Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Legal rights without a lease

I currently live in an apartment that is contained within a private home. Due to increasing and unacceptable harassment by my landlord, I gave her notice yesterday (June 26th) that I would be vacating the premesis on July 5th. I do not have a written contract or lease with this landlord, and when I moved in there was no discussion of how long I would be able to stay, or how much notice I would have to give before moving out. She claims that I owe her rent for the entire month of July (even though I wouldn't even be there for 25 of those days) but I only want to pay for the days I occupy in July plus another week's rent just to be nice. She will easily be able to turn this apartment over to another tenant within days of my departure. What, legally, do I owe her?


Asked on 6/27/03, 9:24 am

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

Re: Legal rights without a lease

If your lease is the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act (VRLTA), you would be required to give your landlord a full 30 days notice, prior to the first day of the month in which you wish to move. And you would owe for the entire month even if you only resided in the apartment but a few days.

However, if your lease is not governed by this statute, but rather an oral common law lease,

on a month to month basis, your landlord would still be entitled to ask for the entire month's rent unless there was some specific(and provable) understanding between the two of you that would obligate you to pay only for the time during which you actually occupied the premises.

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Answered on 6/27/03, 9:51 am


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