Short answer. Yes, unless your lease says otherwise. A lessor may commence the action only after demand to pay or comply with the conditions of the lease and to vacate is made on the lessee — and only after the lessee fails to comply within fifteen days for land or five days for buildings.
What the law says
only after demand to pay or comply with the conditions of the lease and to vacate is made upon the lessee
Rule 70, Section 2 — Lessor to proceed against lessee only after demand. Read the full provision →
The demand must say two things
Read the required content carefully: the demand is to pay or comply with the conditions of the lease and to vacate. Both parts matter. A letter that only chases the unpaid rent is a collection letter; a letter that only tells the tenant to leave skips the demand to pay or comply. The demand that opens the door to ejectment pairs them — settle the arrears or comply with the lease, and vacate. Landlords lose otherwise solid cases on this drafting point, because the demand letter is the foundation the whole ejectment suit stands on, and it is examined word by word once the case is filed.
How the demand may be served
The rule gives three modes, in a practical cascade: the demand is made upon the lessee personally; or by serving written notice of such demand upon the person found on the premises; or by posting such notice on the premises if no person be found thereon. A tenant who avoids the letter, or leaves a helper to receive papers, or padlocks the unit and disappears, does not thereby escape demand — the notice to a person found on the premises, or the posting on the premises itself, serves just as well. Whichever mode you use, preserve proof: a signed receiving copy, photographs of the posting, the messenger's account.
Then the waiting period
Demand alone is not enough; the tenant must be given time to comply and fail. The action may be commenced only after the lessee fails to comply therewith after fifteen days in the case of land or five days in the case of buildings. Count the period from the demand, and do not file early — a complaint filed before the period lapses is premature. Note also the rule's opening clause, unless otherwise stipulated: the lease itself can vary the requirement, for instance by fixing a different period, so the first document to consult is always the contract you both signed.
Getting it right the first time
Because everything downstream depends on the demand, treat it as a legal document, not a reminder note. Put it in writing even where personal demand would do; state the amounts due or the conditions breached; demand payment or compliance and vacation of the premises; date it; serve it by a provable mode; and diarise the fifteen- or five-day period before filing. If the tenant pays in full within the period, the ground for ejectment based on that demand disappears — which is exactly how the rule is meant to work. If the tenant neither pays nor leaves, the demand and its proof of service become the first exhibits of your case.