An Act to amend and reenact § 55.1-1245, as it is currently effective and as it shall become effective, of the Code of Virginia, relating to Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; landlord remedies; noncompliance with rental agreement; victim of family abuse.
HB1408 amends Virginia’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, specifically § 55.1-1245, to restate and update the rules governing when a landlord may terminate a tenancy for tenant noncompliance with a rental agreement. The bill preserves existing landlord remedies for material lease violations, including notice-and-cure procedures for remediable breaches, accelerated termination for nonremediable or dangerous conduct, and expedited court timelines for possession actions involving illegal drug activity or other criminal or willful acts that threaten health or safety. It also retains provisions allowing termination for unpaid rent after a five-day notice period and clarifies the landlord’s ability to recover damages, fees, and costs in both nonjudicial and judicial settings.
The bill also includes protections and procedures related to family abuse. A tenant who is a victim of family abuse is protected from lease termination solely because of the abuse, so long as the perpetrator is barred from the premises by a landlord or court order and the tenant provides required documentation and timely notice if the perpetrator returns. In addition, the bill requires public housing authorities to provide written income-recertification and grievance information with nonpayment notices and to post that information in public housing communities. It also adds a COVID-era tenant-screening restriction for larger landlords, barring adverse action based solely on pandemic-period nonpayment or eviction history and creating notice and challenge procedures for denied applicants.
In practical terms, the bill reinforces landlord enforcement tools while adding targeted tenant protections and procedural requirements. It affects the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, eviction and unlawful detainer practice, tenant screening by larger landlords, and public housing notice obligations. It also creates a statutory damages remedy of $1,000 plus attorney fees for applicants harmed by a landlord’s failure to follow the COVID-related screening restrictions.
The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly favorable and largely noncontroversial. It moved through subcommittee, committee, and both chambers with overwhelming support, including unanimous committee votes and a 40-0 Senate passage. The House vote was also broad, though not unanimous, indicating some limited disagreement but no major organized opposition in the recorded votes.
The main points of contention likely center on the balance between landlord enforcement and tenant protections. The family-abuse provisions impose documentation and notice deadlines that may be viewed as necessary safeguards by landlords but potentially burdensome for survivors. The COVID-era tenant-screening limits may also have drawn concern from landlords because they restrict use of past nonpayment or eviction history in tenant selection and expose noncompliant landlords to statutory damages. At the same time, the bill’s strong landlord-remedy language suggests it was designed to preserve eviction and collection tools while adding narrow protections in specific circumstances.
HB1408 amends § 55.1-1245 of the Code of Virginia within the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, affecting landlord termination rights, eviction procedures, rent-collection remedies, and tenant-screening practices. It preserves and restates existing notice, cure, and expedited possession rules for lease breaches, while adding or clarifying protections for victims of family abuse and restrictions on adverse tenant-screening actions based on COVID-era nonpayment or eviction history for larger landlords. It also imposes notice obligations on public housing authorities and authorizes statutory damages and attorney fees for violations of the new screening rules.
The bill appears to have been received positively overall, with unanimous or near-unanimous committee support and unanimous Senate passage. The House passage was also substantial, though with some opposition, suggesting broad bipartisan acceptance with limited dissent. The vote pattern indicates the bill was not especially controversial in the legislature as a whole.
The likely areas of disagreement are the bill’s competing landlord and tenant interests. Landlords may have supported the strengthened remedies for nonpayment, lease breaches, and dangerous conduct, but could have objected to the COVID-related limits on tenant screening and the new penalties for noncompliance. Tenant advocates likely supported the family-abuse protections and screening restrictions, but may have viewed the documentation and notice requirements as restrictive. The bill’s structure suggests the legislature sought a compromise between eviction enforcement and targeted tenant protections.