Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

I rent a small apartment in VA as a farmhand apartment. The person helps take care of the property/farm animals and gets discounted rent which includes electric, hot water, heat, Direct TV. They stopped paying and stopped helping with the animals during the first 30 days they lived there and never game me a security deposit and stopped paying rent. My contact with them says during the 30 day trial period I can give them 15 days to vacate. They told me to take them to court. I can not afford that, can I do anything else to get them out? I was told that I can not shut off electric, or water but I could remove the Direct TV box because I pay for that on my bill. The electric and water I pay for too.


Asked on 8/08/13, 11:10 am

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

Yes, you can likely shut off these freeloaders' access to your Direct TV

connection but forget about attempting to turn off their access to water and

electricity utilities which these days are often regarded as "necessaries of life" in

landlord-tenant law and which could possibly expose you to adverse legal repercussions.

And, FYI, you don't need to spend a lot of money to initiate eviction proceedings

as a Warrant for Unlawful Detainer should only cost you about $50 or so to file at your local general district court clerk's office (civil division) and they should have all the paperwork there for you to fill out to start the process (for eviction).

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Answered on 8/08/13, 12:38 pm


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