Indiana Eviction Notice
Indiana eviction notice: the 10-day pay-or-quit rule under Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-6. Free template, statute cites included. Attorney review available.
Introduction
Before a landlord in Indiana can ask a court for possession, state law requires a document first: written notice to the tenant, the trigger that starts a tenancy moving toward its end for cause. The compact template below is that document itself, ready to fill in, sign, and serve, not a general explainer of Indiana eviction law. Nonpayment of rent is the most common cause, and it draws a 10-day notice under Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-6; the tenant defeats it simply by paying every dollar owed before the 10 days run out. A voluntary form of that notice appears in Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-7, though nothing forces a landlord to copy its exact wording. Ask how many days a tenant gets to fix a lease or rental-obligation violation here, and the statute never names a number. Indiana Code Section 32-31-7-7 requires only notice of the problem and then "a reasonable amount of time" before suing, no printed day count attached, leaving cleanliness violations, building-system misuse, and property-damage claims governed by judgment rather than a calendar. Six narrower situations skip notice altogether under Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-8: a lease reaching its stated end date, a tenancy's determination date fixed directly in the contract, a tenant at will who commits waste, a tenant at sufferance who overstays without permission, unpaid advance rent the contract requires, and cases with no landlord-tenant relationship at all. Ending a tenancy without any of those causes runs on a separate clock: 1 month's notice for a month-to-month or at-will tenancy, 3 months for a year-to-year lease. Get the notice type wrong, or skip a required step, and the possession case risks delay or dismissal.
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Key Things to Know
- 1
A written notice from landlord to tenant, served before any possession case reaches court, is what Indiana law requires whenever a tenancy is ending for cause; that notice is the starting point behind every situation described below.
- 2
No number appears anywhere in Indiana Code Section 32-31-7-7 for how long a tenant gets to fix a lease or rental-obligation violation, only the phrase "a reasonable amount of time" after notice of the problem is given, a deliberate departure from the fixed 3-day, 5-day, 10-day, or 14-day cure windows written directly into many other states' statutes.
- 3
10 days, running from the tenant's receipt of the notice: that is the entire nonpayment-of-rent notice period, and paying every dollar due within that window cancels the notice outright. (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-6)
- 4
Six circumstances erase the notice requirement altogether under Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-8: a specified-term lease reaching its end date, a tenancy's determination date fixed directly in the contract, a tenant at will committing waste, a tenant at sufferance remaining on the premises, advance rent going unpaid where the contract demands it, and situations where no landlord-tenant relationship exists in the first place.
- 5
Chapters 1, 5, and 7 of Indiana Code Title 32, Article 31, Landlord-Tenant Relations, contain the general notice rules, service-of-process mechanics, and tenant-obligation standards.
- 6
Serving the tenant directly comes first. Only if that fails does the statute allow delivery to a resident of the premises, with the contents explained to that person, and only if no one at all can be found does posting a copy on the premises become an option. (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-9)
- 7
Optional, not mandatory, is the status of the notice form Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-7 offers for nonpayment of rent; no comparable form exists in the statute for a lease-violation notice or a no-cause termination notice.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Eviction Notice in Indiana, 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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Indiana Requirements for Eviction Notice
Notice Period for Nonpayment of Rent (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-6, Section 32-31-1-7)
10 days' written notice for nonpayment of rent. The tenant defeats the notice by paying the rent due in full before the 10-day period expires, unless the parties otherwise agreed. Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-7 provides an optional statutory form of this notice; using that exact wording is not mandatory.
No-Notice Termination Situations (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-8)
Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-8 lists six situations where no notice to quit is required at all: the landlord rented for a specified period that has ended, the tenancy's determination date is specified in the contract, a tenant at will commits waste, the tenant is a tenant at sufferance, the contract requires rent in advance and the tenant fails to pay it in advance, or no landlord-tenant relationship exists. These are true no-notice-required situations, not a short notice period with no cure option.
Cure Period for Lease and Rental Obligation Violations (Indiana Code Section 32-31-7-7)
Before bringing a court action to enforce a tenant obligation under Indiana Code Section 32-31-7-5 (health and housing code compliance, cleanliness, reasonable use of building systems, avoiding property damage, following reasonable rules, and smoke detector maintenance), the landlord must give the tenant notice of the noncompliance and a reasonable amount of time to remedy it. The statute does not set a fixed number of cure days.
Service of Notice Requirements (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-9)
Notice may be served on the tenant directly. If the tenant cannot be found, the notice may be served on a person residing at the premises, and the person serving the notice must explain its contents to that person. If no such person is found on the premises, the notice may be served by posting a copy conspicuously on the premises.
Prescribed Notice Wording for Nonpayment of Rent (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-7)
Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-7 provides an optional statutory form of notice for nonpayment of rent that a landlord may, but is not required, to use. No mandatory wording is prescribed by statute for lease or rental-obligation violation notices under Chapter 7, or for no-cause termination notices.
No-Cause Termination Notice Period (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-1, Section 32-31-1-3, Section 32-31-1-4)
Distinct from the cause-based notices above: ending a tenancy at will or month-to-month tenancy without a specific statutory cause requires 1 month's written notice (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-1). Ending a year-to-year tenancy requires 3 months' notice (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-3). A periodic tenancy of 3 months or less requires notice equal to the interval between periods (Indiana Code Section 32-31-1-4).
Governing Landlord-Tenant Relations Statute (Indiana Code Title 32, Article 31)
The statutory basis for the notice types on this page: Indiana Code Title 32, Article 31 (Landlord-Tenant Relations), specifically Chapter 1 (General Provisions, notice and service rules), Chapter 5 (Rental Agreements; Right of Access), and Chapter 7 (Tenant Obligations).