Please note this post was updated from its original posting to reflect some recent changes in the law.
As always, before reading this post I encourage you to review my disclaimer by clicking on the link at the top of the page, or by following this link.
Introduction
At some point or another, the vast majority of us are going to live in a home or apartment that we have rented. Be it off-campus housing in college, our first home when we start working, or longer-term housing, almost everyone rents at some point in time. When we rent, we do so under a contract known as a lease. A lease can be written, oral, or implied, but a lease does exist in every rental situation whether you know it or not. Most leases, however, are written, and you should be very hesitant about entering into any rental arrangement without having a written lease.
A lease is a very important contract, and affects your rights dramatically. Moreover, leases can be very long, very confusing, and perhaps most importantly, it is entirely possible that you will have a lease which has provisions that are actually not legally applicable. As a result, it is important to not only read your lease thoroughly, but to also know the law before you sign your lease. Unfortunately, few people take both of these steps. Leases are frequently written to benefit the landlord, and there is nothing illegal about writing invalid provisions into a lease - as a result, many landlords do this to discourage tenants from protecting their rights.
Landlord/tenant law, especially in Virginia, is a very complex topic, and I would be foolish to try to cover it all in one blog post (or even two, three or four posts). As a result, my goals with this post are much more limited. Specifically, I hope to help you identify which laws apply to your lease and which don't and how that affects your rights. I will do future posts covering related matters.
VRLTA vs. Common Law/Title 55 - Chapter 13
Chapter 13.2 of Title 55 of the Code of Virginia is called the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (or VRLTA), which was passed in 1974 in order to simplify some elements of residential rentals. Many people mistakenly believe that VRLTA's purpose was to protect tenants. While it is true that VRLTA has many protections built in for tenants that did not exist prior to VRLTA's implementation, there are also actually a number of provisions that make it easier for a landlord to evict tenants as well. VRLTA really just streamlines and simplifies landlord/tenant disputes - it does not particularly favor one side or the other.
VRLTA does not apply to all leases, however. Specifically, leases are not covered by VRLTA in the following situations:
- residence at a public or private "institution" (college dorms, prison, hospital, old age home, etc.) when residence there is due to "detention or the provision of medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious or similar services"
- occupancy in a home that the tenant has purchased prior to the settlement on the sale of the home
- residence in a sorority or fraternity house by a member of that sorority or fraternity
- occupancy in a motel, hotel, vacation cottage, etc. unless leased for more than 30 straight days to the same person
- occupancy by the landlord's employee (or ex-employee for up to 60 days after the end of employment) when the right to occupancy is conditioned on continued employment
- occupancy by the owner of a condominium unit or the owner of a proprietary lease in a cooperative
- occupancy where the rented unit is to be used primarily for business, commercial or agricultural purposes
- occupancy in a public housing unit governed by HUD regulations wherever HUD regulations conflict with VRLTA
- occupancy by a tenant who pays no rent
- 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 two single-family residences subject to a rental agreement
The last provision is confusing, so let me spell it out a little more clearly. Basically, if you are renting from a person (not a corporation, LLC, etc.), the VRLTA does not apply unless that person owns three or more single-family residences, including the one you are renting, which he or she is renting out.
Why it Matters
If the VRLTA does not apply, then you are subject to the Common Law (law made by judges over the centuries), as altered by Chapter 13 of Title 55 of the Code of Virginia. The reason this matters is that the two sets of laws are very different. Perhaps the most important difference, however, is that VRLTA has section 55-248.9. That section prohibits certain provisions from being in a lease, and amongst those provisions is any provision in which the tenant waives any of his or her rights under the VRLTA. Chapter 13 of Title 55 has no equivalent provision. In other words, unless the specific code provision says otherwise, any provision of Chapter 13 of Title 55 can be waived by the lease.
I cannot count the number of times I have had someone come running to me with something horrible their landlord has done. I will find where the landlord has no responsibility for this in the lease, the tenant will show me the provision of the law that gives the landlord responsibility, and I will have to explain that, since it's not a VRLTA lease, the lease provision actually wins. Or, I will have someone with a non-VRLTA lease who found a great legal provision in the VRLTA. So, as a general rule, if you are researching Virginia landlord/tenant law and you find a provision, check out the section number. If it is section number 55-248.x or 55-248.xx, you are reading a VRLTA provision. If it is between 55-217 and 55-248 (no decimal point), it is a Chapter 13 provision (but again, remember, unless that provision says otherwise, that provision is waivable in the lease).
Exception
Now, there is one big exception to all that I have laid out above. There is a way to make your non-VRLTA lease into a VRLTA lease, and thus open up all of the VRLTA options to you. Section 55-248.5(B) specifically allows the lease itself to declare that it is to be governed by VRLTA, even if the rental situation is one that fits into one of the categories that would normally be excluded from VRLTA coverage. If you would prefer to have your lease governed by the VRLTA, you can ask for such a provision, and if included in the lease, the VRLTA would apply. Just remember, the VRLTA is a double-edged sword - it provides additional protections for tenants, but also provides additional protections for landlords as well.
How to find the Law
So, now that you know which law applies to your lease, you might wonder how you find that law. The simplest way without following links on the blog is to go to a search engine, search for "Code of Virginia," go to the Table of Contents, then click on Title 55, then click on either Chapter 13 or Chapter 13.2 for whichever applies to your lease. For simplicity, however, you can click on my links here to find Chapter 13 or the VRLTA.
Conclusion
As I stated at the beginning, leases are a major topic. Look at how long this blog post is, and all that I've done is help you figure out which laws apply to your lease! If you would like to have an attorney review your lease before you sign it, or answer your questions about the law and its applicability to your lease (and what it really means to you), or if you are engaged in a landlord/tenant dispute now and would like an attorney to assist you, please feel free to call (703)281-0134 or e-mail SLeven@thebaldwinlawfirm.com to set up an initial consultation with me - the consultation is free for up to half an hour!
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