Virginia rent renewal-notice for private landlord

March 29, 2019 4:16 AM

How much notice do I have to give to my private landlord about not renewing my apartment lease if a timeline is not stated in the lease?

I'm in my second year of renting an apartment in Richmond, Virginia through a private landlord. I like my place, but am considering trying to find a cheaper place. My lease is through a private landlord/owner of the building, and the lease does not give the needed deadline/timeline of notice to not renew the lease. It also does not state that the lease goes to month to month after the lease period ends, or if notice is not given within a certain amount of time if the lease ends.

I've looked up Virginia renter's rights, but only see that 30 days notice is needed to not renew a month-to-month lease; I can't find anything about year-long leases.

Can you help me find the Virginia regulations for rentals for the deadline to let a landlord know the tenant is not going to renew a year-long lease? Does it default to 30 days notice before the end of the lease, if not stated directly in the lease? Also, if notice is not given, does a year-long lease default to month-to-month?

Thank you so much for your help!

posted by shortyJBot to Law & Government (2 answers total)

My concern would be that the landlord says no you need to have a lease and asks that you leave at end of the lease. I would think given more time is better the less.
posted by tman99 at 8:53 AM on March 29, 2019

My lease, also in Richmond, requires 60 days notice or it automatically renews for the term of the lease or 1 year, which ever was less. I know this because I just gave notice on Wednesday. Although in our case we want to spend more on a nicer place. Maybe we can trade :)

This seems to be the applicable law, but I've read it 5 times and I'm still not sure exactly how to apply it to your situation.

C. In the event of termination of a rental agreement and the tenant remains in possession with the agreement of the landlord either as a hold-over tenant or a month-to-month tenant and no new rental agreement is entered into, the terms of the terminated agreement shall remain in effect and govern the hold-over or month-to-month tenancy, except that the amount of rent shall be either as provided in the terminated rental agreement or the amount set forth in a written notice to the tenant, provided that such new rent amount shall not take effect until the next rent due date coming 30 days after the notice.
posted by COD at 2:23 PM on March 29, 2019