Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Repair and Deduct

On three separate occasions, the basement of a brand new townhome I was renting flooded due to an unknown plumbing problem (not us), which caused significant inconvenience. I notified the landlord immediately by telephone each time, and he instructed me to make the arrangements to get the plumbers, carpet installers and county water authority to respond to repair. Not only did I lose approximately 15 hours of vacation to coordinate the repairs, on one occasion my wife and son had to sleep at a friend's house due to loss of water from the plumbing problem.

Under the ''repair and deduct'' statue, am I legally within my rights to deduct a reasonable amount of money from my rent to cover loss of vacation and inconvenience for repairs that the landlord was legally obligated to fix but that I coordinated? I would like to deduct one week's rent. Thanks.


Asked on 6/29/03, 8:45 pm

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

Re: Repair and Deduct

I do not know what "repair and deduct" statute you are referring to, but, if there is one which applies to your situation(which I do not see in the current version of the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act(VRLTA) published in the Va. Code, Title 55-248.2-40), you would most likely be able to claim only for actual out of pocket(compensatory)expenditures and not for "loss of vacation and inconvenience for repairs".

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Answered on 6/29/03, 11:15 pm


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