{ "meta": { "name": "Deposit Record ruleset: Virginia", "description": "The verified Virginia security-deposit rules that https://deposit.orygn.tech/virginia is built from: each rule as a machine payload, its plain-English summary, its exact citation, the verbatim text of its source where quoted (sourceType says when that is not statute text), the official source URL it was verified against, and the date a human last checked it.", "state": "VA", "page": "https://deposit.orygn.tech/virginia", "dataUrl": "https://deposit.orygn.tech/data/virginia.json", "lastReviewed": "2026-11-12", "citeAs": "Deposit Record, Virginia Security Deposit Return (verified November 12, 2026), https://deposit.orygn.tech/virginia", "publisher": { "name": "Orygn LLC", "url": "https://orygn.tech/" }, "license": "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): free to reuse and quote with attribution to Deposit Record and a link to the page. The statutes themselves are public law.", "disclaimer": "General information, not legal advice. Every rule cites the source it was verified against; rely on the source, and on a lawyer for your situation.", "fields": { "summary": "plain-English statement of the rule, as rendered on the page", "value": "the machine payload the calculator uses (days, triggers, caps, multipliers); its keys are named for what they hold and explained by the summary", "citation": "exact pin-cite for the rule: a statute, an enacting act, a case or agency guidance (see sourceType)", "statuteQuote": "verbatim text quoted from the document at sourceUrl. Despite the name, not every quote is statute text: sourceType says what it is. An automated weekly check compares each quote with its source.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "pin-cite for statuteQuote alone, when the quote is narrower than the rule's citation", "sourceType": "what statuteQuote is. Absent or 'codified': codified statute text. 'session-law': a clause of the enacting act that was never codified. 'case': a court's words. 'agency': an agency's reading of the statute, which shows how the law is enforced in practice but is not what the statute says.", "sourceUrl": "the official source the rule was verified against, and where its quote is found. Some official hosts block automated clients.", "readableUrl": "an unofficial, easier-to-read copy of the same text, for people; rely on sourceUrl", "derivation": "'verbatim' for a literal statutory rule; 'synthesized' for our reading across sections, which the page labels as our interpretation. Absent means the rule is not labelled either way.", "effectiveDate": "when the rule's current text took effect, recorded as provenance. Read effectiveDateIsFloor before using it.", "effectiveDateIsFloor": "true means effectiveDate is only the earliest date we could prove this text was already in force. The real effective date is earlier and unverified, so do not present it as 'effective '.", "lastVerified": "the date a human last checked this rule against sourceUrl", "confidence": "'high', 'medium' or 'low': our confidence in the rule as stated", "amendedBy": "the most recent notable amending act", "notes": "traps and edge cases, as rendered on the page" }, "stateFields": { "stateCode": "two-letter state code", "stateName": "state name", "slug": "the state page is https://deposit.orygn.tech/{slug}", "lastReviewed": "when a human last reviewed this ruleset as a whole. Single rules are re-verified between reviews, so a rule's lastVerified can be later.", "summary": "plain-English summary of the state's return rules, as on the page", "letterFooter": "the source line printed at the foot of the generated letter", "cities": "city-level records; see meta.cityFields", "localLaw": "the state's position on local deposit rules. preempted is true only where a statute forecloses them, and citation then carries it; summary says what we have and have not read.", "sources": "the primary sources the page is built on", "pendingLegislation": "law signed but not yet in force (status 'enacted-not-in-force') or a bill a reader deciding today should know about ('pending'). The rule objects describe the law as it stands; this is the one forward-looking field. citySlug is set when the act is a city ordinance.", "stabilized": "New York only: the separate Gen. Oblig. Law 7-107 rules for rent-stabilized units, which reach leases entered into on or after appliesToLeasesFromISO. Each member that has a citation is a rule object." }, "cityFields": { "city": "city name", "citySlug": "stable machine key for the city", "applies": "true if the city adds a rule on top of state law. false is an explicit record that we found no city rule, and only for the kinds of rule listed in checkedFor.", "summary": "plain-English statement of the city rule, as rendered on the page", "coverageQuestion": "asked before any city math: whether the ordinance covers this rental at all. Absent means it applies citywide.", "interest": "the city deposit-interest rule and its rate data (machine payload)", "cap": "a city ceiling on the deposit. Absent means not recorded, which is not the same as none: see checkedFor.", "returnRules": "a local return clock (machine payload): days after the tenant vacates to return the deposit, any separate statement and receipts clocks, faster returns after particular events, and whether the code has its own rule for deadlines that land on a weekend or holiday. Where state and local clocks both apply, the earlier one governs. Absent means the city does not change the state's return rules.", "layersOn": "the citySlug of another row whose rules also apply in this city (for example a suburb inside a county ordinance's reach)", "ownerOccupiedExclusionMaxUnits": "the local ordinance does not reach owner-occupied premises with this many units or fewer; state law still applies there", "checkedFor": "the kinds of deposit rule we actually searched for in this city ('interest', 'cap', 'deadline', 'itemization'). A row says nothing about kinds it does not list.", "citation": "exact pin-cite for the city rule", "sourceUrl": "the official source the city rule was verified against", "lastVerified": "the date a human last checked this city rule against sourceUrl", "confidence": "'high', 'medium' or 'low': our confidence in the city rule as stated", "notes": "what to re-check and where the rule stops, as rendered on the page" }, "schema": "Every published key is described here: meta.fields for rule objects, meta.stateFields for the other keys of rules, meta.cityFields for each entry of rules.cities. Every key of rules not in meta.stateFields is one rule object, named for what it governs (deadline, cap, penalty and so on).", "version": "4ea74ab", "dataHash": "528bfa1fae61097b", "about": "version is the git commit these files were built from, ending in -dirty if the tree had uncommitted changes. dataHash is a fingerprint of a state's rules object and changes when, and only when, that object changes: poll it, not version or lastReviewed, to detect new data." }, "rules": { "stateCode": "VA", "stateName": "Virginia", "slug": "virginia", "lastReviewed": "2026-11-12", "summary": "Virginia landlords must itemize the security deposit and any deductions, damages and charges in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due, within 45 days after the termination date of the tenancy or the date the tenant vacates, whichever occurs last. The deposit may be applied only to accrued rent (with reasonable late charges the lease specifies), damage from the tenant’s breach of the tenant’s maintenance duties less reasonable wear and tear, other damages or charges the lease provides for, and actual damages for breach of the lease (a reasonable part may also be withheld for a third-party utility balance, on conditions), and it may not exceed two months’ periodic rent. The Act has required no interest on a deposit since January 1, 2015, though interest built up before then on an older deposit is still payable. If a landlord willfully fails to comply, the court must order the whole deposit returned, with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees. If the tenant owes rent, the statute directs an amount equal to the deposit credited against the rent due; it does not say whether actual damages and attorney fees are still awarded then.", "letterFooter": { "label": "Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 12 (Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/" }, "deadline": { "summary": "The landlord must itemize the deposit and any deductions, damages and charges in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due to the tenant, within 45 days after the LATER of two dates: the termination date of the tenancy and the date the tenant vacates the dwelling unit.", "value": { "days": 45, "dayType": "calendar", "triggerBasis": "later-of", "triggerEvents": [ "termination-of-tenancy", "vacate" ], "suspendUntilForwardingAddress": false, "rollsForwardOnHolidays": false, "complianceRequires": [ "itemized-statement", "deposit-balance" ] }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A)", "statuteQuote": "The security deposit and any deductions, damages, and charges shall be itemized by the landlord in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due to the tenant, within 45 days after the termination date of the tenancy or the date the tenant vacates the dwelling unit, whichever occurs last.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2023 Va. Acts chs. 433, 434", "notes": "The clock waits for whichever of the two dates comes last. A tenant who moves out three weeks before the lease ends has not started it (unless the tenancy itself ended that day, as it does where you and the tenant agree in writing to end it early, § 55.1-1253(A)), and a tenant who stays past the end date does not start it on the end date. The termination date is not always the lease-end date: the notice rules for periodic tenancies (§ 55.1-1253), early termination by servicemembers (§ 55.1-1235) and by victims of family abuse, sexual abuse, stalking or trafficking (§ 55.1-1236), termination for noncompliance (§§ 55.1-1234, 55.1-1245), abandonment (§ 55.1-1249) and the death of a sole tenant under a written lease (§ 55.1-1256) each fix it in their own way. The tool asks for the date; it does not compute it. The duty is a written, itemized notice \"given to the tenant\" together with any money due, so a cheque on its own does not meet it. Ending the tenancy early does not excuse the notice either: the landlord \"shall give written notice of security deposit disposition within the 45-day period\" and may retain the balance to apply against what the tenant owes the landlord under the Act or the lease. If day 45 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, read the note on § 1-210(E) below; the tool shows day 45 as the deadline." }, "forwardingAddress": { "summary": "Virginia does not make the tenant give a forwarding address, and the 45 days do not wait for one. If none is given, the landlord must still make the disposition within the 45 days but may continue to hold the money in escrow.", "value": { "required": false, "mustBeWritten": false, "suspendsObligation": false, "forfeitsRightIfNotProvided": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(B)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord shall make the security deposit disposition within the 45-day time period required by subsection A, but if no forwarding address is provided to the landlord, the landlord may continue to hold such security deposit in escrow.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Nothing in the Act puts a duty on the tenant to give a forwarding address; the word appears only in this subsection. Without one, the written notice is still due by day 45: a notice to the tenant is served at the tenant’s last known place of residence, \"which may be the dwelling unit\" (§ 55.1-1202(B)). Only the handing over of the money may wait. The deposit section does not say what kind of account \"escrow\" means here. A year after day 45, a landlord still holding the money for want of an address may remit it to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property (see that rule below)." }, "itemization": { "summary": "Whatever is kept, the deposit and every deduction, damage and charge must be itemized in a written notice given to the tenant, with any amount due going along with it, within the same 45 days.", "value": { "required": true, "mustBeWritten": true, "excusedWhen": "Nothing in § 55.1-1226 excuses the written notice. With no forwarding address the landlord may keep holding the money in escrow but must still make the disposition within 45 days; and where damages exceed the deposit and need a third-party contractor, a written notice to that effect within the 45 days earns 15 more days for the itemization of the damages and the cost of repair." }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A)", "statuteQuote": "The security deposit and any deductions, damages, and charges shall be itemized by the landlord in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due to the tenant", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The statute names what is itemized (the deposit, the deductions, the damages and the charges) and nothing else: it prescribes no headings, no receipts and no photographs for this notice. Listing every amount kept under the category it falls in, and showing the arithmetic down to the amount returned, is a practice we suggest; the text does not require it. The verb is \"given\": under the Act a person \"gives\" a notice \"by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform another person, whether or not the other person actually comes to know of it\" (§ 55.1-1200). After a move-out inspection, subsection G also calls for \"a written security deposit disposition statement, including an itemized list of damages\"; on our reading one document can serve both." }, "deductions": { "summary": "The deposit may be applied to four uses under subsection A, plus a withholding for a third-party utility balance under subsection C. The four are accrued rent, with reasonable late charges the lease specifies; damage caused by the tenant’s failure to meet the duties in § 55.1-1227, less reasonable wear and tear; other damages or charges the lease provides for; and actual damages for breach of the lease under § 55.1-1251.", "value": { "allowed": [ "Accrued rent, including the reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement", "Damages the landlord has suffered because of the tenant’s noncompliance with § 55.1-1227 (the tenant’s duties to maintain the dwelling unit), less reasonable wear and tear", "Other damages or charges as provided in the rental agreement", "Actual damages for breach of the rental agreement under § 55.1-1251" ], "disallowed": [ "Anything outside the four categories: the deposit may be applied \"solely\" to them (the subsection C withholding for a third-party utility balance is the one other use the section allows)", "Reasonable wear and tear, which is subtracted from the damages category", "A late charge the written lease does not provide for, or one above the lesser of 10 percent of the periodic rent or 10 percent of the remaining balance due (§ 55.1-1204(E))" ], "documentationThresholdUsd": null, "photosRequiredWhenDeducting": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A)", "statuteQuote": "Upon termination of the tenancy or the date the tenant vacates the dwelling unit, whichever occurs last, such security deposit, whether it is property or money held by the landlord as security as provided in this section, may be applied by the landlord solely to (i) the payment of accrued rent, including the reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement; (ii) the payment of the amount of damages that the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant's noncompliance with § 55.1-1227, less reasonable wear and tear; (iii) other damages or charges as provided in the rental agreement; or (iv) actual damages for breach of the rental agreement pursuant to § 55.1-1251.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "\"Solely\" makes this a closed list of four; the one other use the section allows is the subsection C withholding for a balance the tenant owes a third-party utility provider (subsection A’s retention of the balance after an early termination is covered under \"Applying the deposit by the same day\"). Item (iv) is limited by § 55.1-1251: lost rent may be claimed only until the term ends or a new tenancy begins, whichever comes first, the landlord’s duty to mitigate is preserved, and a post-possession judgment may not be for accelerated rent through the end of the term (see that rule). Item (iii) leans on the lease, within limits: a lease term that § 55.1-1208(A) forbids is unenforceable (§ 55.1-1208(B)), and \"no landlord shall require a tenant to pay any fee for the maintenance or repair of any dwelling unit\" unless the tenant’s violation of a requirement of the Act made it necessary (§ 55.1-1208(C)). \"Reasonable wear and tear\" is not defined anywhere in the Act, and we found no Virginia decision that defines it; this page does not supply a definition or a list. Late charges must be in the written lease and are capped at the lesser of 10 percent of the periodic rent or 10 percent of the remaining balance (§ 55.1-1204(E)). The tenant may not treat the deposit as an immediate credit against unpaid rent when the tenancy ends (§ 55.1-1226(C))." }, "interest": { "summary": "No statute makes interest accrue on a Virginia deposit today. An uncodified clause of a 2014 act ended deposit interest from January 1, 2015; interest that had built up on an older deposit by the end of 2014 is still payable \"no later than 45 days after termination of tenancy and delivery of possession\", in the 2014 clause’s own words, which are not the trigger of today’s 45 days.", "value": { "required": false }, "citation": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 651, cl. 4; Va. Code § 55.1-1226", "statuteQuote": "4. That on or after January 1, 2015, there shall be no interest due and payable on security deposits of a tenant held under the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act (§ 55-248.2 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia (the Act).", "statuteQuoteCitation": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 651, cl. 4", "sourceUrl": "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?141+ful+CHAP0651", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "session-law", "effectiveDate": "2015-01-01", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 651", "notes": "Nothing in the Act today requires interest on a deposit. The 2014 act struck the duty to accrue interest from the deposit section, repealed the interest-rate schedule from January 1, 2015, and added this clause, which never became part of the Code. It names the old Title 55 section numbers. Under § 30-152, renumbering a section in a recodification does not by itself affect an uncodified enactment, which has to be repealed expressly; we have not read the 2019 recodification act’s own enactment clauses to confirm it contains no such repeal. For a tenancy that began in 2015 or later the answer does not depend on that point: no statute in force makes interest accrue. If a real estate licensee holds the deposit in an interest-bearing account, the lease must disclose to the parties how the interest is paid out (18VAC135-20-181(B)(3))." }, "cap": { "summary": "A landlord may not demand or receive a security deposit, however it is labelled, of more than two months’ periodic rent.", "value": { "hasCap": true, "capMonths": 2, "capIsMonthsOfRentNotRentalPeriods": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A)", "statuteQuote": "No landlord may demand or receive a security deposit, however denominated, in an amount or value in excess of two months' periodic rent.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "\"However denominated\" means a label does not take money out of the cap: refundable money held as security counts whatever the lease calls it. A refundable pet deposit is part of the security deposit by definition (§ 55.1-1200), so it counts. \"Periodic rent\" is not defined. On our reading \"two months’\" is a length of time, so the cap is two months’ worth of rent, not two rental periods (the rule for a tenancy with no written lease says \"two months of rent\" outright, § 55.1-1204(C)(6)); for weekly rent, two rental periods would be about a quarter of the cap. Where rent is not paid monthly, the tool asks for the monthly equivalent, and that conversion is our reading. Insurance premiums the landlord requires can count toward the same two months (see the insurance rule). Taking more than the cap is a failure to comply with the deposit section, so a willful excess falls within the remedy described under the penalty." }, "penalty": { "summary": "If a landlord willfully fails to comply with the deposit section, the court must order the whole deposit returned to the tenant, with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees; if the tenant owes rent, the statute directs an amount equal to the deposit credited against the rent due, and it does not say whether actual damages and attorney fees are still awarded then. The section has no multiplier, and it does not stop either side from recovering other damages the Act allows.", "value": { "standard": "mixed", "badFaithFlatUsd": null, "multiplier": null, "multiplierBase": null, "multiplierIsDiscretionaryCeiling": false, "attorneyFees": true, "attorneyFeesBasis": "tenant-only", "forfeitureForFailureToItemize": true, "deadlinePresumptionDays": null, "burdenOnLandlord": false, "creditedAgainstRentOwed": true, "forfeitureRequiresWillfulness": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(E)", "statuteQuote": "If the landlord willfully fails to comply with this section, the court shall order the return of the security deposit to the tenant, together with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees, unless the tenant owes rent to the landlord, in which case the court shall order an amount equal to the security deposit credited against the rent due to the landlord.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "\"Willfully\" is not defined, and the only published opinion we found that applies it to a deposit is one Roanoke City circuit court judge’s decision in 2015 (below); it binds no other court. The trigger is a willful failure to comply with \"this section\", which reaches every duty in it (the cap, the mid-tenancy notices, the records, the inspection notice), not only day 45. So a late notice is not by itself a forfeiture, a willful failure costs the whole deposit and more, and, in the section’s own words, its remedy \"shall not preclude the landlord or tenant from recovering other damages\". There is no multiplier in the section. Where the tenant owes rent, the statute directs an amount equal to the deposit credited against the rent due; it does not say whether actual damages and attorney fees are still awarded then. Willfulness is the gate for this order, not for every claim. Separately, another section of the Act, on a tenant ending the lease for the landlord’s noncompliance, also lets a tenant recover damages for a landlord’s noncompliance with the rental agreement or the Act, and reasonable attorney fees unless the landlord proves its actions were reasonable under the circumstances (§ 55.1-1234); that text has no willfulness requirement. We found no decision on whether it applies to a deposit violation. And a general remedy lets anyone adversely affected by an act or omission the Act prohibits sue in circuit court for an injunction and damages (§ 55.1-1259(A))." }, "deliveryByEmail": { "summary": "Notices may be given electronically only if the rental agreement provides for it, and any tenant who asks may elect paper instead. The sender must keep proof of the electronic delivery.", "value": { "allowed": true, "conditions": "Only if the rental agreement provides for electronic notices, and not to a tenant who has elected to receive notices on paper. The sender keeps proof of the electronic delivery." }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1202(A)", "statuteQuote": "If the rental agreement so provides, the landlord and tenant may send notices in electronic form; however, any tenant who so requests may elect to send and receive notices in paper form. If electronic delivery is used, the sender shall retain sufficient proof of the electronic delivery, which may be an electronic receipt of delivery, a confirmation that the notice was sent by facsimile, or a certificate of service prepared by the sender confirming the electronic delivery.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1202/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2020-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Proof can be an electronic receipt of delivery, a confirmation that a fax was sent, or a certificate of service the sender prepares confirming the electronic delivery. Without a lease clause, give the deposit notice on paper." }, "scope": { "summary": "The Act applies to occupancy in all single-family and multifamily dwelling units in Virginia, with the exclusions below. There is no exemption for an owner of only a few rental houses, though some individual rules still turn on how many units a landlord has (card payments, for one, § 55.1-1204(J)(2)).", "value": { "residentialOnly": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201(B)", "statuteQuote": "The provisions of this chapter shall apply to occupancy in all single-family and multifamily dwelling units and multifamily dwelling units located in the Commonwealth.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1201/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2022-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The repeated words \"and multifamily dwelling units\" are in the statute as printed. Public housing and other housing is covered, but where the Act is inconsistent with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations, those regulations control (§ 55.1-1201(A)); this tool does not cover federal program rules. Commercial leases are under a different chapter of the Code (Chapter 14, nonresidential tenancies). Manufactured home lot rentals use this deposit section too (see that rule)." }, "depositDefinition": { "summary": "A security deposit is any refundable money the tenant pays the landlord to secure the lease, as security for damage, or as a pet deposit. Until the commencement date of the rental agreement, the same money counts as an application deposit.", "value": { "petDepositCounts": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200 (\"Security deposit\")", "statuteQuote": "\"Security deposit\" means any refundable deposit of money that is furnished by a tenant to a landlord to secure the performance of the terms and conditions of a rental agreement, as a security for damages to the leased premises, or as a pet deposit. However, such money shall be deemed an application deposit until the commencement date of the rental agreement.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Three things follow. A refundable pet deposit is part of the security deposit: inside the two-month cap and returned under the same rules. Money taken before the tenancy starts is an application deposit under § 55.1-1203 until the commencement date of the rental agreement (the date the tenant is entitled to occupy the unit), and that section has its own refund clock if the applicant does not rent (20 days, or 10 in the cases it names). And the definition does not include a damage insurance or renter’s insurance policy the landlord buys to cover the tenant. Premiums the landlord requires and collects for damage or renter’s insurance are rent, not a security deposit (§ 55.1-1206), though they can count toward the two-month limit (see the insurance rule)." }, "ownershipChange": { "summary": "When rental property is sold, the current owner must transfer the security deposits it holds, and any accrued interest on them, to the new owner at the time of the transfer.", "value": { "liabilityShiftsToNewOwner": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1213", "statuteQuote": "The current owner of rental property shall transfer any security deposits and any accrued interest on the deposits in his possession to the new owner at the time of the transfer of the rental property.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1213/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Where a managing agent holds the deposits under a written property management agreement, the owner must ask the agent in writing, before settlement, to pay them over to the owner; the agent then does so and tells each tenant in writing that the deposit has been transferred to the new owner. This section imposes a duty to transfer; it does not move the liability. The buyer is bound by the deposit section (§ 55.1-1226(E), next rule) whether or not the deposit was handed over, and neither section releases the seller. \"Accrued interest\" here is wording from before 2015 (see the interest rules)." }, "multiTenantPayee": { "summary": "Where more than one tenant is on the lease, the deposit is disposed of with one cheque payable to all of them, sent to a forwarding address one of them provides, unless every tenant has agreed otherwise in writing.", "value": { "payableToAllByDefault": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(B)", "statuteQuote": "Where there is more than one tenant subject to a rental agreement, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by each of the tenants, disposition of the security deposit shall be made with one check being payable to all such tenants and sent to a forwarding address provided by one of the tenants.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This sentence is about how the money is paid; the itemized written notice is still due by day 45 under subsection A. A written agreement by each of the tenants can displace the single cheque. If the tenant has an assignee or sublessee, the landlord may hold a deposit from only one party (§ 55.1-1226(H))." }, "successorLiability": { "summary": "Whoever holds the landlord’s interest when the tenancy ends is bound by the deposit section and must return any deposit the original landlord received that is owed to the tenant, whether or not the deposit was transferred to them, and whatever the landlords agreed between themselves.", "value": { "actualKnowledgeRequired": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(E)", "statuteQuote": "The holder of the landlord's interest in the premises at the time of the termination of the tenancy, regardless of how the interest is acquired or transferred, is bound by this section and shall be required to return any security deposit received by the original landlord that is duly owed to the tenant, whether or not such security deposit is transferred with the landlord's interest by law or equity, regardless of any contractual agreements between the original landlord and his successors in interest.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "A buyer of rented property is bound for the deposits whether or not the seller hands them over, and a contract between the two does not change that. A real estate licensing statute says the same for a single-family home sold at foreclosure with a tenant in place (§ 54.1-2108.1(A)(3))." }, "applyWithinDeadline": { "summary": "Separately from the notice, the landlord must apply the deposit, under the section’s rules, within the same 45 days.", "value": { "days": 45, "separateFromNoticeDuty": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(C)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord shall apply the security deposit in accordance with this section within the 45-day time period required by subsection A.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This is a second duty with the same deadline, not a restatement of the first: the notice says what was applied, and this sentence says the applying itself must be done by day 45. On our reading, two allowances in the section qualify it. After an early termination, or a termination without proper notice, subsection A lets the landlord retain the balance to apply against what the tenant owes the landlord under the Act or the lease; and subsection C lets a reasonable portion be withheld for a third-party utility balance until the bill is paid. Where the tenant gave no forwarding address, subsection B lets the landlord keep holding the money in escrow; it does not move the 45 days. The sentence before this one says the deposit does not entitle the tenant, when the tenancy ends, to \"an immediate credit against the tenant’s delinquent rent account in the amount of the security deposit\"." }, "dayCounting": { "summary": "In counting the 45 days, the day of the later event is not counted. The days are calendar days.", "value": { "excludesTheDayOfTheEvent": true, "calendarDays": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 1-210(A)", "statuteQuote": "When an act of the General Assembly or rule of court requires that an act be performed within a prescribed amount of time after any event or judgment, the day on which the event or judgment occurred shall not be counted against the time allowed.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title1/chapter2/section1-210/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2014-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 596", "notes": "So a tenancy that ends on March 1, with the tenant already gone, has day 1 on March 2 and day 45 on April 15. \"Business day\" and \"calendar\" do not appear in § 55.1-1226, and the Act says \"business days\" where it means them (for example §§ 55.1-1204(D), 55.1-1205 and 55.1-1234.1), so the 45 are counted as calendar days." }, "weekendHolidayRule": { "summary": "If day 45 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, Virginia’s general time statute may allow the next business day. We found no decision applying it to a deposit notice, so the tool shows day 45 as the deadline and does not move it.", "value": { "readingUnsettled": true, "engineRollsForward": false, "decisionApplyingItToADepositNoticeFound": false, "governorClosureIsLegalHoliday": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 1-210(E), (F)", "statuteQuote": "When an act of the General Assembly or local governing body, order of the court, or administrative regulation or order requires, either by specification of a date or by a prescribed period of time, that an act be performed or an action be filed on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday or on any day or part of a day on which the state or local government office where the act to be performed or the action to be filed is closed, the act may be performed or the action may be filed on the next business day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or day on which the state or local government office is closed.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 1-210(E)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title1/chapter2/section1-210/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2014-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "amendedBy": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 596", "notes": "This is our reading, and an open one. The words \"a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday\" are not tied to a government office on their face, so this subsection may reach a private notice like the deposit notice. But its cure is \"the next business day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or day on which the state or local government office is closed\", which reads as if an office is always in the picture. We found no decision either way. So the tool shows day 45 as your deadline and mentions this subsection when day 45 falls on a Saturday or Sunday; it does not check legal holidays. Do not treat the extra day as safe, and plan to give the notice by day 45. Subsection F makes any day on which the Governor authorizes the closing of state government a legal holiday too. Subsections B and C, which also move deadlines, are limited to judicial proceedings and to the time for bringing a legal action." }, "reasonableWearAndTear": { "summary": "Damage the tenant caused is chargeable \"less reasonable wear and tear\". The Act does not define reasonable wear and tear, and we found no Virginia decision that does.", "value": { "subtractedFromTenantDamages": true, "definedInAct": false, "decisionDefiningItFound": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A)", "statuteQuote": "(ii) the payment of the amount of damages that the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant's noncompliance with § 55.1-1227, less reasonable wear and tear", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The phrase appears twice in the Act: here, and in § 55.1-1233, which requires a tenant at the end of the tenancy to leave the premises \"in good and clean order, reasonable wear and tear excepted\". Neither gives a definition or examples, and this page does not supply either. Where a charge turns on whether something was wear and tear, the move-in report (§ 55.1-1214) and the record of the move-out inspection are the documents that show what changed." }, "lateChargeCap": { "summary": "A late charge may be taken only if the written lease provides for it, and it may not exceed the lesser of 10 percent of the periodic rent or 10 percent of the remaining balance due.", "value": { "percentOfPeriodicRent": 10, "percentOfRemainingBalance": 10, "lesserOf": true, "mustBeInWrittenLease": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204(E)", "statuteQuote": "A landlord shall not charge a tenant for late payment of rent unless such charge is provided for in the written rental agreement. No such late charge shall exceed the lesser of 10 percent of the periodic rent or 10 percent of the remaining balance due and owed by the tenant.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The deposit section allows \"the reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement\"; this subsection sets the ceiling on them. Manufactured home lot rentals have the same ceiling (§ 55.1-1302(F))." }, "maintenanceFeeBar": { "summary": "A landlord may not require a tenant to pay a fee for the maintenance or repair of the dwelling unit unless the tenant’s violation of a requirement of the Act made it necessary.", "value": { "barredUnlessTenantViolationNecessitated": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1208(C)", "statuteQuote": "Unless necessitated by the tenant's violation of a requirement of this chapter, no landlord shall require a tenant to pay any fee for the maintenance or repair of any dwelling unit.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1208/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "On our reading this limits what \"other damages or charges as provided in the rental agreement\" can cover: a lease charge for routine maintenance or repair is a fee this subsection bars unless the tenant’s violation made the work necessary. We found no Virginia decision reading the two provisions together." }, "nonrefundablePetFee": { "summary": "A nonrefundable pet fee is not a \"refundable deposit\", so the definition of a security deposit does not reach it, and the Act neither caps nor forbids one in terms. That is all we say about it: we found nothing that decides whether a given fee is lawful.", "value": { "withinSecurityDepositDefinition": false, "cappedOrForbiddenByActInTerms": false, "lawfulnessDecidedByAnythingWeRead": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200 (\"Security deposit\")", "statuteQuote": "\"Security deposit\" means any refundable deposit of money that is furnished by a tenant to a landlord to secure the performance of the terms and conditions of a rental agreement, as a security for damages to the leased premises, or as a pet deposit.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "notes": "Three things go with it. The cap reaches a deposit \"however denominated\", so calling refundable money a \"fee\" does not take it outside the cap. The first page of a written lease must itemize one-time charges due before the commencement date or included in the first rental payment (§ 55.1-1204.1), and a fee for maintenance or repair may not be required unless the tenant’s violation made it necessary (§ 55.1-1208(C)). And where the Virginia Fair Housing Law applies, no pet fee or deposit, and no additional rent, may be required for an assistance animal (§ 36-96.3:1(A)); that law has exemptions (§ 36-96.2), among them one for an owner of no more than three single-family houses who rents without a broker or agent, on the conditions that section sets, and one for owner-occupied buildings with living quarters for no more than four families. Federal law is outside this page." }, "assistanceAnimal": { "summary": "Where the Virginia Fair Housing Law applies, a person with a disability may not be required to pay a pet fee or deposit, or any additional rent, to keep an assistance animal, but is responsible for physical damage to the dwelling if residents who keep pets are responsible for such damage. That law has exemptions of its own (§ 36-96.2).", "value": { "noPetFeeDepositOrExtraRent": true, "damageLiabilityMatchesPetOwners": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 36-96.3:1(A)", "statuteQuote": "Such person shall not be required to pay a pet fee or deposit or any additional rent to maintain an assistance animal in a dwelling, but shall be responsible for any physical damages to the dwelling if residents who maintain pets are responsible for such damages in accordance with such documents or state law.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title36/chapter5.1/section36-96.3:1/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2023 Va. Acts ch. 439", "notes": "This is the Virginia Fair Housing Law, not the landlord-tenant Act, and the rule holds where that law applies. It has exemptions of its own (§ 36-96.2), among them one for an owner of no more than three single-family houses who rents without a broker or agent, on the conditions that section sets, and one for owner-occupied buildings with living quarters for no more than four families. \"Such person\" is a person with a disability, or a person associated with one, who keeps an assistance animal in a dwelling. Federal fair housing rules on assistance animals are outside what this page covers." }, "insuranceAggregation": { "summary": "If the landlord requires insurance premiums to be paid to the landlord before the tenancy begins, all security deposits, damage insurance premiums and renter’s insurance premiums together may not exceed two months’ periodic rent. Separately, a landlord may not require both a deposit and damage insurance premiums that together exceed that amount.", "value": { "aggregateCapMonths": 2, "premiumsPaidBeforeTenancyCount": true, "depositPlusDamageInsuranceCapped": true, "leaseTermToContraryUnenforceable": true }, "citation": "Va. Code §§ 55.1-1206(A), (C), 55.1-1208(A)(7)", "statuteQuote": "If the landlord requires that such premiums be paid to the landlord prior to the commencement of the tenancy, the total amount of all security deposits, insurance premiums for damage insurance, and insurance premiums for renter's insurance shall not exceed the amount of two months' periodic rent.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1206(C)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1206/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2021-07-01", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2021 Va. Acts Sp. Sess. I ch. 427", "notes": "Subsection A adds a second limit with no timing words: \"the landlord shall not require a tenant to pay both a security deposit and the cost of damage insurance premiums if the total amount of any security deposit and damage insurance premiums exceeds the amount of two months’ periodic rent.\" A lease term by which the tenant agrees to pay more than that in deposit and premiums before the tenancy begins is a prohibited provision (§ 55.1-1208(A)(7)) and unenforceable, and a landlord who sues to enforce one is liable for the tenant’s actual damages and reasonable attorney fees (§ 55.1-1208(B)). Subsection C lets the landlord add a monthly amount as additional rent to recover further renter’s insurance costs." }, "noWrittenLeaseCap": { "summary": "If the landlord does not offer a written rental agreement, the tenancy exists by operation of law on terms the statute sets, one of which is a deposit of no more than two months of rent.", "value": { "capMonths": 2 }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204(C)(6)", "statuteQuote": "6. The landlord may collect a security deposit in an amount that does not exceed a total amount equal to two months of rent", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The same subsection fixes the other terms of such a tenancy: twelve months, rent in twelve equal periodic installments due on the first of each month and late if not paid by the fifth. Its wording (\"two months of rent\") is one reason we read the general cap as two months’ worth of rent." }, "otherDamages": { "summary": "The deposit section does not stop the landlord or the tenant from recovering other damages the Act entitles them to.", "value": { "landlordAndTenantMayRecoverOtherDamages": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(E)", "statuteQuote": "This section shall not preclude the landlord or tenant from recovering other damages to which he may be entitled under this chapter.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "For a landlord, this keeps a claim for damage beyond the deposit, or for rent (for example under § 55.1-1251), open. The section says it does not preclude other damages the Act allows, so on our reading such a claim survives even where the deposit must be returned; one Roanoke City circuit court judge read it that way in 2015 (Reed v. Smith), whose opinion binds no other court, and we found no appellate decision on it. For a tenant, it keeps the Act’s other remedies open, including the general action in § 55.1-1259(A)." }, "generalEnforcementAction": { "summary": "Separately from the deposit section’s own remedy, anyone adversely affected by an act or omission the Act prohibits may sue the person responsible in circuit court for an injunction and damages.", "value": { "injunctionAndDamages": true, "circuitCourt": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1259(A)", "statuteQuote": "In addition to any other remedies in this chapter, any person adversely affected by an act or omission prohibited under this chapter may institute an action for injunction and damages against the person responsible for such act or omission in the circuit court in the county or city in which such act or omission occurred.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1259/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "If the court finds the defendant responsible, it \"shall enjoin\" the practice and may, in its discretion, award damages. Subsection A does not mention attorney fees and does not require willfulness." }, "noncomplianceDamages": { "summary": "Separately from the deposit section, the Act lets a tenant recover damages and obtain injunctive relief for a landlord’s noncompliance with the rental agreement or the Act, and entitles the tenant to reasonable attorney fees unless the landlord proves that its actions were reasonable under the circumstances. That text has no willfulness requirement. We found no decision on whether it applies to a deposit violation.", "value": { "damagesAndInjunctiveRelief": true, "attorneyFeesUnlessLandlordProvesReasonable": true, "willfulnessRequired": false, "decisionApplyingItToADepositFound": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1234", "statuteQuote": "In addition, the tenant may recover damages and obtain injunctive relief for noncompliance by the landlord with the provisions of the rental agreement or of this chapter. The tenant shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees unless the landlord proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the landlord's actions were reasonable under the circumstances.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1234/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "notes": "These two sentences sit in the section on a tenant ending the lease for the landlord’s noncompliance, but their words reach noncompliance \"with the provisions of the rental agreement or of this chapter\", and the landlord, not the tenant, carries the burden on attorney fees. The deposit section says its own remedy \"shall not preclude\" other damages the Act allows. So, on our reading, a late or incomplete deposit notice that was not willful may still be claimed as noncompliance under this section, with damages and attorney fees. We found no decision that applies it to a deposit violation, or that says it does not apply. On our reading the willfulness gate in the deposit section is the gate for the whole-deposit order only, not the limit of what a tenant can claim. Two things point the other way and are not resolved: the section opens \"Except as provided in this chapter\", and the deposit section provides its own remedy; and in 2007 the Supreme Court of Virginia, deciding a personal-injury case under the predecessor section, said \"The focus of this section is clearly to provide a tenant with the right to terminate the rental agreement\" for a noncompliance materially affecting health and safety, and described its damages as consequential damages flowing from a breach of contract (Isbell v. Commercial Investment Associates, 273 Va. 605 (2007)). Isbell was not about deposits." }, "leaseBreachDamages": { "summary": "The fourth permitted use, actual damages for breach of the rental agreement, is limited by § 55.1-1251: lost rent may be claimed only until the term ends or a new tenancy begins, whichever comes first; the landlord’s duty to mitigate is preserved; and a judgment obtained after possession may not be for accelerated rent through the end of the term.", "value": { "lostRentUntilEarlierOfTermEndOrNewTenancy": true, "dutyToMitigatePreserved": true, "acceleratedRentBarred": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1251", "statuteQuote": "Actual damages for breach of the rental agreement may include a claim for rent that would have accrued until the expiration of the term of the rental agreement or until a tenancy pursuant to a new rental agreement commences, whichever occurs first, provided that nothing contained in this section shall diminish the duty of the landlord to mitigate actual damages for breach of the rental agreement. In obtaining post-possession judgments for actual damages as defined in this section, the landlord shall not seek a judgment for accelerated rent through the end of the term of the tenancy.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1251/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This is what limits applying a deposit to rent after a tenant leaves early. The deposit section sends item (iv) here in terms (\"actual damages for breach of the rental agreement pursuant to § 55.1-1251\"). The same section says that when the tenant vacates, voluntarily or by a writ of eviction, the deposit is credited to the tenant’s account in accordance with § 55.1-1226. This page does not work out what a landlord’s actual damages are." }, "willfulnessReading": { "summary": "One Roanoke City circuit court judge, in a 2015 trial-court opinion, held that a landlord who gave no disposition notice or itemization, after the tenant would not give a forwarding address, and who sued within days of the tenant leaving, had been at most negligent, not willful; and that even a willful failure would not have stopped the landlord recovering the costs the lease entitled the landlord to.", "value": { "trialCourtOnly": true, "foundNoncomplianceWillful": false, "landlordLeaseCostsRecoverableEvenIfWillful": true, "rentOffsetActuallyApplied": false }, "citation": "Reed v. Smith, 90 Va. Cir. 220 (Roanoke City Cir. Ct. 2015)", "statuteQuote": "The Court overrules Tenant’s Motion To Strike for two reasons: (1) under the facts in this case, Landlord’s noncompliance with the VRLTA was not willful; and (2) willfulness notwithstanding, noncompliance with this provision neither relieves a tenant of the obligation to pay rent owed, nor precludes a landlord or tenant from recovering other damages to which they may be entitled under the VRLTA or the lease agreement.", "sourceUrl": "https://static.case.law/va-cir/90/html/0220-01.html", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "case", "effectiveDate": "2015-04-27", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This is a trial court: the Circuit Court of the City of Roanoke, hearing an appeal from the general district court anew. A circuit court opinion binds no other court. It is the only published opinion we found that applies \"willfully\" to a deposit, and it applied the predecessor section, whose remedy sentence was in substance the same. The facts: the tenant left about a month early, telling the landlord by text, and did not give a forwarding address when asked; the landlord gave no disposition notice and no itemization and sued within days of the tenant leaving. The judge called that \"probably negligent\" but not willful \"under these facts\"; the opinion does not define willfulness. On the rent offset, the judge said only that he \"would\" be obliged to apply the $750 deposit to the $750 of unpaid rent; the award lists the full rent and shows no credit for the deposit, and the opinion does not say what became of it. It decides nothing about what willful means in any other case. What \"we found\" rests on is a search of CourtListener’s collection of Virginia opinions on November 11 and 12, 2026; that search reaches published opinions only, and the collection does not hold every circuit court opinion." }, "interestEndedBy2014Act": { "summary": "The clause that ended deposit interest: none is due on or after January 1, 2015, but interest that had accrued by December 31, 2014 must still be paid to the tenant \"no later than 45 days after termination of tenancy and delivery of possession\", in the clause’s own words, which are not the trigger of today’s 45 days.", "value": { "noInterestDueFromISO": "2015-01-01", "accruedThroughISO": "2014-12-31", "accruedInterestStillPayable": true, "lastYearWithNonZeroRate": 2008, "computedByTool": false }, "citation": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 651, cl. 4", "statuteQuote": "4. That on or after January 1, 2015, there shall be no interest due and payable on security deposits of a tenant held under the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act (§ 55-248.2 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia (the Act). Any accrued interest due and payable as of December 31, 2014, on security deposits of a tenant held under the Act shall be paid to such tenant no later than 45 days after termination of tenancy and delivery of possession as otherwise provided in § 55-248.15:1 of the Code of Virginia.", "sourceUrl": "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?141+ful+CHAP0651", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "session-law", "effectiveDate": "2015-01-01", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The second sentence is still a live duty for a deposit held since before 2015. Under the repealed rate schedule the rate was 0.00% for every year from 2009 through 2014 (5.25% for 2007, 0.75% for 2008), so the amount can be more than zero only for a deposit held since 2008 or earlier; and under the old section no interest was payable at all unless the deposit had been held for more than 13 months. This tool does not compute that amount. The old schedule is printed in the 2014 act linked here." }, "accruedInterestResidue": { "summary": "At least four Code sections that reach residential deposits still speak of \"accrued interest\" on a deposit (a fifth, § 55.1-1405, says the same for nonresidential property). On our reading that wording is left over from the interest rules that ended in 2015 and creates no duty of its own on a deposit.", "value": { "codeStillSaysAccruedInterest": true, "createsInterestDutyOnOurReading": false }, "citation": "Va. Code §§ 55.1-1213, 55.1-1240, 55.1-1317, 54.1-2108.1(A)(3)", "statuteQuote": "If the rental agreement is terminated, the landlord shall return all security deposits in accordance with § 55.1-1226 and prepaid rent, plus accrued interest, recoverable by law", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1240", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1240/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "notes": "The four are the transfer-on-sale sections (§ 55.1-1213, and § 55.1-1317 for manufactured home parks), the fire-or-casualty section (§ 55.1-1240) and a real estate licensing section on foreclosures (§ 54.1-2108.1(A)(3)). Each was written when Virginia deposits earned interest by statute. No statute in force now makes a deposit accrue interest, so on our reading these words, as applied to a deposit, reach only interest that had accrued by the end of 2014, which the 2014 act keeps payable. That reading has a limit. In § 55.1-1240 the words follow \"prepaid rent\", which must be held in an escrow account (§ 55.1-1205), so there they may also reach interest actually earned on escrowed prepaid rent; we do not decide that." }, "whereHeld": { "summary": "The Act does not require a landlord to keep a security deposit in a separate account. Prepaid rent is different: it must go into an escrow account in a federally insured depository by the end of the fifth business day after it is received.", "value": { "separateAccountRequiredByAct": false, "prepaidRentEscrowBusinessDays": 5, "prepaidRentDepositoryFederallyInsured": true }, "citation": "Va. Code §§ 55.1-1205, 55.1-1226", "statuteQuote": "If a landlord receives prepaid rent, it shall be placed in an escrow account in a federally insured depository authorized to do business in Virginia by the end of the fifth business day following receipt and shall remain in the account until such time as the prepaid rent becomes due.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1205", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1205/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "For the deposit itself this is a finding of absence: the words \"trust account\", and any form of \"commingle\", appear nowhere in the Act, and \"escrow\" appears in the deposit section only where a landlord with no forwarding address \"may continue to hold\" the deposit. \"Rent\" in the Act includes \"prepaid rent paid more than one month in advance of the rent due date\". Whether a payment labelled \"last month’s rent\" is prepaid rent or a security deposit \"however denominated\" is not something we found decided, and this page does not classify it. A real estate licensee holding the deposit for a landlord has escrow duties of its own (next rule)." }, "brokerEscrow": { "summary": "A real estate licensee acting for a landlord must place security deposits in an escrow account by the end of the fifth business banking day after receipt, unless the parties to the lease agree otherwise in writing.", "value": { "appliesToLicenseeActingForLandlord": true, "escrowByBusinessBankingDay": 5, "partiesMayAgreeOtherwiseInWriting": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 54.1-2108.1(B)(2); 18VAC135-20-181", "statuteQuote": "2. Any security deposits paid to a real estate licensee acting on behalf of a landlord client in connection with the lease shall be placed in an escrow account by the end of the fifth business banking day following receipt, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the principals to a lease transaction.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 54.1-2108.1(B)(2)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter21/section54.1-2108.1/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2021-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The Real Estate Board’s escrow regulation (18VAC135-20-181, in force since April 1, 2026; the older 18VAC135-20-180 is repealed, so a guide citing it is out of date) adds the account rules: federally insured escrow accounts in the name under which the firm is licensed, labelled \"escrow\", and no commingling of a client’s money with the broker’s own. If the landlord or managing agent is a real estate licensee, compliance with subsection B of the deposit section is deemed compliance with § 54.1-2108 and the Board’s corresponding regulations (§ 55.1-1226(B)). These rules bind licensees, not a landlord who manages the rental without one." }, "unclaimedProperty": { "summary": "If a tenant gives no forwarding address, then once a year has passed from the end of the 45 days the landlord may remit the money to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property, on the administrator’s form.", "value": { "afterYears": 1, "measuredFromEndOfDeadline": true, "permissive": true, "onlyWhereNoForwardingAddress": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(B)", "statuteQuote": "If a tenant fails to provide a forwarding address to the landlord to enable the landlord to make a refund of the security deposit, upon the expiration of one year from the date of the end of the 45-day time period, the landlord may remit such sum to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property on a form prescribed by the administrator that includes the name; social security number, if known; and last known address of each tenant on the rental agreement.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "\"May\", not \"shall\": the statute permits the remittance; it does not require it at that point. The tool shows the date one year after day 45. The form must include the name, the social security number if known, and the last known address of each tenant on the lease. Virginia’s general unclaimed property law separately presumes property abandoned when it has gone unclaimed for more than five years after it became payable (§ 55.1-2501); we have not read how that law’s reporting rules apply to a deposit held under this subsection." }, "noticeGiving": { "summary": "Under the Act a person \"gives\" a notice by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other person, whether or not that person actually learns of it.", "value": { "stepsReasonablyCalculatedToInform": true, "actualKnowledgeRequired": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200 (\"Notice\")", "statuteQuote": "A person \"notifies\" or \"gives\" a notice or notification to another by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform another person, whether or not the other person actually comes to know of it.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The deposit notice must be \"given\" to the tenant (§ 55.1-1226(A)). What counts is the steps you took, so keep a record of them. (\"Sent\" in subsection B of the deposit section is the word for the refund cheque where there is more than one tenant, not for the notice.)" }, "certificateOfService": { "summary": "The Act defines \"notice\" as notice in writing by regular mail or hand delivery, with the sender keeping proof in the form of a certificate of service. A course that meets the wording of both definitions: give the deposit notice by regular mail or by hand and keep the certificate.", "value": { "regularMailOrHandDelivery": true, "senderKeepsCertificateOfService": true, "whichDefinitionGovernsDecided": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200 (\"Notice\")", "statuteQuote": "\"Notice\" means notice given in writing by either regular mail or hand delivery, with the sender retaining sufficient proof of having given such notice in the form of a certificate of service confirming such mailing prepared by the sender.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/", "derivation": "synthesized", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "notes": "This is our reading. The deposit section requires \"a written notice\", and the Act defines \"written notice\" separately, as notice given under § 55.1-1202 in any form that can be retrieved and read, on paper or electronic. We do not say which definition a court would apply to the deposit notice. Giving it by regular mail or by hand to the tenant’s last known place of residence, and keeping a certificate of service you prepare yourself, is a course that meets the wording of both definitions. Electronic delivery, which is allowed only if the lease provides for it and the tenant has not chosen paper, meets the wording of \"written notice\" but not of \"notice\", which names regular mail or hand delivery." }, "writtenNotice": { "summary": "\"Written notice\" under the Act is notice given in accordance with § 55.1-1202, in any form that can be retrieved and read, whether on paper or stored electronically.", "value": { "givenUnderSection1202": true, "electronicFormIncluded": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200 (\"Written notice\")", "statuteQuote": "\"Written notice\" means notice given in accordance with § 55.1-1202, including any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed in or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic form or any other medium, retrievable in a perceivable form, and regardless of whether an electronic signature authorized by the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ 59.1-479 et seq.) is affixed.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The deposit section repeats the point: \"Any written notice to the tenant shall be given in accordance with § 55.1-1202\" (§ 55.1-1226(C)). Section 55.1-1202 allows electronic notices only where the lease provides for them, and lets a tenant insist on paper (next rule)." }, "noticeToTenantAddress": { "summary": "A notice to the tenant is served at the tenant’s last known place of residence, which may be the rental unit itself.", "value": { "servedAtLastKnownResidence": true, "dwellingUnitMayBeIt": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1202(B)", "statuteQuote": "In the case of the tenant, notice is served at the tenant's last known place of residence, which may be the dwelling unit.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1202/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2020-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This is where the notice goes when the tenant left no forwarding address: it is still due by day 45, at the tenant’s last known place of residence." }, "duplicateNotice": { "summary": "If the tenant has designated a third party to receive duplicate copies of the landlord’s written notices, the landlord must also mail a duplicate of the deposit notice to that person, at the same time the tenant’s copy goes out.", "value": { "designatedThirdPartyGetsDuplicate": true, "sameTimeAsTenant": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1209(C)", "statuteQuote": "Where such a third party has been designated by the tenant, the landlord shall mail the duplicate copy of any summons issued pursuant to § 8.01-126 or notice to the designated third party at the same time the summons or notice is mailed to or served upon the tenant.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1209/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2020-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The tenant may designate a third party \"to receive duplicate copies ... of written notices from the landlord relating to the tenancy\", and a deposit notice is one. The third party gets no standing to challenge the landlord’s actions, and a missed duplicate does not affect the validity of a judgment against the tenant." }, "contractorExtension": { "summary": "Where damage to the premises exceeds the deposit and needs a third-party contractor, a landlord who gives the tenant written notice of that within the 45 days gets an additional 15 days to provide an itemization of the damages and the cost of repair.", "value": { "additionalDays": 15, "conditions": [ "damages-exceed-deposit", "third-party-contractor-required", "written-notice-within-deadline" ], "extendedItem": "itemization-of-damages-and-cost-of-repair", "startIsOurReading": true, "history": [ { "additionalDays": 30, "from": "2023-07-01", "to": "2024-06-30" } ] }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(E)", "statuteQuote": "In the event that damages to the premises exceed the amount of the security deposit and require the services of a third-party contractor, the landlord shall give written notice to the tenant advising him of that fact within the 45-day period required by subsection A. If notice is given as prescribed in this subsection, the landlord shall have an additional 15-day period to provide an itemization of the damages and the cost of repair.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2024-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2023 Va. Acts chs. 433, 434 (expired June 30, 2024)", "notes": "All three conditions are needed: the damages exceed the deposit, they require a third-party contractor, and the written notice saying so is given within the 45 days. What is extended is \"an itemization of the damages and the cost of repair\", nothing else. The text does not say when the additional 15 days start; our reading is that they follow day 45, and the tool shows that date labelled as our reading. For one year the number was different: from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 the additional period was 30 days, under a 2023 act that expired on its own terms. A guide written in that year may still say 30." }, "utilityWithholding": { "summary": "With prior written notice advising the tenant of the tenant’s rights and obligations under the section, a landlord may withhold a reasonable portion of the deposit to cover the balance on a water, sewer or other utility account the tenant owes a third-party provider under the lease. Once it is paid, the landlord must give the tenant written confirmation, with any balance due, within 10 days.", "value": { "confirmationAndBalanceDaysAfterPayment": 10, "refundDaysAfterLateTenantConfirmation": 10, "separateNoticeDaysBeforeDisposition": 15, "thirdPartyProviderAccountsOnly": true, "reasonablePortionDefined": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(C)", "statuteQuote": "However, provided that the landlord has given prior written notice in accordance with this section, the landlord may withhold a reasonable portion of the security deposit to cover an amount of the balance due on the water, sewer, or other utility account that is an obligation of the tenant to a third-party provider under the rental agreement for the dwelling unit, and upon payment of such obligations the landlord shall provide written confirmation to the tenant within 10 days, along with payment to the tenant of any balance otherwise due to the tenant.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The prior written notice must have advised the tenant of the tenant’s rights and obligations under the section, and been given in one of three ways: (i) a termination notice under the Act, (ii) a written notice confirming the vacating date, or (iii) a separate written notice at least 15 days before the disposition of the deposit. If the tenant gives written confirmation that the final utility bill is paid, the deposit is refunded within the 45 days unless there are other authorized deductions; if that confirmation comes after day 45, any remaining balance is due within 10 days of receiving it; and if the landlord learns of the payment some other way, the refund is due within the 45 days. \"Reasonable portion\" is not defined, and we do not put a number on it. The rule covers only an account the tenant owes a third-party provider; utilities the landlord itself bills through submetering or ratio billing are the subject of § 55.1-1212, not this rule." }, "midTenancyDeductions": { "summary": "A landlord who makes a deduction from the deposit during the tenancy must tell the tenant in writing within 30 days of deciding on it, with the reasons itemized. No notice is required for a deduction made less than 30 days before the rental agreement ends.", "value": { "noticeDays": 30, "notRequiredWithinDaysBeforeTermination": 30 }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(E)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord shall notify the tenant in writing of any deductions provided by this section to be made from the tenant's security deposit during the course of the tenancy. Such notification shall be made within 30 days of the date of the determination of the deduction and shall itemize the reasons in the same manner as provided in subsection F. No such notification shall be required for deductions made less than 30 days prior to the termination of the rental agreement.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The reasons are itemized \"in the same manner as provided in subsection F\", the records subsection. A willful failure to give these notices is a failure to comply with the deposit section, which carries the remedy described under the penalty." }, "moveOutInspection": { "summary": "When the landlord asks the tenant to vacate, or within five days after receiving the tenant’s notice of intent to vacate, the landlord must tell the tenant in writing of the right to be present at the move-out inspection. If the tenant asks in writing to attend, the inspection must be made within 72 hours of delivery of possession.", "value": { "noticeOfRightDaysAfterIntentToVacate": 5, "inspectionHoursAfterDeliveryOfPossession": 72, "tenantMustAskInWriting": true, "hoursBindUnattendedInspectionSettled": false, "laterFoundDamageRecoverable": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(G)", "statuteQuote": "Upon request by the landlord to a tenant to vacate, or within five days after receipt of notice by the landlord of the tenant's intent to vacate, the landlord shall provide written notice to the tenant of the tenant's right to be present at the landlord's inspection of the dwelling unit for the purpose of determining the amount of security deposit to be returned. If the tenant desires to be present when the landlord makes the inspection, he shall, in writing, so advise the landlord, who in turn shall notify the tenant of the date and time of the inspection, which must be made within 72 hours of delivery of possession.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The landlord volunteers the notice of the right to attend; the tenant does not have to ask for it. The 72 hours run from \"delivery of possession\", which is a different event from the two dates that start the 45-day clock. The sentence does not say whether the 72 hours also bind an inspection the tenant did not ask to attend. Inspecting within 72 hours either way meets it on either reading; that is a precaution we suggest, not a rule we found. After the inspection the landlord must provide \"a written security deposit disposition statement, including an itemized list of damages\". Damage found later can still be recovered from the tenant, but the tenant may put the move-out report in evidence to show it was not there at the inspection." }, "moveInReport": { "summary": "Within five days after the tenant takes occupancy, the landlord must give the tenant a written report itemizing damage already in the unit. It is deemed correct unless the tenant objects in writing within five days after receiving it.", "value": { "reportDaysAfterOccupancy": 5, "objectionDaysAfterReceipt": 5 }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1214(A)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord shall, within five days after occupancy of a dwelling unit, submit a written report to the tenant itemizing damages to the dwelling unit existing at the time of occupancy, and the report shall be deemed correct unless the tenant objects to it in writing within five days after receipt of the report.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1214/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2019-10-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "A landlord may instead adopt a written policy letting the tenant prepare the report, which is then deemed correct unless the landlord objects in writing within five days, or providing for a joint report signed by both (subsection B). Damage listed on the report does not by itself oblige the landlord to repair it, unless another section of the Act requires the repair (subsection C). At move-out, this report is the starting point for telling new damage from what was already there." }, "deductionRecords": { "summary": "The landlord must keep itemized records of every deduction from each tenant’s deposit for the preceding two years, and let the tenant or the tenant’s agent or attorney inspect them during normal business hours.", "value": { "years": 2, "tenantMayInspect": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(F)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord shall: 1. Maintain and itemize records for each tenant of all deductions from security deposits provided for under this section that the landlord has made by reason of a tenant's noncompliance with § 55.1-1227, or for any other reason set out in this section, during the preceding two years; and 2. Permit a tenant or his authorized agent or attorney to inspect such tenant's records of deductions at any time during normal business hours.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The records are open to the tenant, the tenant’s authorized agent or the tenant’s attorney, not to the public. A willful failure to keep them is a failure to comply with the deposit section." }, "statementOfCharges": { "summary": "On a tenant’s written request, the landlord must give a written statement of all debits and credits over the tenancy or the past 12 months, whichever is shorter, within 10 business days.", "value": { "businessDays": 10, "coversMonths": 12, "onWrittenRequest": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204(D)", "statuteQuote": "If the landlord receives from a tenant a written request for a written statement of charges and payments, he shall provide the tenant with a written statement showing all debits and credits over the tenancy or the past 12 months, whichever is shorter. The landlord shall provide such written statement within 10 business days of receiving the request.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This is a general duty of the Act, not part of the deposit section." }, "feeDisclosure": { "summary": "The first page of a written lease must itemize the security deposit, the rent per payment period and any one-time charges due before the commencement date or included in the first rental payment, under a sentence the statute prescribes.", "value": { "firstPageItemization": true, "remedyStatedInSection": false }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204.1", "statuteQuote": "A landlord shall provide, beginning on the first page of the written rental agreement, an itemization of all charges to the tenant that comprise (i) the security deposit, (ii) the amount of rent due per payment period pursuant to the lease period, and (iii) any additional one-time charges due prior to the commencement date of the rental agreement or that will be included in the first rental payment. Immediately above the itemized list of charges, the written rental agreement shall state: No additional security deposits or rent shall be charged unless they are listed below or incorporated into this agreement by way of a separate addendum after execution of this rental agreement.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204.1/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "This section states no remedy of its own. The rule for manufactured home lot rentals words the sentence slightly differently and adds statutory damages of $500 per occurrence for collecting an unlisted charge (§ 55.1-1302(B)); that remedy is not in this section." }, "expeditedProcessing": { "summary": "A landlord may dispose of the deposit before the 45 days are up and charge the tenant an administrative fee for it, if the lease provides for it and the tenant asks for expedited processing in a separate written document.", "value": { "leaseMustProvide": true, "separateWrittenRequest": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(D)", "statuteQuote": "Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the landlord from making the disposition of the security deposit prior to the 45-day period required by subsection A and charging an administrative fee to the tenant for such expedited processing, if the rental agreement so provides and the tenant requests expedited processing in a separate written document.", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The statute does not set the amount of the fee. On our reading, a request written into the lease itself is not the \"separate written document\" the subsection asks for." }, "otherReturnRoutes": { "summary": "Several other sections of the Act require a deposit to be returned on particular events. One has its own, shorter clock: where a tenant ends the lease because the unit was uninhabitable at the start, and the landlord does not dispute it, all deposits and rent paid are due by the fifteenth business day after the later of delivering the termination notice and vacating.", "value": { "uninhabitableAtStartBusinessDays": 15, "computedByTool": false }, "citation": "Va. Code §§ 55.1-1234, 55.1-1234.1, 55.1-1237(B), 55.1-1238, 55.1-1240, 55.1-1243.1(C), 55.1-1243.2, 55.1-1251, 55.1-1254, 55.1-1255", "statuteQuote": "Unless the landlord asserts, pursuant to subsection B, that the tenant's termination of the rental agreement is unjustified, the landlord shall refund all deposits and rent paid by the tenant to the tenant on or before the fifteenth business day following the day on which (i) the termination notice is delivered to the landlord or (ii) the tenant vacates the dwelling unit, whichever occurs later.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1234.1(A)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1234.1/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "amendedBy": "2023 Va. Acts ch. 435", "notes": "That right needs written notice of intent to terminate within seven days of the date possession was to pass to the tenant, and a landlord who disputes it must say so in writing, with reasons, within 15 business days. The other routes: a tenant who ends the lease for the landlord’s noncompliance (§ 55.1-1234) and a tenancy ended by fire or casualty (§ 55.1-1240) get the deposit back \"in accordance with § 55.1-1226\"; a tenant who ends the lease because the landlord gave no foreclosure notice gets it \"in accordance with law or the provisions of the rental agreement, whichever is applicable\" (§ 55.1-1237(B)); where the landlord willfully fails to deliver possession and the tenant ends the lease, the landlord \"shall return all prepaid rent and security deposits\", with no period stated (§ 55.1-1238); after an unlawful exclusion the court may end the lease and order the landlord to return all of the deposit in accordance with § 55.1-1226 (§ 55.1-1243.1(C)); after a condemnation that followed the tenant’s notice of a code violation, the landlord \"shall also return\" the deposit, with no period stated (§ 55.1-1243.2); on eviction or voluntary vacating, the deposit is credited to the tenant’s account under § 55.1-1226 (§ 55.1-1251); and money left over from a sale of abandoned property is \"treated as a security deposit\" under § 55.1-1226 (§§ 55.1-1254, 55.1-1255). The tool computes the ordinary 45-day clock only; for the uninhabitable-unit case it names the fifteen-business-day clock and stops." }, "scopeExclusions": { "summary": "Eight kinds of occupancy are not residential tenancies under the Act. Hotels, motels and similar transient lodging are outside it unless the person lives there as a primary residence for more than 90 consecutive days or under a written lease for more than 90 days.", "value": { "excludedOccupancies": 8, "transientLodgingCoveredAfterConsecutiveDays": 90, "hudRegulationsControlIfInconsistent": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201(A), (C), (D)", "statuteQuote": "The following tenancies and occupancies are not residential tenancies under this chapter: 1. Residence at a public or private institution, if incidental to detention or the provision of medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious, or similar services; 2. Occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in the portion of a structure operated for the benefit of the organization; 3. Occupancy by an owner of a condominium unit or a holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; 4. Occupancy in a campground as defined in § 35.1-1; 5. Occupancy by a tenant who pays no rent pursuant to a rental agreement; 6. Occupancy by an employee of a landlord whose right to occupancy in a multifamily dwelling unit is conditioned upon employment in and about the premises or a former employee whose occupancy continues less than 60 days; 7. Occupancy under a contract of sale of a dwelling unit or the property of which it is a part, if the occupant is the purchaser or a person who succeeds to his interest; or 8. Occupancy in a recovery residence as defined in § 37.2-431.1.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201(C)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1201/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2022-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "In brief, the eight: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious or similar services; a member of a fraternal or social organization in its building; an owner of a condominium unit or a holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; a campground; a tenant who pays no rent under the rental agreement; an employee whose occupancy of a multifamily unit depends on working in and about the premises (or a former employee whose occupancy continues less than 60 days); a purchaser in occupancy under a contract of sale; and a recovery residence. For transient lodging (subsection D): a guest who does not live there as a primary residence is outside the Act, a primary residence of 90 consecutive days or less is outside it, and more than 90 consecutive days, or a written lease for more than 90 days, brings it inside." }, "lotRentals": { "summary": "For manufactured home lot rentals, the deposit rules are the same § 55.1-1226, except that on an automatic renewal for a year-round resident the deposit may not be increased and no additional deposit may be required.", "value": { "section1226Governs": true, "noIncreaseOnAutomaticRenewal": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1302(C), (E)", "statuteQuote": "Except as limited by subsection C, the provisions of § 55.1-1226 shall govern the terms and conditions of security deposits for rental agreements under this chapter.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1302(E)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter13/section55.1-1302/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "The lot-rental chapter has its own fee disclosure rule, with statutory damages of $500 per occurrence for collecting a charge, fee or deposit that is not listed (§ 55.1-1302(B)), and the same late-charge ceiling as the Act (§ 55.1-1302(F)). This page does not otherwise cover lot rentals." }, "damageInsuranceInLieu": { "summary": "A landlord may let a tenant provide damage insurance instead of paying a security deposit, if the coverage meets five statutory criteria, and the tenant may switch to paying the full deposit at any time without the landlord’s consent.", "value": { "landlordMayPermit": true, "criteria": 5, "tenantMaySwitchToDepositWithoutConsent": true }, "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(I), (J)", "statuteQuote": "The landlord may permit a tenant to provide damage insurance coverage in lieu of the payment of a security deposit. Such damage insurance in lieu of a security deposit shall conform to the following criteria: 1. The provider of damage insurance is licensed or approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission; 2. The coverage is effective upon the payment of the first premium and remains effective for the entire lease term; 3. The coverage provided per claim is no less than the amount the landlord requires for security deposits; 4. The provider of damage insurance agrees to approve or deny payment of a claim; and 5. The provider of damage insurance shall notify the landlord within 10 days if the damage policy lapses or is canceled.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226(I)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2023-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "If the tenant switches, the landlord may not change the terms of the lease because of it (subsection J). Premiums the landlord requires and collects for damage or renter’s insurance are rent, not a security deposit (§ 55.1-1206), but they count toward the two-month limit in the cases set out in the insurance rule." }, "localPreemption": { "summary": "The Act applies in every Virginia locality and may not be waived or modified by a locality, and it supersedes all other local ordinances or regulations on landlord and tenant relations and the leasing of residential property. One loose end: the Alexandria city charter (see below).", "value": { "chapterSupersedesLocalOrdinances": true, "localModificationBarred": true, "alexandriaCharterQuestionResolved": false }, "citation": "Va. Code §§ 55.1-1201(A), (E), 1-248", "statuteQuote": "Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit a locality from establishing a commission, reconciliatory in nature only, or designating an existing agency, which upon mutual agreement of the parties may mediate conflicts that may arise out of the application of this chapter, nor shall anything in this chapter be deemed to prohibit an ordinance designed to effect compliance with local property maintenance codes. This chapter shall supersede all other local ordinances or regulations concerning landlord and tenant relations and the leasing of residential property.", "statuteQuoteCitation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201(E)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1201/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2022-07-01", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Subsection A says the Act \"may not be waived or otherwise modified, in whole or in part, by the governing body of any locality or its boards or commissions or other instrumentalities or by the courts of the Commonwealth.\" Subsection E leaves a locality two things: a mediation commission that is \"reconciliatory in nature only\" and acts \"upon mutual agreement of the parties\", and ordinances \"designed to effect compliance with local property maintenance codes\". On our reading a local deposit rule is neither. The general supremacy statute adds that no local ordinance may be inconsistent with the laws of the Commonwealth (§ 1-248). The one unresolved question is the Alexandria charter, a special act of the General Assembly rather than an ordinance (see that rule)." }, "localPreemptionCase": { "summary": "The Supreme Court of Virginia held in 1987 that the dead-bolt provisions of one Arlington County ordinance were pre-empted by the Act.", "value": { "heldDeadBoltProvisionsPreempted": true, "wholeOrdinanceHeldPreempted": false, "depositRuleInIssue": false }, "citation": "Klingbeil Mgmt. Group Co. v. Vito, 233 Va. 445, 357 S.E.2d 200 (1987)", "statuteQuote": "More importantly, the dead-lock provisions of the ordinance have been pre-empted by the State law. The clear language of the Act evinces the legislative intent to establish “a single body of law relating to landlord and tenant relations throughout the Commonwealth.”", "sourceUrl": "https://static.case.law/va/233/html/0445-01.html", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "case", "effectiveDate": "1987-06-12", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "high", "notes": "Its limits: it concerned one county ordinance, on a subject the Act itself addressed in conflicting terms (dead-bolt locks), and it held only those provisions pre-empted, not the whole ordinance. It also held that the dead-bolt requirement was not an ordinance \"designed to effect compliance with local property maintenance codes\". The \"single body of law\" words it relied on came from the Act’s purposes clause of the time, which is no longer in the Act; the supersession sentence it applied is in today’s § 55.1-1201(E) in nearly the same words. The case was not about a deposit rule." }, "alexandriaCharter": { "summary": "The Alexandria city charter still gives that city power to pass a security deposit ordinance of its own. We found no ordinance in Alexandria’s code that uses it, and the Act says it supersedes local landlord-tenant ordinances; whether the charter power survives the Act is a question for a lawyer.", "value": { "powerToPassOrdinance": true, "ordinanceUsingItFound": false, "survivalDecided": false }, "citation": "Charter of the City of Alexandria § 2.04:1", "statuteQuote": "In addition to the powers granted by other sections of this charter the city may by ordinance: (a) Require that any security deposit of money, or prepaid rent, however denominated, furnished by a tenant or a lessee to a landlord or lessor or agent of same to secure the performance of any part of a written or oral lease or agreement, or as the security for damages to the leased premises, shall be returned to the tenant or lessee within one month after the date the tenancy terminates", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/charters/alexandria/", "derivation": "verbatim", "sourceType": "codified", "effectiveDate": "2026-11-12", "effectiveDateIsFloor": true, "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "confidence": "medium", "amendedBy": "1982 Va. Acts ch. 480", "notes": "It is a power to pass an ordinance, not a rule in force. As written, it would let the city require return \"within one month after the date the tenancy terminates\" (provided the tenant furnishes a forwarding address), a written list of existing damage at the start of the tenancy, and interest of four percent a year on deposits of $100 or more held more than a year; and the same charter section says a landlord found by a court to have willfully failed to comply with such an ordinance is liable for \"twice the amount of the security deposit\". Alexandria’s code, codified through Ordinance No. 5616 (adopted January 24, 2026), contains the charter section and a Landlord-Tenant Relations Board whose duties include recommending guidelines on deposits to the city council, and nothing we found that enacts the charter power. A charter is a special act of the General Assembly, not an ordinance, and we do not resolve whether such an ordinance could stand against § 55.1-1201. In Alexandria we found no city deposit rule beyond the state rules on this page." }, "cities": [], "localLaw": { "preempted": true, "summary": "The Act applies in every Virginia locality, a locality may not modify it, and it supersedes all other local ordinances or regulations on landlord and tenant relations and the leasing of residential property (§ 55.1-1201(A), (E)). In 1987 the Supreme Court of Virginia held the dead-bolt provisions of an Arlington County ordinance pre-empted. It relied on the Act’s purposes clause of the time (\"a single body of law\"), which is no longer in the Act, on the predecessor of today’s supersession sentence, and on a direct conflict with a specific statute. The case was not about deposits. One loose end: the Alexandria city charter still gives that city power to pass its own deposit ordinance; we found no ordinance using it, and whether the power survives the Act is a lawyer’s question. Municode lists 163 Virginia entries. Four have no code hosted there (Ashland, Augusta County, Orange County, and a statewide manual that is not a local code). We checked the other 159 for \"security deposit\" and \"damage deposit\", singular and plural: 158 through Municode’s search, and Newport News, where that search returns nothing for any word, by checking the full text of its code for the same phrases. Forty-two codes had hits, and we read every hit that mentioned a tenant, landlord, rental, lease, dwelling or apartment (18 of the 42 codes). None was a local tenant-deposit rule: they were utility service deposits and liens, cable television rules, fee schedules, a Fairfax County condominium-conversion rule, and Alexandria’s charter section and Landlord-Tenant Relations Board. Codes not hosted on Municode, including those of Arlington, Loudoun and James City counties and of Fredericksburg, Staunton and Lexington, and the three listed there without a code, were not searched, so the finding is none in the 159 codes we checked, not none in Virginia.", "citation": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201(A), (E)", "sourceUrl": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1201/", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12", "preemptedBoundary": "We checked the 159 codes hosted on Municode, not every locality; the codes named above were not searched. The Act says it supersedes local landlord-tenant ordinances; the one open question we found is the Alexandria charter power, and whether a local deposit rule could still apply is a question for a Virginia attorney." }, "sources": [ { "label": "Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 12, Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Virginia General Assembly)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1226, security deposits", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1226/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1200, definitions", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1200/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1201, applicability of the chapter; local authority", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1201/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1202, notice (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1202/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1203, applications, application deposits and fees (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1203/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204, terms of the rental agreement (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1204.1, fee disclosure statement", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1204.1/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1205, prepaid rent escrow", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1205/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1206, insurance the landlord may require", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1206/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1208, prohibited provisions in rental agreements", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1208/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1209, tenant records (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1209/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1213, transfer of deposits on sale", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1213/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1214, move-in inspection report", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1214/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1234, noncompliance by landlord (damages and attorney fees)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1234/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1234.1, uninhabitable dwelling unit", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1234.1/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1240, fire or casualty damage (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1240/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1251, remedy after termination (actual damages for breach)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1251/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1259, actions to enforce the chapter", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter12/section55.1-1259/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-1302, manufactured home lot rental agreements and security deposits", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter13/section55.1-1302/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 1-210, computation of time", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title1/chapter2/section1-210/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 1-248, supremacy of federal and state law", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title1/chapter2/section1-248/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 30-152, recodification and uncodified enactments", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title30/chapter15/section30-152/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 36-96.3:1, assistance animals (Virginia Fair Housing Law)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title36/chapter5.1/section36-96.3:1/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 36-96.2, exemptions from the Virginia Fair Housing Law (two versions on the page; the first is in force)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title36/chapter5.1/section36-96.2/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 54.1-2108.1, escrow of deposits by real estate licensees", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter21/section54.1-2108.1/" }, { "label": "Va. Code § 55.1-2501, unclaimed property presumed abandoned", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter25/section55.1-2501/" }, { "label": "18VAC135-20-181, Real Estate Board escrow accounts (in force April 1, 2026)", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title18/agency135/chapter20/section181/" }, { "label": "2014 Va. Acts ch. 651 (HB 273): the end of deposit interest (enactment clause 4)", "url": "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?141+ful+CHAP0651" }, { "label": "2023 Va. Acts ch. 433 (HB 1542): the 30-day contractor period, expired June 30, 2024", "url": "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?231+ful+CHAP0433" }, { "label": "Klingbeil Mgmt. Group Co. v. Vito, 233 Va. 445, 357 S.E.2d 200 (1987) (Caselaw Access Project scan of the Virginia Reports)", "url": "https://static.case.law/va/233/html/0445-01.html" }, { "label": "Reed v. Smith, 90 Va. Cir. 220 (Roanoke City Cir. Ct. 2015) (Caselaw Access Project scan of the Virginia Circuit Court Opinions)", "url": "https://static.case.law/va-cir/90/html/0220-01.html" }, { "label": "Klingbeil Mgmt. Group Co. v. Vito, on CourtListener", "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1359033/klingbeil-management-group-co-v-vito/" }, { "label": "Reed v. Smith, on CourtListener", "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8687294/reed-v-smith/" }, { "label": "Isbell v. Commercial Investment Associates, 273 Va. 605 (2007), on CourtListener", "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1058675/isbell-v-commercial-inv-associates-inc/" }, { "label": "Charter of the City of Alexandria, § 2.04:1", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/charters/alexandria/" } ], "pendingLegislation": [ { "label": "SB349 (2026 session, continued to 2027), Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; pre-tenancy fees", "url": "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB349", "status": "pending", "note": "Not law. A bill continued to the 2027 session by the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology on February 11, 2026. As introduced, which is the version the bill summary LIS displays describes, it would set a one-month cap, a 30-day deadline and a separate pet deposit. A substitute offered in the Senate committee on February 11, 2026 (the bill’s history records it as offered, not as adopted) does none of those. As that substitute reads, it would change \"may be applied\" to \"shall be applied\"; bar applying the deposit to professional services, or to materials and labor by the landlord or the landlord’s employee, unless the cost is reasonably necessary to return the unit to its condition at the start of the rental agreement, less reasonable wear and tear, and the landlord gives the tenant a receipt; cut the notice for deductions during a tenancy from 30 days to 15; cut the contractor extension from 15 days to 10; and reletter every subsection after A, so the subsection letters this page cites would move; under it the two-month cap and the 45 days would not change. Until a version passes, SB349 changes nothing on this page.", "lastVerified": "2026-11-12" } ] } }