Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: No lease, no legal ties??

So, according to your question, you had an oral

lease and you and the girl have vacated the property.

At this point the landlord has the option to sue

either of you for any damage you and/or she caused to his property.

He would file such a civil (not criminal) action in the Small Claims or General District

Court and would have to prove his claim. He does not have the

right to harass you and your employer and friends. I suggest that you

call the police if this continues and ask them

what you should do.

Re: No lease, no legal ties??

Your situation raises quite a number of issues and I am not sure about all of them. For example, you shoul probably talk to the phone company and perhaps even the local Sheriff's office on the harassing phone calls AFTER you specficially tell him to stop or else you will take action.

On the question of your having no lease, do you have any cancelled checks by which you can prove that he accepted your right to be there?

Also, because there is no lease, you may not be responsible at all for the damage. If you have checks proving that you paid, but there is no lease spelling out that damage is your responsbility, it might be seen as simply normal wear and tear and the landlord took that risk by renting the rooms. Finally, of course, there is no criminal issue here *IF* you can prove (such as by canceled checks) that you had a right to be there.

Re: No lease, no legal ties??

I doubt that either you or your girlfriend has much to be worried about "from this guy".

If he persists with his harassing and/or threatening phone calls, these should be reported first to the appropriate telephone authorities who

will investigate and then advise you as to whether these matters should be reported to local law enforcement authorities. It could well be that

this person has already (or will) cross the line into conduct that constitutes criminal behaviour.

As far as this blowhard threatening to take either one or both of you to court, he's blowin' smoke as he clearly has what the law considers "dirty hands"(due to his harassing phone conduct)and it's unlikely that he would be very eager to explain all of these matters before a judge even though technically they may be legally separate issues.