I would assume that most Pay / Quit legal notices say basically the same thing: tenant has X number of days to pay past due rent and accrued late fees OR that tenant needs to vacate the premises within that same time period. If the tenant chooses to do neither of the above two options, then a formal eviction will be filed at the county courthouse.

Oregon,

What does YOUR local law say? I already know what mine says,...I want to know what everyone else's here says.

Just to advise you as to the possibilities under various state laws, here's how it works in CA. Some of these are standard issues of law.

In CA:

ONLY past-due rent is to be included. Thats a result of just what the law says: that a person is "guilty of unlawful detainer when he or she continues in possession...without the permission of his or her landlord... after default in the payment of rent, pursuant to the lease or agreement under which the property is held, and three days' notice, excluding Saturdays and Sundays and other judicial holidays, in writing, requiring its payment, stating the amount which is due..."

Thus, the way that the law is written says rent pursuant to the lease agreement and three days notice requiring "ITS" payment, meaning that the notice must specify the rent due, and case law says that no other amount is acceptable.

Late fees require a separate action. Cost of serving the notice is court costs and up to the judge to award, usually to the prevailing party. No other amounts are allowed but RENT.

P.S., Alabama Code Section 35-9A-421 says:

" (b) If rent is unpaid when due, the landlord may deliver a written notice to terminate the lease to the tenant specifying the amount of rent and any late fees owed to remedy the breach and that the rental agreement will terminate upon a date not less than seven days after receipt of the notice. If the breach is not remedied within the seven days, the rental agreement shall terminate. "

Thus, the 7 day notice may include the amount of rent past-due plus late fees. You'll have to look further to see if inclusion of fee for service will contaminate the notice.

A further section says:

" (c) Except as provided in this chapter, a landlord may recover actual damages and obtain injunctive relief for noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement or Section 35-9A-301. If the tenant's noncompliance is willful, the landlord may recover reasonable attorney's fees. "

So it seems that LL may recover costs of attorney and other court costs such as service of the notice at trial, but it should not appear on the 7 day notice.

An interesting part of AL law is that " If the breach is not remedied within the 14 days after receipt of the notice to terminate the lease, the rental agreement shall terminate on the date provided in the notice to terminate the lease unless the tenant adequately remedies the breach before the date specified in the notice, in which case the rental agreement shall not terminate. ". Thus, if LL has a process server serve the notice and the tenant remedies the breach in a timely fashion, then the rental agreement doesn't terminate and what happens to the process server fee? CA allows the lease to specify a fee for service of the notice.

In Indiana, we can only list rent due. That's why by my Lease all monies received go to late fees and charges before being applied to rents. For instance, I have an outstanding 10 day pay or quit now. They paid last month on the 15th, they had a cheap $20 bathtub drain snake charge and $65 in late fees, but they only paid $25 extra. I guess they think they pay what they want, when they want. The unpaid $60 was carried over as RENTS. If the case goes to eviction, as soon as eviction is granted I will ask the judge to allow me 10%(the judge allows only 10% max) of all rents due as late fee.

If they pay the amount owed before the notice comes due, I will apply the monies to Late fees first and they will still owe money.

Thanks Moshe for the clarification on AL law. I have always included late fees with my 7-day Pay/Quit notice.

My point is that, in AL, inclusion of late fees in P/Q notice is legal, but the cost of serving the notice (or any other costs) doesn't seem to be eligible for inclusion in the notice.