New Hampshire Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

Nonpayment takes two documents, not one: a Demand for Rent, because RSA 540:2, II(a) requires that the rent be in arrears "upon demand," and a seven-day Eviction Notice under RSA 540:3, II. RSA 540:5, I lets the demand be served prior to or simultaneously with the eviction notice, so serve both together and only the seven calendar days run. The notice must state the reason with specificity, list an expiration date, and inform the tenant of the RSA 540:9 right to stop the eviction by paying. Either document may be served by any person, in hand to the tenant or left at their last and usual place of abode, with an affidavit of service that need not be sworn. Federally backed CARES Act properties require thirty days, not seven.

Failure to comply with a material term of the lease falls under RSA 540:2, II(c), and RSA 540:3 gives that ground the default thirty-day notice, not seven days. Only substantial damage to the premises, conduct that adversely affects the health or safety of other tenants or the landlord, refusal of temporary relocation for lead hazard remediation, and removal of a domestic violence perpetrator get the shortened seven-day notice.

A thirty-day notice to quit is sufficient in all residential cases under RSA 540:3, II, but for restricted property the landlord must also have one of the good causes listed in RSA 540:2, II, so there is no true no-cause eviction. Nonrestricted property under RSA 540:1-a includes single-family houses where the owner owns no more than three such houses at a time, rental units in an owner-occupied building of four dwelling units or fewer, and single-family houses acquired by a bank or mortgagee through foreclosure; those can be ended on thirty days' notice for any lawful reason. New Hampshire has no notice escalation for long-tenured or elderly tenants. Note that RSA 540:2, V defines good cause broadly to include any legitimate business or economic reason, and a tenant's refusal to accept a rent increase is good cause if you gave thirty days' written notice of the increase.

Landlord and tenant writs are filed in the District Division of the New Hampshire Circuit Court for the town where the property is located. The entry fee is $150 statewide plus $1 for the writ form, which must be bought at the clerk's office and is the one form not available online; the sheriff's service fee is billed separately and varies by county.

Under RSA 540:13 the landlord and tenant writ is returnable seven days from the date the sheriff serves it, and a tenant who wants to contest must file an appearance with the circuit court no later than that return day. If no appearance is filed, the landlord can ask for a default judgment.

Uncontested nonpayment runs roughly four to six weeks: seven days of notice, filing the day after it expires, sheriff service, a return day seven days later, a default notice mailed at least three days before the writ of possession issues, then execution by the sheriff. A thirty-day ground adds about three weeks, and a lease-expiration case under RSA 540:2, II(i) takes about four months once the sixty-day non-renewal notice is counted. A tenant appearance sets a hearing within ten days, and discovery, a habitability defense, or a pay-and-stay agreement stretch it further.

RSA 540-A:3 prohibits willfully entering without consent, changing the locks or otherwise denying the tenant access, shutting off or causing the shutoff of heat, electricity, water, gas, or other utilities even where the service is not in the landlord's name, and seizing or removing the tenant's property. Only a sheriff acting on a writ of possession can put a tenant out. RSA 540-A:4 lets the tenant file with no filing fee and get a hearing within days, and RSA 358-A:10 sets recovery at actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, doubled or trebled for a willful or knowing violation, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees, with a floor of $3,000 where the landlord locked the tenant out and re-rented the unit.

RSA 540:2, II(i) took effect July 1, 2026 and is now in force: expiration of a lease with an original or renewed term of twelve months or longer is itself good cause, provided the tenant got at least sixty days' written notice of non-renewal and the landlord files within six months of expiration, and RSA 540:2, VIII bars that no-fault termination from appearing as an eviction on tenant screening reports. The Judicial Branch's own landlord-tenant information sheet still says lease expiration is not good cause and has not been updated. A 2024 law also created an expedited track for unauthorized occupants with a 48-hour hearing.

The restricted versus nonrestricted distinction in RSA 540:1-a decides whether you need good cause at all, and buying a fourth single-family rental silently converts your whole portfolio to restricted property. Many eviction guides publish a flat seven-day notice for every violation, and at least one widely read guide invents a seven-day grace period before you may demand rent, which RSA 540:5, I does not require. Only RSA 540:2, II(a), (b), (d), and (h) get seven days; an ordinary material lease breach is II(c) and needs thirty. If your ground is conduct-based "other good cause" under II(e), RSA 540:2, III requires a written warning that the conduct would be grounds for eviction before you issue the eviction notice. You cannot file until the day after the notice expires, the writ itself must be served by the sheriff, and the case does not advance until you retrieve the served writ and file it with the court by the return day. A landlord may self-represent; an LLC does not need an attorney but a non-owner filer must attach the owner's written authorization and a Rule 1.3D Statement disclosing criminal convictions.

• N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540:2
• N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540:3
• N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540-A:3