A number of tenant protections which Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed into law earlier this year took effect July 1, and could impact Charlottesville residents and students returning to Grounds who rent in the City and surrounding areas.
The new laws — including House Bill 15, Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 281 — are the latest in a series of reforms aimed at curbing Virginia’s record-high eviction rates. Spanberger outlined several of the rule changes in her 17-bill affordability agenda — a legislative package aimed at lowering housing, healthcare and energy costs for Virginians — back in December.
Set to impact the 60 percent of Charlottesville residents who rent their homes, the new laws will extend the grace period for those at risk of eviction and eliminate the requirement that tenants living in life- or health-threatening conditions must still pay rent during court proceedings. The laws also make further adjustments to the statute governing Virginia’s landlord-tenant relationships.
The Commonwealth’s long-maligned record on evictions came into the national spotlight in 2018, when a New York Times front-page article reported that data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab showed Virginia cities had some of the highest eviction rates in the nation. Housing advocates have attributed these eviction rates to several factors, including a legal tradition which affords landlords significant power and establishes relatively few tenant protections.
Caroline Klosko is a senior attorney at the Housing and Consumer Justice Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center — a nonprofit which provides free legal services for a number of issues. Klosko specifically works to provide services to low-income individuals in the “housing-consumer realm.” She agreed with the advocates who declare there is a power imbalance between tenants and landlords in the Commonwealth.
Virginia landlords have near-total discretion over whether to raise the cost of rent in between leases, Klosko explained. Further, while Virginia law prevents discrimination in housing based on protected characteristics, a landlord can still deny a tenant’s application for renewal of their lease for mostly arbitrary reasons, like their personal relationship with a tenant.
Klosko also pointed to the markedly fast rate at which eviction proceedings in the Commonwealth play out. She said that in her experience, the process can run its course — from an initial eviction notice to a court order to vacate the property — in as little as a month when a tenant does not fight their eviction. A tenant unsuccessfully contesting their eviction might be ordered to vacate within two months. The median timeline for an eviction nationwide is roughly 90 days, and in some states like California or New York, eviction proceedings can last up to 180 days. One Richmond Public Interest Law Review article dubbed Virginia’s process “an unforgiving rush to judgement.”
Although heightened eviction rates are generally less prevalent in Charlottesville than other Virginia cities, landlords have filed 552 eviction notices in the City in the last 12 months — up 45 percent from 2023 and 2024, according to July 1 data from Princeton’s Eviction Lab.
One group that accounts for a sizable share of renters in the City is the University’s off-Grounds student population. The more than 15,000 students who reside in Charlottesville — which itself is home to roughly 48,000 residents — are a major presence in the City’s rental market. Nonfamily one-person and two-person households constituted more than 60 percent of renters in the City in 2024, according to Virginia Realtors.
House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 48 — extended grace period before evictions begin
House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 48, identical bills patroned by Del. Marcia Price (D-85) and Sen. Aaron Rouse (D-22) in the 2026 legislative session, amended the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act to extend the grace period before eviction proceedings can begin.
Previously, if a tenant’s rent was past due, a landlord would issue a written notice of the amount owed, warning them to pay or leave the property. If within five days of receiving the notice, a tenant did not address the missed rent, a landlord could initiate legal proceedings to remove the tenant from the property.
HB 15 and SB 48 extend this grace period from five days to two weeks after a landlord issues a written notice. The measure is intended to ensure at-risk tenants have adequate time to secure their paychecks and make rent, according to a December press release from Spanberger’s team.
Klosko said she believes the new law sets a more reasonable timetable for her clients to get their affairs in order before facing eviction for nonpayment. She noted that a 14-day period will not be an unfamiliar change — when former Gov. Ralph Northam (D) declared a state of emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporarily strengthened protections he implemented gave tenants a 14-day notice to address a missed payment. Further, a few select groups in the Commonwealth have at least a 14-day grace period under federal law. This grace period applied even before the pandemic.
“Five days just isn't enough [time] for tenants who qualify for our services to get anything together,” Klosko said. “It's … kind of like a perfunctory administrative thing … We've been lobbying [the General Assembly] for a longer period of time, specifically for 14 days, for a long time.”
Democrats in the General Assembly have also advocated for legislation that would expand the grace period, and the General Assembly passed versions of HB 15 and SB 48 in previous legislative sessions. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed the legislation in 2024 and 2025, writing in his veto statement that he believed the five-day interval before eviction proceedings began was sufficient.
Even after the grace period ends and court proceedings to remove a tenant begin, Youngkin wrote, tenants can address missed payments under Virginia law at other points in the process. In Virginia, a tenant facing eviction for nonpayment can pay overdue rent during court proceedings. A tenant can also stop an eviction by paying their missed rent and other fees owed at least 48 hours before the sheriff’s scheduled eviction date. If either occurs, the tenant may also have to front the cost of late fees, their landlord’s attorneys and court costs.
“Since tenants may already halt eviction proceedings by paying any amount of overdue rent this bill is unnecessary,” Youngkin wrote in the veto statement.
In terms of the early application of HB 15 and SB 48 over the past two weeks, Klosko had mixed reactions. She indicated that in the past, landlords would often informally give tenants several extra days to pay rent before issuing the written “pay or quit” warnings that initiated the five day grace period and subsequent eviction proceedings.
Now, with a longer 14-day grace period codified into state law, she said her team has noticed less flexibility from landlords on this front, who have been filing the warnings within a day or two of rent being past due.
House Bill 281 — Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
Another new law — the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — will introduce a pro-tenant legal doctrine to the Commonwealth that excuses nonpayment of rent for those living in unsafe conditions whose life, health or safety are at risk. This doctrine, known as “implied warranty of habitability,” generally means a tenant is only expected to pay rent if a landlord maintains their property in a livable condition. Klosko explained that this framework has long existed in most states, but before July 1, did not exist in Virginia.
Del. Katrina Callsen (D-54) said this is because, once a tenant in Virginia withheld rent from their landlord due to unsafe conditions — such as a lack of electricity, running water or heat — tenants still had to pay all rent due to the court during subsequent legal proceedings. If a tenant did not continue paying rent to the court, they could not permissibly assert the poor condition of their living space as a defense for not paying their landlord. House Bill 281, patroned by Callsen, removed this requirement from the VRLT Act, effectively allowing tenants to withhold rent during legal proceedings.
Callsen said she believed the prior system made it costly, and almost impossible for “99 percent” of tenants to defend themselves in practice once a landlord initiated court proceedings.
“If you are in court for nonpayment of your rent and you are living in a place that is uninhabitable, you are generally not in the income bracket that you can randomly fork over all your past due rent, plus be paying rent wherever you're living at the moment,” Callsen said. “[Some landlords] didn't ever feel like they had to fix what was going on because they [knew] that the person [was] never going to be able to raise it in court.”
The legal quirk also sometimes created confusion for the LAJC’s clients, according to Klosko. She explained that, prior to the enactment of Callsen’s bill, many clients falsely assumed they could withhold rent when a unit became unlivable — which she said seems “intuitively correct” — and they would inadvertently lose their legal defense in the process after several months of not paying the court.
Following HB 281’s adoption, Callsen noted that “protections” for landlords accused of negligence in “bad faith” will still remain part of the VRLT Act. According to the Act, a tenant must notify their landlord of the condition, who has a “reasonable” amount of time to correct the issue — generally considered less than 30 days.
A tenant also cannot deny a landlord entry to correct the issue rendering their living space uninhabitable, or have caused the issue themselves. Tenants who raise a “bad faith” argument in this context, according to the Act, may have to pay the landlord’s court costs or attorney fees, or pay for repairs for an issue they caused.
Klosko further said that, since a tenant will have to demonstrate the condition of their living space is “pretty severe” in order to justify withholding payment from their landlord, judges will still have leeway to retroactively determine that a tenant’s unit was even partially habitable, and that their nonpayment was therefore unjustified. In this case, such a judgement could still lead to an eventual court order for the tenant to vacate the property.
“It's not as good as it could be, but … I would say [the new law is] pretty revolutionary to the way that we practice layover tenant law,” Klosko said.
Looking forward
Callsen said the new laws, including her own, are an attempt to ensure the Commonwealth can become more “tenant friendly” in the future. Other more tenant friendly bills — some of which went into effect July 1 and one which will go into effect July 1, 2027 — according to Callsen, will expand payment options for those renting in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 95, patroned by then-Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) — and current Senator of District 39 — during her tenure in the House, now requires landlords who own four or more properties to offer a payment plan to tenants who do not pay their rent in time, with no late fees attached to the unpaid amount covered by the payment plan. HB 95 goes into effect July 1, 2027. House Bill 1005, patroned by Del. Kathy Tran (D-18) and Senate Bill 313 patroned by former Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), will allow all tenants to pay security deposits via cash or check.
Michael Payne, Charlottesville City Council member and advocate of more “robust” tenant protections, wrote that since the Commonwealth had “almost no tenants rights” prior to adoption of the recent slew of housing legislation, he believes the new laws represent a “significant change” which will have a positive impact on the Charlottesville community.
When City Council adopted Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan in 2021 — a document of guiding principles which informs future policymaking in the City — Student Council’s Executive Board sent a statement, co-signed by 19 other advocacy groups on Grounds, to both the Charlottesville Planning Commission and City Council.
The statement documented the student experience with off-Grounds housing in the City, pointing to high costs and an exceptionally low number of rental units actually vacant and available. The Executive Board called for strengthened tenant protections for students and locals against “coercive” landlords.
“The vast majority of U.Va. students are tenants and have common interests with other renters in Charlottesville,” the statement reads. “We also struggle with Charlottesville’s high rents … and very low rental vacancy rate. These conditions allow coercive landlords and major housing developers to take advantage of students … [who] know the abusive practices of Charlottesville landlords well and often feel powerless in their own homes.”
Michael Mitchell, Student Council president and rising fourth-year Commerce student, did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication regarding whether Student Council remains committed to its 2021 statement, and on what Student Council members think of the new housing laws.
Payne said that moving forward, his priority will be to ensure landlords are abiding by the new rule changes and that tenants know their rights and have access to legal counsel when these rights have been violated. According to data from the Civil Court Data Initiative, only 4.8 percent of tenants in Charlottesville have access to legal representation as of 2024.
Measures limiting how much landlords can raise rents was also something Payne said he hopes to see implemented. This regular session, Del. Nadarius Clark (D-84) proposed legislation which would have allowed local governing bodies like the Charlottesville City Council to limit rent increases to a specific percentage no greater than three percent, but the General Assembly delayed further consideration of the bill to 2027.
In his statement, Payne noted that new legislation also paves the way for more local debates within the Charlottesville community about the City’s strategy for preserving affordable housing. Virginia is a Dillon rule state — meaning the Commonwealth must give localities permission to enact certain policies.
Under new laws the General Assembly passed, the City — in the midst of an affordability crisis which has led to skyrocketing housing costs and displaced many lower-income residents — will now have the option to pass additional measures aimed at preserving affordable housing.
House Bill 4, also introduced by Bennett-Parker, allows localities which opt in to establish a “right of first refusal.” In localities which adopt the policy, the city government or an organization operating on its behalf would have the option to match an offer for properties developed using public subsidies that are being sold to private entities. Payne indicated that he would support establishing a right of first refusal in Charlottesville.
“This would help ensure existing affordable housing isn't lost and converted to luxury housing [or] AirBnbs,” Payne wrote.
Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade indicated in an email to The Cavalier Daily July 16 that the Council had not yet discussed implementation of the policy.
Luca Bailey is a third-year Politics student from Free Union, Va. As a staffer on the news and video desks, he has covered topics ranging from the General Assembly and state elections to local politics and University governance. He is also The Cavalier Daily’s beat writer for the Charlottesville City Council.
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