Domestic Violence Lease Termination Rights in Nevada, NRS 118A.345

Most early move-out requests are a negotiation. A tenant asks to break the lease, you weigh the duty to mitigate against a buyout, and you land somewhere in the middle. A request that arrives under NRS 118A.345 is different. When a tenant, a cotenant, or a member of their household has been the victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, or stalking, Nevada gives that person a statutory right to end the lease early. This is the one early-termination right a Las Vegas landlord cannot draft around, argue down, or bury in a lease clause. A provision that tries to waive it simply will not hold up.

Handling one of these notices well protects your tenant, protects you from a wrongful-retention claim, and keeps you clear of a situation that no owner wants to mishandle. Here is exactly how the statute works and what it asks of both sides.

What Does NRS 118A.345 Actually Give a Tenant

NRS 118A.345 is titled the right of a tenant or cotenant to terminate a lease due to domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, or stalking. In plain terms, it lets a qualifying victim walk away from the remainder of a lease term without owing the rent that would normally run through the end of the agreement. It applies to your standard Nevada residential lease, whether the tenant is renting a single-family home in Enterprise, a townhome in Henderson, or a condo near the Strip.

The right belongs to the person who is a party to the lease, but the qualifying harm does not have to happen to that exact person. If a household member is the victim, the tenant on the lease can still invoke the statute. That matters in a family rental, where the named leaseholder may be a parent acting on behalf of a child or another relative who lives in the unit.

Because this is a statutory right, it exists no matter what your lease says. If you added a clause requiring a two-month penalty for any early departure, that clause does not apply to a valid 118A.345 termination. This is a good moment to review the rest of your document too, since a lease loaded with unenforceable penalties invites disputes. Our guide on how to write a Nevada lease agreement that protects you walks through which clauses actually stand up in a Clark County courtroom.

Which Situations Qualify Under the Statute

The statute covers four categories of harm. Domestic violence is the most commonly cited, but harassment, sexual assault, and stalking each qualify on their own. A tenant does not need a criminal conviction, a completed prosecution, or even an arrest to use the statute. The law is built around the victim being able to leave a dangerous living situation quickly, not around waiting for the justice system to finish its work.

There is one firm timing limit. The actions, events, or circumstances that made the tenant, cotenant, or household member a victim must have occurred within the 90 days immediately before the tenant delivers the written notice of termination to you. If a tenant tries to invoke the statute over an incident from a year earlier with nothing recent, the 90-day window is the reason it may not qualify. In practice, most notices arrive close to the event, so this rarely becomes an issue, but it is the one date you should confirm.

What Documentation Must a Tenant Provide

A verbal request does not trigger the statute. The tenant has to give you written notice of termination, and that notice must be accompanied by supporting documentation. For a domestic violence claim, the tenant provides one of the following. A copy of an order for protection against domestic violence. A copy of a written report from a law enforcement agency showing that the tenant, cotenant, or household member reported the incident. Or a signed affidavit from a qualified third party, which the statute recognizes through the related affidavit form in NRS 118A.347.

For a claim based on harassment, sexual assault, or stalking, the tenant provides either a copy of a written report from a law enforcement agency or a copy of a temporary or extended protective order. Nevada’s court system makes these protective orders and their supporting forms available directly to victims, and you can see how those orders are issued and what they contain through the Nevada Judiciary self-help center on domestic violence protection orders. Knowing what a valid order looks like helps you recognize legitimate documentation when it lands in your inbox.

Your job here is narrow. You confirm that the notice is in writing, that it includes one of the accepted documents, and that the underlying event falls inside the 90-day window. You are not entitled to interrogate the tenant about the details of the abuse, demand additional proof beyond what the statute lists, or sit on the notice while you decide whether you believe it. Asking for more than the law requires is where landlords get themselves into trouble.

How Does the Notice Window and Termination Date Work

Once a tenant delivers a compliant written notice, the lease terminates at the end of the current rental period or 30 days after the notice is provided, whichever occurs sooner. Read that carefully, because the shorter of the two controls.

Picture a tenant on a standard month-to-month cycle who pays on the first. If that tenant hands you a valid notice on the 5th, the current rental period ends on the last day of the month, which is well within 30 days, so the lease ends at month’s end. Now picture a tenant who delivers notice on the 25th. Thirty days out lands in the middle of the next month, but the current rental period ends in five days, so again the end of the current period is sooner and that is your termination date. The 30-day cap mainly matters when a rental period is unusually long or the notice arrives right at the start of one.

The point for you as the owner is that a 118A.345 termination is fast. You should treat the notice as the start of a short turnover clock, not a request you can slow-walk. This is a different mechanism from other statutory exits, such as the medical hardship path some tenants explore. If you want to see how another confirmed early-termination route plays out, our breakdown of whether a tenant can break a lease for medical reasons in Nevada shows how narrow those other doors actually are by comparison.

What Can and Cannot Be Charged

This is the part landlords most want a clear answer on, and the statute gives one.

A tenant who terminates under 118A.345 is liable for the rent owed through the date of termination and any other outstanding obligations, such as unpaid utilities or damage they caused. That is the ceiling. You cannot charge the balance of the lease term, an early-termination penalty, or a buyout fee. Those charges are exactly what the statute takes off the table.

If the tenant prepaid rent that applies to the rental period in which the lease ends, you may keep that prepaid rent for that period. You only owe a refund if the prepaid amount is more than what is owed for the final period. So you are made whole through the termination date, but not beyond it.

The security deposit is where owners slip up most often. You cannot withhold any part of the deposit as a penalty for the early termination itself. The deposit is still handled the ordinary way, meaning you can deduct for actual damage beyond normal wear and for genuine unpaid amounts, then return the balance on the normal Nevada timeline. What you cannot do is treat the early departure as a deduction. If you are fuzzy on which deductions are legitimate, our guide to Nevada security deposit laws and what landlords can and cannot deduct lays out the line item by item.

There is a meaningful backstop in the statute for your losses. The person named as the adverse party, meaning the perpetrator, may be held civilly liable for the economic losses you incur because of the termination. You are not simply eating the cost. Your recovery runs against the abuser, not the victim.

The Lock Change Duty and Who Pays For It

Not every 118A.345 situation ends with the tenant leaving. Sometimes the victim stays and the danger is an outside party, or a cotenant who is the adverse party is the one being removed. The statute anticipates this.

A tenant, cotenant, or household member who has given notice under the statute may require you to install a new lock on the dwelling, provided that person pays the cost of installing it. You get to choose how you comply. You may rekey the existing lock if it is in good working condition, or you may replace the entire locking mechanism with one of equal or superior quality. The cost is the tenant’s, but the choice of method is yours, which protects your hardware standards across the property.

After you install the new lock, you may keep a copy of the new key for your own lawful access, but you must refuse to give a key to the adverse party. You must also refuse to let the adverse party into the unit to retrieve belongings unless a law enforcement officer is present. That last point protects you. If the removed party shows up demanding to collect their things, the correct answer is that they may do so only with police present, never on your say-so alone.

What Happens When a Cotenant Is the Problem

When two people share a lease and one is the victim and the other is the adverse party, the statute lets the situation resolve without punishing the person who stays. The victim can invoke their rights, the lock can be changed against the adverse party, and the remaining tenant is not automatically on the hook for the departed cotenant’s share in a way that traps them.

There is also a privacy protection worth understanding. A termination under this statute must not be disclosed, described, or characterized as an early termination by the current landlord to a prospective landlord. In plain language, if a future landlord calls you for a reference, you cannot brand this tenant as a lease-breaker. The tenant is likewise not required to disclose the termination as an early exit on a future application. This keeps a victim from being penalized in the rental market for leaving a dangerous home, and it is a rule you need to honor when you give references.

A Simple Process For Handling a 118A.345 Notice

1. Confirm the notice is in writing and identifies domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, or stalking as the basis.
2. Check that one accepted document is attached, a protection order, a law enforcement report, or the recognized affidavit.
3. Verify the qualifying event falls within the 90 days before the notice date.
4. Calculate the termination date as the end of the current rental period or 30 days out, whichever is sooner, and put it in writing to the tenant.
5. Prorate and collect only the rent and real obligations owed through that date, and never a penalty.
6. If asked, rekey or replace the lock at the tenant’s cost, keep your copy, and deny the adverse party a key.
7. Return the deposit on the normal timeline with only lawful deductions, and treat the exit as a reference-neutral departure.

Common Questions From Las Vegas Landlords

These are the questions owners in Summerlin, North Las Vegas, and Spring Valley raise most often once a notice arrives.

Can I refuse the termination if I do not believe the tenant

No. Your role is to verify that the paperwork meets the statute, not to judge the truth of the underlying incident. If the written notice, the accepted documentation, and the 90-day timing all check out, the termination stands. Second-guessing a documented claim is how landlords end up defending a lawsuit.

Do I have to let the tenant out immediately

Not instantly, but quickly. The lease ends at the close of the current rental period or 30 days after notice, whichever comes first. You are entitled to rent through that date, and no longer.

Can I put a clause in my lease that waives this right

No. This is a protected statutory right, and a lease provision that tries to waive or shrink it is unenforceable. Adding one only weakens your document and signals bad faith if a dispute ever reaches a judge.

Who pays for my lost rent

The statute makes the adverse party, the perpetrator, potentially liable for the economic losses you suffer because of the termination. Your claim runs against that person, not against the victim who left.

Does this apply to a month-to-month arrangement

The statute is written around ending a rental agreement early, and it fits both fixed-term leases and periodic tenancies. The termination-date math simply keys off whatever the current rental period is.

Handle It Right The First Time

A 118A.345 notice is not a loophole and it is not a threat to your bottom line. It is a narrow, well-defined right with clear rules on both sides. The tenant owes you documentation, a proper written notice, and rent through the termination date. You owe the tenant a prompt exit, a clean deposit accounting, a lock change at their cost if they ask, and a reference that never labels them a lease-breaker. Get those steps right and you are fully protected, with a recovery path against the actual wrongdoer.

If one of these notices has landed on a property you own, or you simply want your leases and turnover process ready before it ever does, the IRES property-management team can walk you through the paperwork, the timeline, and the deposit math so nothing slips. Reach out for a consultation and we will make sure your response holds up.