Breaking a lease in Vermont

If you are the tenant

• Unless a written rental agreement says otherwise, a tenant ends a tenancy by actual notice given at least one rental payment period before the termination date stated in the notice (monthly rent = at least one month). The statute does not require the date to fall at the end of a rental period. Vermont Legal Aid warns that rent is owed for the last month you live there, and if you are still there on the first day of a new period the landlord may claim that whole period's rent.

If the landlord ends it

• With no written rental agreement and monthly rent, a landlord may end the tenancy for no cause with actual notice of at least 60 days if the tenant has lived there continuously for two years or less. The notice must state the termination date.
• With no written rental agreement and monthly rent, a landlord must give at least 90 days' actual notice for no cause if the tenant has lived there continuously for more than two years.
• With a written rental agreement, a no-cause notice must be given at least 30 days before the termination date if the tenancy has lasted two years or less (Vermont Legal Aid applies this to written month-to-month agreements).
• With a written rental agreement, a no-cause notice must be given at least 60 days before the termination date if the tenancy has lasted more than two years.

Written notice required: Yes. Notice must be 'actual notice': written notice hand-delivered or mailed to the last known address (9 V.S.A. § 4451(1)). The notice must state the termination date.

• week-to-week, tenant: 1 rental period. For weekly rent, the tenant must give at least one rental period (7 days) of actual notice before the termination date stated in the notice.
• week-to-week, landlord: 21 days. With weekly rent and no written agreement, a landlord must give at least 21 days' actual notice for no cause; with a written week-to-week agreement, at least 7 days.

Vermont Legal Aid: if you choose to leave and your agreement is for a set term that does not cover leaving early, you agreed to pay rent for all those months; but the landlord must reduce that by re-renting as quickly as possible, and once the unit is rented to someone new you no longer owe the rent.

Landlord's duty to re-rent: Yes. No statute; Vermont Legal Aid states the landlord is legally responsible to 'mitigate' by re-renting as quickly as possible, and the tenant stops owing rent once a new tenant rents the unit.

Lease-break fees: No statutory cap on early-termination or reletting fees; the lease controls, subject to the landlord's duty to mitigate. A lease clause that circumvents the Residential Rental Agreements Act is void (9 V.S.A. § 4454), and a protected tenant terminating under § 4472 owes no penalty.

• Domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking (9 V.S.A. § 4472)

  A tenant who is (or has custody of) a victim of abuse, sexual assault or stalking may end the lease with 30 days' written notice and documentation if they fear imminent harm, or if a sexual assault happened on the premises in the past six months.

  Notice:

  30 days, in writing

  Proof:

  Written notice plus documentation from a court, law enforcement or other government agency; an abuse, sexual assault or stalking assistance program; a legal, clerical, medical or other professional who helped the tenant; or a self-certification on a standard form signed under penalty of perjury.

  What you still owe:

  Terminates without penalty or liability on the termination date (at least 30 days after notice).

• Unit unlivable or landlord fails to repair (9 V.S.A. § 4458)

  If the landlord fails to fix a habitability problem that materially affects health and safety, the tenant may terminate the rental agreement on reasonable notice.

  Proof:

  Landlord had actual notice of the noncompliance (from the tenant, a government body or a qualified inspector) and failed to repair within a reasonable time; the problem materially affects health and safety and was not caused by the tenant.

  What you still owe:

  Tenant may terminate; statute does not set the rent consequence beyond allowing withholding for the noncompliance period.

Military orders, every state: the federal SCRA lets servicemembers with orders (permanent change of station or deployment of 90+ days) end a lease with written notice and a copy of the orders. How the SCRA date is counted.

• Burlington: If the rental agreement does not say how much notice a tenant must give, the tenant must give two full rental periods' notice (two months for monthly rent). With no written rental agreement, a landlord's no-cause notice must be at least 90 days (under two years' residence) or 120 days (two years or more). Burlington Code ch. 18, art. II, § 18-29a, as stated by Vermont Legal Aid.

• Vermont has no state statute for National Guard lease termination beyond the federal SCRA.
• Shared occupancy (renting a room in the owner's home with shared living spaces): either party may end it with 15 days' notice if rent is monthly or 7 days if weekly (9 V.S.A. § 4467(h)).
• A landlord cannot end a written lease for a stated term for no cause before the term ends; at the end of the term the landlord must give 30 days' notice (60 days if the tenancy has lasted more than two years) (9 V.S.A. § 4467(e)).
• Notices sent by first-class mail are treated as received three days later, so add 3 days when mailing (Vermont Legal Aid).
• If a tenant abandons the unit (no longer living there, rent not current, and the landlord made reasonable efforts to learn the tenant's intentions), the tenant stays liable for rent until the rental agreement expires, but the agreement ends on the date the landlord re-rents the unit (9 V.S.A. § 4462(a)-(b)).

• Write a Vermont notice to vacate
• Vermont security deposit law: getting your deposit back after you move

• 9 V.S.A. § 4451 (definitions, actual notice) Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4454 Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4456 Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4458 Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4467 Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4472 Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Vermont Legal Aid / Legal Services Vermont: Ending a Tenancy & Moving Out Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Vermont Legal Aid / Legal Services Vermont: Notice to Terminate Tenancy Retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 9 V.S.A. § 4462 Retrieved October 13, 2026.

Laws change. This page was checked against the sources above on October 13, 2026. It is legal information, not legal advice; see our methodology.