How much notice must a tenant give to cancel a fixed-term lease early?

Where the Consumer Protection Act applies, a consumer may cancel a fixed-term agreement at any time by giving 20 business days' written notice. This right cannot be contracted away, so a lease clause requiring two calendar months does not override it for a tenant who qualifies as a consumer under the Act.

Cancelling early is not free. Section 14(3) allows the supplier to impose a reasonable cancellation penalty, and the regulations list the factors that make a penalty reasonable — among them the amount the consumer still owes up to the cancellation date, the value of the transaction, the duration of the agreement remaining, the loss the supplier suffers, and the length of notice actually given. A penalty may not have the effect of negating the consumer's right to cancel.

The landlord also remains obliged to mitigate: the penalty is not a windfall, and the reasonableness assessment takes into account the general practice of the industry and the prospect of re-letting the property.

The 20 business days run on the same counting basis as every other CPA period — the day the notice is given is excluded, the last day is included, and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays do not count.

Disclaimer: This is general information about South African lease-renewal procedure, not legal advice. Dates are calculated from the information you provide and from published public holidays. Check them against your lease and take your own legal advice before acting.