed, and if the tenant pays every dollar owed before the 7 business days run out, the lease stays intact.
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For violations that can be fixed, such as a material breach of the lease terms or a maintenance-duty problem affecting health and safety, Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421(a) gives the tenant 7 business days to cure once served with a notice describing the specific acts or omissions at issue. That door only opens twice: a third cure within any 12-month span requires the landlord's written consent. (Section 35-9A-421(d))
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One statute governs all of it statewide: the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, running from Ala. Code Section 35-9A-101 through 35-9A-461, is the exclusive source of law on residential landlord-tenant rights in Alabama, the notice rules above included.
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Unlike many of the Act's other notices, this one comes with no statutory delivery instructions. Ala. Code Section 35-9A-144(e) specifically excludes the termination/eviction notice from the general rules that otherwise govern how notices under the Act get delivered, so personal delivery, mail, and posting are all left unaddressed; the only fixed requirement is that the tenant actually receive the notice before its clock starts. (Section 35-9A-421(a)-(b))
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No government agency publishes an official fill-in-the-blank form for this notice, but the statute still dictates what has to be on the page: the dollar amount owed for a pay-or-quit notice, or the specific acts and omissions in breach for a cure-or-quit notice. Once that notice period lapses, the case moves to court, where the landlord's complaint is filed on a different document altogether, the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts' Statement of Claim, Form C-59.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Eviction Notice in Alabama, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Eviction Notice guide walks through them.
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Alabama Requirements for Eviction Notice
There is no government-mandated fill-in-the-blank form for this pre-filing notice to terminate the lease. Specific content is legally required by statute: a pay-or-quit notice must state the amount of rent and late fees owed, and a cure-or-quit notice must specify the acts and omissions constituting the breach. The court complaint filed after the notice period expires uses a separate Alabama Administrative Office of Courts form, Statement of Claim, Eviction/Unlawful Detainer, Form C-59.
7-business-day pay-or-quit notice, excluding weekends and holidays. The notice must state the amount of rent and any late fees owed. If the tenant pays everything owed within the 7 business days, the rental agreement does not terminate. If a tenant is in breach under both the material-noncompliance track and the nonpayment track at once, the 7-business-day nonpayment notice period governs.
7-business-day cure-or-quit notice, excluding weekends and holidays, for material noncompliance with the rental agreement, intentional misrepresentation of a material fact (not curable), or a maintenance-duty violation materially affecting health and safety. The notice must specify the acts and omissions constituting the breach. A tenant may not cure a breach more than twice in any 12-month period without the landlord's express written consent.
Alabama's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets general presumptive-receipt rules for most notices under the Act, but Section 35-9A-144(e) expressly excludes the notice required to terminate a tenancy or evict a tenant from those rules. The Section 35-9A-421 notice period instead runs from actual receipt by the tenant, without a statutorily prescribed delivery method.
Distinct from the for-cause notices above: ending a week-to-week tenancy without cause requires written notice at least 7 days before the termination date, and ending a month-to-month tenancy without cause requires written notice at least 30 days before the periodic rental date. Either the landlord or the tenant may give this notice.
7-day notice with no cure option (the statute says only "a seven-day notice," not "seven business days" as used elsewhere in this section), for illegal drug activity in the dwelling unit or common areas, illegal use or discharge of a firearm on the premises, criminal assault of a tenant or guest on the premises, or a repeat breach of substantially the same kind within six months of a prior cured breach. The tenant has no right to remedy these unless the landlord consents.
The statutory basis for every notice type on this page: the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Ala. Code Sections 35-9A-101 through 35-9A-461, which applies statewide as the exclusive law regulating residential rental agreements, superseding any local ordinance on the same subject.
Frequently Asked Questions
Alabama requires 7 business days' notice for nonpayment of rent or a curable lease violation, and 7 days' notice (not described as "business days" in the statute) for a noncurable default like illegal drug activity, illegal firearm use, criminal assault, or a repeat violation. What differs across all three is whether the tenant gets a chance to fix the problem, and whether weekends and holidays are excluded from the count.
No. Alabama's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires a written notice to terminate the lease before a landlord can treat the tenancy as ended and file an eviction action for nonpayment, a lease violation, or a noncurable default under Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421. Skipping the notice, or serving the wrong type, can get the eviction case dismissed.
It depends on the notice type. A pay-or-quit notice for nonpayment must state the amount of rent and any late fees owed. (Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421(b)) A cure-or-quit notice for a curable violation must specify the acts or omissions that constitute the breach. (Section 35-9A-421(a)) A noncurable-default notice should identify which specific ground applies, illegal drug activity, illegal firearm use or discharge, criminal assault, or a repeat violation. Every notice should also state the date the notice period runs from, since the deadline is measured from the tenant's receipt of the notice, not the date it's written.
No. There's no state-mandated fill-in-the-blank form for this pre-filing notice. Alabama law requires specific statutory content, described above, rather than a particular government form, so a landlord can write their own notice as long as it includes what the statute requires. (Separately, once the notice period expires, the court complaint that follows uses the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts' Form C-59, but that's a court filing, not this notice.)
A curable violation is a material noncompliance with the lease, or a maintenance-duty violation materially affecting health and safety; the tenant gets 7 business days to fix it. (Ala. Code Section 35-9A-421(a)) A noncurable default under Section 35-9A-421(d), illegal drug activity, illegal firearm use or discharge, criminal assault on the premises, or a repeat violation within 6 months of a prior cured breach, gets no chance to fix the problem: a 7-day notice to quit with no cure option.
For a pay-or-quit or cure-or-quit notice, count 7 business days from the date the tenant actually receives the notice, excluding weekends and holidays. For a noncurable-default notice, count 7 days from receipt; Section 35-9A-421(d) doesn't use the "business days" language of the other two notice types, and the Act's definition of "day" as a calendar day (Section 35-9A-141(3)) means this period runs as calendar days, except that if the final day would land on a weekend or holiday it rolls forward to the next business day the court is open.
The notice itself doesn't require a tenant response. If the tenant hasn't paid, cured, or vacated by the stated deadline, the pre-filing notice requirement is satisfied and the landlord may proceed to the next step, filing an eviction/unlawful detainer complaint in court. Skipping this notice, or serving the wrong type, is what can get a later case dismissed, not a lack of tenant response to the notice.
Alabama's statute doesn't spell out a signature requirement for this notice the way it spells out required content, but dating it matters: the 7-business-day or 7-day period runs from the tenant's receipt of the notice, not the date written on it. Recording who served the notice, the method used, and the date served and received documents when that clock started, which matters if the notice is ever questioned later.