Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: What are my and my tenant's rights if her roomate moves out?

I don't understand from your question how your tenant's boyfriend could have signed the lease, yet not be "on" the lease in a traditional sense. Of course, none of us are reading the lease you have, so any general comment will be fairly useless without reading exactly what your lease says. I suppose that you could have a separate section for "occupants" who have no rights under the lease, but I have never seen such a lease written that way. It is conceivable, but it would have to be exceedingly clear, because a tenant has strong rights under the Virginia statute governing residential leases, and the judge would be reluctant to carve out a new category that is unfamiliar unless it is exceedingly clear in the way the lease is drafted. The judge would tend to assume that anyone signing the lease is a tenant in the traditional sense, unless the language leaves no doubt. Also, since this is not a standard way of doing a lease, as my colleague points out, that makes it harder to give a general answer without studying the lease (and perhaps even then).

I think it is important to study the lease to determine what are the conditions and terms of his involvement. That will depend on the actual text. If your tenant has the right to ask him to leave, then he could be evicted on that ground alone (permission withdrawn). It would normally not require 30 days. Normally the reason for an eviction is failure to pay. However, violation of any of the terms of the lease is sufficient. If her permission is enough, the withrawal of her permission would be grounds for eviction. This can happen very quickly.

Also, you need to check when the lease expires. If it goes to a month-to-month status, you are not obligated to continue it as to both of them, particularly if only one of them is paying the rent.

Of course, if your tenant has moved out, there is no further reason for her to pay the rent. If it is true that he is an equal tenant, then of course he should pay the rent equally, including back to the beginning of his occupancy. If she stops paying the rent, then of course you can evict him for that reason. If she wants to come back later, as long as you are not discriminating for improper reasons, I think you are entitled to accept a tenant who actually pays instead of a tenant who does not pay.

A more difficult question would be if you can give the rent for May back to the tenant on the basis that she moved out and then evict the boyfriend if he does not pay the rent for May. I don't know off the top of my head if that is allowed.

Re: What are my and my tenant's rights if her roomate moves out?

If your tenant's boyfriend "signed the lease as

an occupant of the condo", then he would have the same rights as any other signatory tenant, including the right to receive the advance notice to terminate required under the terms of the lease.

However, of course, if you as landlord have somehow modified the standard residential lease form to only obligate the girlfriend tenant to pay the monthly rent(probably, a very bad idea), then the foregoing may not be true, and, if so, a lawyer may now need to review the modified lease in order to determine precisely what rights each of the parties may now have under this modified lease format.