Virginia Residential Lease Agreement

What a Virginia lease must include

Standard lease elements

• Parties and the Virginia county + street address of the rental.
• Lease term — fixed end date or a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy.
• Monthly rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods.
• Security deposit amount with the 2-month cap enforced at /review.
• Utilities — which the landlord covers and which the tenant pays.
• Occupancy rules, pets, smoking, and entry procedures.
• Default, eviction-notice tiers, and 30-day periodic-tenancy termination language.
• First-page itemized fee disclosure under § 55.1-1204.1.
• Move-in inspection report obligation, 45-day itemized return, and 72-hour move-out inspection right.
• Mandatory pre-lease disclosure block: mold, military air-installation zones, defective drywall, prior meth-lab contamination, and planned demolition.
• Signatures of all parties.

Virginia-required disclosures

• Federal lead-paint disclosure and EPA pamphlet for any unit built before 1978. (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 24 C.F.R. Part 35)
• Move-in inspection report — within 5 days of occupancy, landlord must provide a written report describing the condition of the dwelling unit, with the tenant having 5 days to object in writing. (Va. Code § 55.1-1214)
• Mold disclosure — landlord must disclose any visible evidence of mold in readily accessible interior areas at move-in, and remediate prior to occupancy if present. (Va. Code § 55.1-1215)
• Planned-demolition / substantial-rehabilitation disclosure — landlord must disclose any plan to demolish or substantially rehabilitate the premises during the lease term. (Va. Code § 55.1-1216)
• Military Air-Installation Zone (MAIZ / APZ) disclosure — for premises within designated noise or accident-potential zones of a military air installation. (Va. Code § 55.1-1217)
• Defective-drywall disclosure — landlord must disclose any actual knowledge that the premises contain drywall manufactured outside the U.S. during 2001–2009 (Chinese-drywall era). (Va. Code § 55.1-1218)
• Prior methamphetamine-lab contamination disclosure — landlord must disclose any actual knowledge of prior meth-lab use that has not been remediated to state standards. (Va. Code § 55.1-1219)
• First-page fee disclosure — itemized list of every fee that may be charged under the agreement, with the basis for each, on page one of the lease. (Va. Code § 55.1-1204.1)

Virginia-specific workflow

• 2-month security-deposit cap. Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A).
• 45 days to provide an itemized statement and any refund after termination + delivery of possession. Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A).
• Mid-tenancy deduction notice required within 30 days of the determination, except for deductions made within the 30 days immediately before termination.
• For lease terms exceeding 13 months, the deposit accrues interest at the Federal Reserve discount rate − 1pp annually. Va. Code § 55.1-1226.
• Move-out inspection on 72 hours' notice if tenant requests. Va. Code § 55.1-1226(G).
• Late fees capped at the lesser of 10% of periodic rent or 10% of remaining balance, and only enforceable if stated in the written lease. Va. Code § 55.1-1204(E).
• 72-hour written notice required for routine maintenance not requested by the tenant. Va. Code § 55.1-1229(A)(4).
• Eviction notice tiers: 5-day pay-or-quit / 5-day cure-or-quit / immediate for irremediable acts. Va. Code § 55.1-1245.
• 30-day written notice required to terminate a month-to-month tenancy. Va. Code § 55.1-1253.
• 60-day nonrenewal / rent-increase notice for larger landlords. Va. Code § 55.1-1204(K).
• Self-help eviction prohibited; tenant has cause of action for damages plus reasonable attorney's fees. Va. Code § 55.1-1243.
• 14-day cure for noncompliance materially affecting health and safety, plus rent-escrow remedy. Va. Code §§ 55.1-1234, 55.1-1244, 55.1-1244.1.
• Statutory mutual prevailing-party attorney's fees. Va. Code § 55.1-1204.
• Source-of-funds protection (added 2020 to the Virginia Fair Housing Law). Va. Code § 36-96.3.

Virginia DHCD — Landlord and Tenant Handbook

How a Virginia lease is structured

1. The document opens with parties, the Virginia county, and the rental-property address.
2. The first page includes a § 55.1-1204.1 itemized fee disclosure summarizing every fee that may be charged under the agreement.
3. The property-location subphase surfaces the Virginia Fair Housing Law non-discrimination + a single combined major-city overlay informational callout for Norfolk, Hampton Roads, NoVA, and Richmond (with explicit reference to the federal-base intersections).
4. The term section identifies the arrangement as fixed-term with an end date or as a periodic tenancy with the 30-day termination floor under § 55.1-1253.
5. The rent section sets the monthly amount, due date, accepted payment methods, and surfaces the 10% statutory late-fee cap under § 55.1-1204(E).
6. The security-deposit section captures the deposit amount and renders the 2× cap, the 45-day itemized return, the deposit-interest rule for terms > 13 months, the 30-day mid-tenancy deduction-notice rule, and the 72-hour move-out inspection right.
7. A dedicated Virginia-disclosures subphase informs the user that the lease will automatically include the mandatory mold, military-zone, defective-drywall, meth-lab, planned-demolition, and first-page fee disclosures.
8. The document closes with the eviction notice tiers (§ 55.1-1245), the 14-day cure / rent-escrow tenant remedies, the 60-day nonrenewal notice for larger landlords, the SCRA service-member protections, the self-help-eviction prohibition, the statutory mutual attorney's-fees recovery clause, and the non-discrimination clause covering Va. Code §§ 36-96.1 et seq. + the federal Fair Housing Act — followed by signatures.

BuildMyLease assembles all of this for you in a guided interview.

Free Virginia lease template vs BuildMyLease

Free Virginia lease templates are everywhere, but most miss the broad disclosure inventory entirely (military zones, defective drywall, meth-lab contamination), get the 10% late-fee cap wrong, and skip the § 55.1-1204.1 first-page fee summary that VRLTA requires for enforceability. Here is the honest side-by-side.

Who this is for

This is for

• Virginia landlords managing 1–25 private-market units (single-family, condo, small multi-family).
• Owners who want the 2-month deposit cap, the 45-day return, the move-in inspection report, the 10% statutory late-fee cap, and the broad pre-lease disclosure inventory baked in without researching each statute.
• NoVA / Hampton Roads / Richmond owners renting to military families with frequent SCRA-driven lease churn.
• Landlords issuing a new fixed-term lease OR a periodic tenancy that needs the 30-day termination floor under § 55.1-1253.

This isn't for

• Larger landlords (above the § 55.1-1204(K) portfolio threshold) who need the 60-day nonrenewal-notice rendering with a pre-computed effective date — the clause renders informationally; consult counsel for the bright-line threshold determination.
• Mobile-home park tenancies (separate Virginia statutory regime under Title 55.1, Chapter 13).
• Section 8 / federally subsidized tenancies — those carry separate HAP-contract requirements that this document does not encode.
• Premises with active mold remediation in progress — counsel review recommended before lease signing.
• Ongoing eviction or unlawful-detainer proceedings — those require court forms, not a lease.
• Commercial leases.