Request By:
Bruce F. Boldt, Jr., Esq.
Nold, Mosley, Clare, Hubbard & Rogers
Fifth Floor
The Hart Block Building
730 West Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Kevin M. Noland, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter concerning the requirement of notice under a section of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, KRS 383.505-383.715. Subsection (2) of KRS 383.660 states as follows:
If rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay rent within seven (7) days after written notice by the landlord of nonpayment and his intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within that period, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement. (Emphasis added.)
Your question is as follows:
When rent is unpaid, does KRS 383.660(2), which requires 'written notice by the landlord, ' mean that written notice by the landlord should be by 'steps reasonably calculated to inform' or 'by registered or certified mail' ?
It is our opinion that notice of nonpayment of rent under KRS 383.660(2) must be delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail to him or her in accordance with the requirements of KRS 383.560.
KRS 383.560 is the applicable statute dealing with notice under the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Subsection (3) distinguishes between giving notice and receiving notice. It reads in part as follows:
A person notifies or gives a notice or notification to another person by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other in ordinary course whether or not the other actually comes to know of it. A person receives a notice or notification when . . . (c) in the case of a tenant, it is delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail to him at the place held out by him as the place for receipt of the communication, or in the absence of such designation, to his last known place of residence. (Emphasis added.)
When a section of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act does not specify whether notice is to be given or received, it is our opinion that Subsection (1) of KRS 383.560 supplies the requisite standared of notice. Subsection (1) states as follows:
A person has notice of a fact if:
(a) He has actual knowledge of it;
(b) He has received a notice or notification of it; or
(c) From all the facts and circumstances known to him at the time in question he has reason to know that it exists. (Emphasis added.)
Thus, when the statute fails to specify whether notice is to be given by the landlord or received by the tenant, Subsection (1) of KRS 383.560 is triggered, and receipt of the notice by the tenant is required. Subsection (3) of KRS 383.560 then defines receipt of notice and requires the delivery of the notice by hand or a mailing by registered or certified mail to the tenant.
The statute to which your question refers, KRS 383.660(2), does not specify whether notice of nonpayment of rent must be given by the landlord or received by the tenant. Then, it is our opinion KRS 383.560(1) clarifies that the tenant must receive notice of nonpayment. Therefore, in accordance with KRS 383.560(3)(c), the notice of nonpayment must be delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail to him or her.