Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: validity of lease agreement

The legalities aside, why would you wish your daughter to remain in a rental unit shared by another person who supposedly doesn't want her there and where the landlord is disputing the validity of her lease?

Re: validity of lease agreement

This is a close call. First, contracts do not have

to be in writing, they can be verbal. (However it

can be very hard to prove that the verbal contract

existed, practically, but it is still a good contract.)

It is also possible to accept a written or verbal

contract through ACTIONS instead of by signing. For example, if I offer you $100 to take a package to Richmond as an emergency (I'm near Fairfax),

and you -- SAYING NOTHING -- take the package out

of my hand, get in your car, and race down the

road, we have a contract. I would be obligated to

pay you and you would be obligated to deliver it

(not stop at King's Dominion instead.)

In your case, if the landlord presents a lease,

your daughter signs it and returns it, and then

the landlord hands her the keys (or something

similar), this would be the same as agreeing, the

same as if the landlord's signature was on the

contract. So far I would give a strong yes that

the landlord is bound by the lease.

However, real estate is a special case. While you

can have a verbal contract for most things, real

estate is an exception. Normally this involves

the SALE of real estate, not a lease, and this

rule barely applies at all to rentals. But

also residential leases are governed by the

Virginia Landlord Tenant Act, and I don't know

right now what that Act says without doing some

legal research on this special, unusual question.

However, to satisfy the rule for a written

contract it is NOT necessary for the entire

contract to be in writing. Most lawyers and many

judges fail to appreciate this, and will tell you

the wrong thing. But Virginia precedents are

clear (if widely ignored). There must be written

EVIDENCE of the contract. The contract itself

need not be in writing. There must be written

documentation proving that there was a contract.

Often this requires the signature of the person

to be charged, but where the landlord has its own

lease on its own letterhead, this MIGHT be enough.

Here, the landlord prepared the lease, obviously,

and handed it to the tenant to be signed. The

landlord then TREATED the lease as being ACCEPTED

by in fact letting your daughter move in.

There is another exception to the exception.

When the owner of real estate unambiguosly ACTS as if there is a contract, whether there is a written contract or not, or any written evidence or not, then the verbal contract will be enforced.

Here, the landlord TREATED the lease as being in

force, through actions on both sides, which the

landlord knew about (allowing your daughter to

actually move in, indicating that the landlord

thought the lease was valid).

Therefore, I think that the lease is enforceable,

but it may require some legal wrangling to get there.