Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: My current landlord is selling the house

Here's how "that process works" under current Virginia law: the new owner(when he actually becomes such)takes his newly-acquired property subject to any valid leases to subject property, meaning that, normally, he/she is required to honor and fullfill the terms of such leases until their legal termination.

It would appear that the person whom you've described as the new owner is acting somewhat prematurely and that, therefore, her/his importunities( look it up if you must)should be ignored until they acquire the necessary sustenance of legal requirement.

Re: My current landlord is selling the house

First, you have to look carefully at the lease. Is the lease still in force? When does the lease end? Obviously, if the lease has already ended and you are month to month, then the owner/ landlord can of course end the lease at any time. Also, check whether the lease terminates if the house is sold, according to the text of the lease or whether the landlord can terminate.

In general, however, NO, the landlord has given you the right to stay in the house until the end of the lease. If the landlord chooses to sell the house, the new owner buys it SUBJECT TO the existing lease. The new owner can only buy what the current owner has to sell, and the owner has already given you the right to live there through the end of the lease. Therefore, the new owner cannot buy what the old owner does not have. As a result, the new owner is bound by your lease through its end.

If the appliances are yours, they are yours. Again, the old owner can only sell what he owns. Therefore, if he does not own the appliances, it is utterly irrelevant what the contract for sale says. The new owner cannot buy your appliances from someone else.

The problem is proving that the appliances are in fact yours. What evidence can you produce to prove that? If the old owner denies it, you would have to convince the judge that you bought and own the appliances.

Of course you do not have to give a new security deposit. Tell the new owner he can retrieve the security deposit from the selling owner.

Now, what you can do is to ask the new owner what he is willing to give in return for you signing a new lease. For example, is he going to reduce the rent? Otherwise, no.

In order for him to evict you, he would have to go to court and produce the lease. If the lease says that you still have a right to be there, and you have made all payments, then the judge would say DENIED and find in your favor.

Of course check to make sure that they can't drum up other parts of the lease that you have violated.