Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia
I have a tenent who was on a month to month verbal lease agreement. She has been given her 30 days notice to vacate. This was not a pleasant agreement. She bought lumber and I hauled it to the premise, built and filled her 4'x12'x16" garden beds using my hardware .. about 12 of these. My question is if she decides to remove these and all the plants she has in them, does she have to return the property to the state it was in prior to the beds being in place. If she removes these thier will be about 15 tons of soil left laying on the ground. She has planted multiple trees, berry bushes, grapes ect... I don't know what my rights are as to her removing these as well as the beds are concerned and what her respondsibilty is as to return the property to it's prior state. I have never rented to someone before and as there is no deposit on hand and there is distinct damage to walls and such that will have to be washed, sanded and painted. What are my rights in this issue.......Thnx BobbyD
1 Answer from Attorneys
Materials for garden beds would be unlikely to be regarded as "fixtures" under
Virginia law and therefore, not removable. Your tenant should be expected, therefore, to being responsible for removing all of these materials used to construct these garden beds, including any soil that she imported onto your property and to return the soil to its previous condition before they were laid down.
Your tenant should be given written notice as an addendum to her notice to vacate that she must have all of these materials removed by a date certain and that she will also be responsible for the cost of repairing any damages to the walls.
Hopefully, you have learned your lesson from the situation described that no landlord should ever let property under an oral lease agreement.
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