Q: relocation assistance

A: First, you only are potentially entitled to relocation assistance payments if your rental dwelling is within the Portland city limits. If it is, you were likely owed notice of the amount of assistance and of your rights to the assistance at the time the termination notice was served (it IS a 90 day no cause termination notice?). Assuming you are entitled to the assistance payment, the landlord owes it to you by day 45 in order to comply with the city ordinance. Any violation, including the lack of notice of your relocation assistance rights with the 90 day notice, can subject the landlord to paying you up to 3 months rent, plus whatever relocation assistance money owed, plus your court costs, plus your attorney's fees - and these are the sorts of cases that landlord-tenant attorney's may well take on a contingency basis after review, meaning you wouldn't owe the attorney for anything more than the review; rather they would collect their fees from the landlord upon winning or settling the case. If somehow you lost, the attorney simply goes unpaid.

Moving before then is slightly trickier. First, the landlord's 90 day notice normally is a notice that your tenancy terminates on that specific date, at least 90 days from service of the notice. It is NOT notice that your tenancy terminates anytime up to the 90 days. So if you move out on day 40 without having provided your own 30 day notice to the landlord, you will likely owe rent for an additional 30 days or through day 70. So if you move sooner than the notice date, you need to provide your own notice to the landlord to not have to pay a penalty. The real issue is whether your moving out before the date specified in the landlord's notice negates their obligation to pay your relocation assistance since they only have to pay it when they terminate your tenancy without cause. Here, they would be terminating your tenancy without cause - but then if you leave early, arguably you are terminating the lease instead of the landlord, so would they still owe the payment? I have not seen a court rule on the topic and certainly no appellate court which is needing to be a legal precedent. I suspect the better argument is that yes, they would still owe it, but there are no guarantees how a Judge will rule. They are strange creatures sometimes. So bottom line, in my opinion is, IF they failed to give you the notice of your rights with the termination notice, you likely have claims for the 3 months rent penalty (plus costs and attorney's fees) no matter what. If you wait and move out on the specified day, they likely owe you any relocation assistance money they are legally required to pay (you would need to review the exact details with a landlord-tenant attorney to evaluate whether the landlord is someone exempt but single rental unit ownership in Portland is no longer grounds for exemption), and that payment would be due you by day 45. If you move before day 90, I think it likely you are still entitled to the relocation assistance payment but a Judge might see it differently. Good luck.