How to Evict a Tenant in Oregon: Laws, Process, and Timeline
Oregon Eviction Timeline 2026: Notice Length Depends on the Day You Send It, Not the Season
ORS Chapter 90 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) and Chapter 105 (FED proceedings) govern eviction in Oregon, with Chapter 90 setting the notices and Chapter 105 running the court case and the sheriff’s part. This page covers the lawsuit itself: notice, filing, the hearing, the writ. Deposits, repair rights, and rent-increase caps are on our Oregon landlord-tenant law guide.
Grounds and Notice Periods
Get this one wrong and every downstream date is wrong too: the nonpayment notice length in Oregon doesn’t track how long the tenant has lived there. It tracks which day of the rental period the landlord chooses to send the notice — not the calendar month, and not “first year vs. later.”
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpayment, notice sent on day 8 of the rental period or later | At least 10 days | ORS 90.394(2)(a) | Yes — the notice must state the amount due and the date and time by which paying it cures the nonpayment |
| Nonpayment, notice sent on day 5 of the rental period or later | At least 13 days | ORS 90.394(2)(b) | Yes — earlier notice buys a longer cure window; these are two tracks a landlord picks between, never both at once |
| Nonpayment, week-to-week tenancy | At least 72 hours, given no sooner than day 5 | ORS 90.394(1) | Yes — the notice terminates only “if the rent is not paid within that period” |
| Lease violation, curable | 30-day termination date, with a cure date at least 14 days out (7 and 4 days for week-to-week) | ORS 90.392(3)–(4), (6) | Yes — cure by the designated date and the tenancy holds; but for a one-off act that isn’t ongoing, the cure date can be as early as the day the notice is delivered |
| Repeat of substantially the same violation within 6 months of an earlier notice | 10 days (4 for week-to-week), and no earlier than the earlier notice’s termination date; can’t be used when the only violation is this month’s unpaid rent | ORS 90.392(5) | No — the statute says the tenant has no right to cure this subsequent violation |
| Serious safety violation (threatening or inflicting substantial injury, reckless endangerment, intentional substantial damage, lying about a criminal conviction on an application within the past year, where the landlord terminates within 30 days of discovering it, or an act “outrageous in the extreme” such as the unlawful manufacture, delivery, or possession of a controlled substance, prostitution, a bias crime, or burglary) | 24 hours | ORS 90.396 | No — except when the cause is the tenant’s pet: removing the pet before the notice runs out cures it once |
| No-cause, week-to-week tenancy | 10 days before the termination date in the notice | ORS 90.427(2) | N/A — the notice needs no stated reason, and subsection (2) carries no first-year limit |
| No-cause, month-to-month, within the tenant’s first year | 30 days | ORS 90.427(3)(b) | N/A — the notice needs no stated reason |
| Landlord-reason termination, after the first year | 90 days, or 60 days plus one month’s rent for a sale to an owner-occupant | ORS 90.427(5) | N/A — a qualifying reason is mandatory: demolition or conversion to non-residential use, repairs that leave the unit unsafe or unfit to live in, the owner or immediate family moving in (only if the landlord doesn’t own a comparable unit in the same building available when the notice is given), or an accepted offer from a buyer who will live there. One month’s rent as relocation pay rides along with it; the payment drops away only for landlords with an interest in four units or fewer. Getting this wrong costs 3 months’ rent plus actual damages (ORS 90.427(9)) |
The “90 days” figure that circulates for no-cause termination only applies after the tenant’s first year, and only for a specific landlord reason at that point. Before that first-year mark, a month-to-month no-cause termination is still 30 days; a week-to-week tenancy runs on its own 10-day notice under ORS 90.427(2) either way. The one statutory carve-out: a landlord whose own home is in the same building or on the same property, with no more than two units there, can end a month-to-month tenancy after year one without cause on 60 days’ notice (ORS 90.427(8)).
The Court Process
- Notice expires. Whichever track above applies has to run first.
- File. The landlord files a Forcible Entry and Detainer (FED) complaint in circuit court where the property sits.
- Serve the tenant. By the end of the next judicial day after the filing fee is paid, the clerk mails the summons and complaint and a process server delivers them at the premises, or attaches them to the main entrance if the tenant isn’t there (ORS 105.135(3)).
- First appearance. The clerk sets it 7 days after the judicial day following payment of the fee — 15 days for a nonpayment case under ORS 90.392 or 90.394 — and can push it back up to 7 more days if no judge is available (ORS 105.135(2)).
- Trial. A contested case can raise improper notice, retaliation (ORS 90.385(3)), or discrimination against a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, bias crime, or stalking (ORS 90.449) as defenses.
- Judgment of restitution. A landlord who wins gets a judgment.
- Notice of restitution and the 4-day floor. Under ORS 105.151, the landlord can enforce the judgment only by asking the clerk for a notice of restitution, which orders the tenant to move out — including all personal property — in no less than 4 days; the landlord can direct the clerk to extend it, but can’t shorten it.
- Writ and execution. After that 4-day period passes, the clerk issues a writ of execution and the sheriff serves it along with an eviction trespass notice, then removes the occupants immediately (ORS 105.161). A writ not enforced within 30 days of issue expires, and a landlord who accepts rent for any period starting after the judgment can no longer enforce it.
What This Costs
Confirm the current filing and service fees with the circuit court clerk before filing.
What a Landlord Cannot Do
Under ORS 90.375, a lockout, a serious threat of one, or a willful cutoff of heat, running water, hot water, electricity, or another essential service lets the tenant get a court order restoring possession, or end the lease and recover two months’ rent or twice actual damages, whichever is greater. Retaliation is barred under ORS 90.385 for a code complaint, a good-faith complaint to the landlord, union activity, testifying against the landlord, or asserting a legal right — but the “6 months” figure that circulates for this isn’t a general presumption window. It’s one item on the protected list, 90.385(1)(e): a tenant who successfully defended an eviction case within the previous six months, unless the win came only from defective service or a too-short notice period.
ORS 90.453 covers more ground than its short name suggests — sexual assault, bias crimes, and stalking sit alongside domestic violence, not off in some separate statute. The exit mechanism is a 14-day written notice, paired with one of several ways to prove the situation is real: a protective order, a police report, a conviction record, or a signed statement from a law enforcement officer, attorney, licensed health professional, or victim’s advocate. Without a protective order, the abuse has to fall within the 90 days before the notice, not counting time the perpetrator was jailed or living more than 100 miles away. The rest of Chapter 90 fills in around it — a path to remove a violent co-tenant instead of the whole household (ORS 90.445), a bar on discriminating against someone because they’re a victim (ORS 90.449), and the right to have the locks changed (ORS 90.459).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Oregon’s 10-day vs. 13-day nonpayment notice depend on how long the tenant has lived there? No — that’s a common misreading. Both tracks run on which day of the rental period the landlord sends the notice: day 8 or later gets 10 days, day 5 or later gets 13 days. A separate 72-hour track applies to week-to-week tenancies. It has nothing to do with the tenant’s length of occupancy.
Does a 6-month window create a general presumption of retaliation in Oregon? No. The six months in ORS 90.385(1)(e) makes a recent courtroom win against the landlord a protected act in its own right — it isn’t a presumption that attaches to any adverse action within 6 months of any protected activity.
How long does a tenant have to move out after losing an Oregon eviction case? At least 4 days from the notice of restitution (ORS 105.151) before the clerk can issue a writ of execution — the landlord can extend that window but can’t shorten it, and the sheriff enforces the writ immediately once it issues and the fee is paid.