7 Security Deposit Rules That Catch Virginia Landlords Off Guard After a Tenant Moves Out

Your tenant hands back the keys.

Now you’re holding their security deposit, and Virginia law has a say in what happens next.

These are the security deposit rules that catch many Virginia landlords off guard after a tenant moves out.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Rental rules and deadlines are subject to change, so confirm the current requirements with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

1. Move-Out Inspection Rules

You inspect the unit before deciding how much security deposit to return, and the tenant has a right to be there.

If the tenant asks in writing to attend, you set the date and time and tell the tenant.

That inspection has to take place within 72 hours of the tenant handing over possession.

That’s three days.

You owe the tenant written notice of the right to be present within five days after you receive the tenant’s notice that they’re leaving.

If you’re the landlord asking the tenant to vacate, the notice is due when you ask.

After the inspection, you give the tenant a written security deposit disposition statement with an itemized list of damages.

The law ties that statement to the inspection, and the next rule covers the itemized notice and its 45-day deadline.

If you find more damage after you settle the deposit, you can still go after the tenant for it.

The tenant can answer with a copy of the move-out report, so keep one in your file too.

2. Your 45-Day Return Deadline

Virginia gives you 45 days to settle a security deposit, but the count doesn’t always start on move-out day.

Those 45 days run from the end of the tenancy or the day the tenant vacates, whichever comes last.

A tenant who stays past the end of the lease moves your start date to the day they leave.

By the end of those 45 days, you owe the tenant a written notice that itemizes every deduction, along with any money due back.

3. Allowed Deductions

You can apply a security deposit to four things.

Rent comes first.

That includes any reasonable late charges your rental agreement specifies.

Next comes damage from the tenant skipping their upkeep duties, minus reasonable wear and tear.

Your rental agreement can provide for other damages or charges, and those count too.

Actual damages for breaking the rental agreement round out the list.

If you’re pricing a repair for tenant-caused damage, subtract reasonable wear and tear first.

One holdback sits outside those four, and it covers an unpaid utility account, as the next rule explains.

You have to keep itemized records of every deduction you’ve made from a tenant’s security deposit during the preceding two years.

Your tenant, or an authorized agent or attorney, can inspect the tenant’s records of deductions at any time during normal business hours.

4. Utility Notice Before Withholding

You can hold back a reasonable portion of a security deposit for an unpaid utility balance, but only after you give prior written notice.

The balance has to be a water, sewer or other utility account that the tenant owes a third-party provider under the rental agreement.

Your termination notice counts as that prior notice, and so does a written notice confirming the vacating date.

A separate written notice works too if you send it at least 15 days before you dispose of the deposit.

After you pay the utility, you have 10 days to confirm that to the tenant in writing, along with any balance you owe the tenant.

A tenant can send you written confirmation that the final utility bill is paid.

If that proof reaches you after the 45 days expire, you have 10 days from receiving it to refund the remaining balance.

5. Extra Days for Outside Contractors

You get 15 extra days beyond the 45-day security deposit deadline when repairs need an outside contractor.

Two conditions apply.

The damage has to exceed the deposit.

The repairs have to need a third-party contractor.

Within the original 45 days, you send the tenant written notice that the damage needs a contractor.

Do that, and you have an additional 15-day period to itemize the damage and the repair cost.

6. One Check for Every Tenant

A security deposit on a lease with several tenants goes back in one check, payable to all of them.

Every tenant has to agree to anything different in writing.

You send the check to a forwarding address that one of the tenants provides.

Three roommates get one check with all three names on it.

If no tenant gives you a forwarding address, you may keep holding the deposit in escrow.

One year after the 45 days end, you may send the deposit to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property.

Once the deposit is there, a former tenant can look for it in the state’s searchable online database.

7. Penalty for Willful Violations

If you willfully fail to return or account for a security deposit under these rules, the court has to order the deposit returned to the tenant.

The same order adds the tenant’s actual damages and reasonable attorney fees.

If the tenant owes you rent, though, the court orders an amount equal to the deposit credited against that rent.

If you buy a rental property, these rules bind you when a tenancy there ends, however the building came to you.