How to serve a landlord notice — and prove you did

Courts see two versions of the same story: the landlord’s “I served it on the 4th” and the tenant’s “I never got it.” The version with a record wins. Service has two halves — a method your state allows for that notice, and proof that survives the argument.

The methods, in the order courts prefer them

• Personal delivery to the tenant — the cleanest method everywhere it is allowed.
• Substituted service plus mailing, where the statute allows it after real attempts at personal service.
• Posting plus mailing (“nail and mail”), where the statute allows it — commonly only after diligent attempts, which is why the attempts must be written down with dates and times.
• Mail alone, only where the statute expressly allows it for that notice — and it commonly adds days to the period.

The allowed list for your state is printed on its deadline page beside the period, because the two belong together: a perfect period served by a forbidden method is still a defective notice.

The proof file

• A copy of the notice exactly as served.
• The method, the date, the time, and the place — written the same day.
• The name of the person served, or the posting photograph with the unit door in frame.
• Mailing receipts and certificates where mailing was part of the method.
• Notes of any failed first attempt — diligence is a record, not a memory.

The kit’s proof-of-service checklist (§5) is this page as a form: one sheet per notice, completed the day of service.

Run the free deadline checker