Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Eviction from single family rental dwelling

If you are renting a single dwelling, and you do not fall under the VRLTA code of renting more than five dwellings, do you need to proceed with an eviction through the courts, or can you just give notification to the current resident that you are terminating the lease and vacate them from the premises yourself after giving them written notice of your intent to terminate the lease for failure to pay rent. Can you remove there personnal items from the dwelling and take posession of your property (your rental home)without a writ of eviction being posted by the sherrifs dept.and going through the courts for legal procedings to process the eviction.


Asked on 3/22/04, 8:48 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Eviction from single family rental dwelling

You cannot "vacate them from the premises yourself after giving them written notice....", to quote partially from your question as to whether you must proceed with an eviction through the courts since your lease is not under the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act (VRLTA), and, therefore, whether you may resort to self help measures in removing your tenant(s) from your rental property.

The answer is no, you must use the standard remedies of Summons for Unlawful Detainer and Writ of Possession filed in the general district court to recover your property in a lawful manner from those who may now be unlawfully in possession of the property. You may not resort to self help measures and circumvent the necessary legal procedures to achieve your objective without exposing yourself to what could possibly be quite serious liability on your part for flouting the law in this manner.

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Answered on 3/22/04, 11:23 pm


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