As always, before reading this post please review my disclaimer by following the link above, or by clicking on this link. As always, any legal principles discussed apply only to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Introduction
One of the fun parts of being a lawyer is keeping up with changes in the law - be it from new appellate court cases or changes in the law from the General Assembly. It means our work never remains the same. It is my goal in the near-term future to be able to start providing updates to posts I make here when new caselaw comes down that changes something. Nonetheless, legislation is a little easier to deal with.
In Virginia, with rare exceptions, new laws take effect on July 1 of the year in which they were enacted. The legislative session, however, is usually long done by then - giving us a period of time where we know which new laws are coming (so we can prepare for them), but we also know that no more new laws will be created while we prepare. We are at that point this year, as the only legislative work remaining is the budget.
So, there are several laws that will take effect on July 1 of this year that affect, either directly or indirectly, topics on which I have made blog posts in the past. As a result, I will use this post to address some of those changes, including a reference to the blog post(s) that might be altered or affected.
Important Change to VRLTA Inclusion/Exclusion
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how important it is in the landlord/tenant context to understand whether or not the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (VRLTA) applies to your lease. On July 1, 2014, the VRLTA will have a couple of important changes.
Amongst other things, my May 20, 2013 post about the VRLTA lists the situations in which the VRLTA does or does not apply. The most common situation where the VRLTA does not apply was "occupancy in a single-family residence where the owner is a natural person (so, not a corporation, LLC, etc.) who owns in his or her own name no more than ten single-family residences subject to a rental agreement; or in the case of condominium units or single-family residences located in any city or in any county having either the urban county executive form or county manager plan of government, no more than four."
Well, the General Assembly has decided that four or ten is too high a number, and that it makes no sense to have different rules in different parts of the state, when really the only goal of that exclusion is to exclude people who are not "professional" landlords. So, HB 273, which will take effect on July 1, 2014, has changed that exclusion to a much more simple "Occupancy in single-family residences where the owners are natural persons or their estates who own in their own name no more than two single-family residences subject to a rental agreement." So, after July 1, if you rent from someone who has three or more single-family residences anywhere that he or she rents out, then your lease will apply to the VRLTA. Note, however, that this will not change the applicability of the VRLTA to leases entered into before July 1, 2014 due to constitutional contract principles. Those leases will remain covered by the pre-July 1, 2014 rules until they expire.
Changes to VRLTA Security Deposit Rules
You may recall in my post from February 27, 2014 about why the VRLTA really matters that a landlord is required to accrue interest on any security deposit held for more than 13 months. However, you may also recall that I pointed out that this requirement had essentially been meaningless for five years since the way that the interest rate was set had the interest at 0 for that long. Well, the General Assembly has finally given up on this. The same HB 273 mentioned above also terminates the requirement that landlords accrue interest on security deposits under the VRLTA - that change being effective January 1, 2015.
Changes to the Child Support Guidelines
Just last week I posted about how child support works in Virginia. Well, by and large that is not changing. However, there is an often ignored part of the Code that requires a commission to gather every four years and review the Virginia Child Support Guidelines and suggest changes if needed. This is often ignored because the commission has never suggested changes. Until this year. This year, the commission did suggest changes, and they were passed by the General Assembly in HB 933. While there are several important changes made, the only one that covers my blog are changes to the "child support need," the number that gets spit out when you plug in the combined income of the parents. While the changes are not uniform, they are by and large a little lower, meaning child support obligations will come down overall when this law takes effect on July 1, 2014.
Conclusion
The above changes are just a sampling of the kinds of changes we have to deal with every year as attorneys. Based on the above, I have to re-design the leases I do for landlords, change the questions I ask landlords and tenants to determine which laws apply, get a new child support guidelines program, and likely deal with an influx of cases of people seeking to modify their child support. This is yet another reason why internet research can fail you as a potential litigant - you could end up finding an old version of the law - and why you are usually better off with an attorney. If you'd like legal representation in your case, please feel free to call (703)281-0134 or e-mail me at SLeven@thebaldwinlawfirm.com to set up a consultation. Our initial consultations are free for up to 30 minutes!
Hi, I have a question. I own one condo in my name only and my husband and I own two more in both of our names. We rent all three out. Does the new law stating, "Occupancy in single-family residences where the owners are natural persons or their estates who own in their own name no more than two single-family residences subject to a rental agreement" apply to us? I'm having a difficult time finding a definitive answer and I'm curious is single family residence is different than condo's etc.... Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteThe reason you are having trouble finding a definitive answer is because there isn't one. I am aware of no caselaw on point on this - and probably for good reason. It's simply not likely that someone would have your situation in which there were (in most of the state) more than 10 residences involved, meaning this probably has not come up before now. However, I would predict that a judge would find that the VRLTA does now apply to any new lease you make in any of those condos, and I'll explain why.
DeleteI'll answer your simplest question first - a single condo is a single-family residence. If you own an entire building of condos, then it becomes a multi-family residence which makes the VRLTA applicable, but just a stand alone condo is a single family residence.
Now, I can see strong arguments both ways. If I were trying to argue that the VRLTA applies, I would point to Code Section 55-248.4's definition of "owner" as including someone who is only a part owner. As such, you are considered to own three residences, meaning the condos have one owner at least who has three such residences, and as such, the VRLTA would apply.
If I were trying to argue the VRLTA does not apply, I would point to the definition of "natural person" in code section 55-248.4 which includes joint owners of property, and the 55-248.5(A)(10)'s use of the words "in their own name" to say that the "natural person" of you and your husband own two such residence in your own name, and the "natural person" of you own one such residence in your own name, so the VRLTA does not apply.
As you can see, it's a complicated question. However, given the goals of the VRLTA, I think a judge would likely find that the first argument is the one the General Assembly would want to be used, and as such, would say the VRLTA applies.
So, with that in mind, the safest bet for you is to do the following:
- Assume the VRLTA applies, and act accordingly. It is very unlikely you can get in trouble by acting like the VRLTA does apply when it doesn't, while the reverse can frequently get you in trouble.
- Remember, however, this is only true for new leases entered into after July 1, 2014. Under constitutional principles, contracts (including leases) are judged according to the law in effect when enacted. Any leases that were already in effect remain under the old law (and thus not VRLTA-covered) until they expire.