Virginia's new 14-day rule changes the clock on unpaid rent.

Last year I wrote about the 2025 lease and fee rules, and the message was the same one I'll give you now: Virginia updates its landlord-tenant law every July 1, and the owners who get caught out are almost never the careless ones — they're the busy ones. Here's what this year's session means for you, starting with the change that matters most.

Unpaid rent now runs on a 14-day clock.

Under HB 15, if a resident doesn't pay rent when it's due, the written notice period before you can move to terminate goes from 5 days to 14 days. After your written notice goes out, the resident has 14 days to pay before you can proceed. That's nearly three times the old timeline, and it applies to every residential lease in the Commonwealth as of July 1.

Two things this change does not do. It doesn't touch any grace period you already offer — that's still your call, and it remains a business decision, not a legal one. And it doesn't change late fees, which are still capped and still have to be disclosed on page one of the lease under the 2025 rules.

What it does change is the floor on how long the formal process takes. The 14-day clock doesn't start until your written notice goes out. If you self-manage and you've been in the habit of waiting a week before sending a nonpayment notice, that habit now costs you three weeks instead of twelve days. The practical move: send the notice the moment rent is past due. You can still work with the resident — sending the notice doesn't obligate you to act on it — but the clock only protects you if it's running.

One more change on this front is already scheduled: starting July 1, 2027, a termination notice for nonpayment will also have to include a written statement of charges and payments covering the tenancy or the past 12 months, whichever is shorter. If your bookkeeping on late charges and fees is loose, you have a year to tighten it.

Insurers can no longer drop you over a roof's age alone.

This one may put money back in your pocket. Under HB 677, insurance companies operating in Virginia may no longer refuse, cancel, or decline to renew coverage based solely on the age of a property's roof if the roof is 15 years old or newer. And regardless of age, they can't deny coverage on roof condition alone if a licensed inspector determines the roof has at least five years of useful life left.

If you've been fighting a carrier over an older-but-sound roof — or quietly paying a higher premium because of one — this is real leverage at renewal time. A roof inspection costs a few hundred dollars; a forced re-shingle or a non-renewal costs a great deal more. Worth a conversation with your agent before your policy renews.

Septic inspections got cleaner rules.

If you own anything on a septic system in the counties — and plenty of Richmond-metro rentals in Hanover, Goochland, and parts of Chesterfield qualify — HB 1178 cleans up several gray areas. "Readily accessible" is now defined as requiring no more than 30 inches of digging. The 10-day clock for getting your inspection report starts on the first day of inspection. And every report must state whether the system is operating as intended on the inspection date.

None of this is dramatic, but if you've ever had a sale or a turnover stall over a septic dispute, you know why clear definitions matter.

Also worth knowing: military lease terminations.

Service members terminating a lease early because of military orders are no longer limited to a 60-day window before their orders take effect. This brings Virginia in line with the federal SCRA. With Fort Gregg-Adams nearby, several of our Petersburg and Hopewell owners rent to military families — if that's you, your lease language should already account for SCRA terminations, and now state law matches.

What we're doing about all of it.

Every notice The RVA Group sends on behalf of our owners already follows the new timeline as of July 1 — nonpayment notices go out the day rent is past due, so the clock is always running as early as the law allows. Our leases are reviewed for current Virginia compliance at every new signing and every renewal, and we're flagging roof-age insurance situations for owners where the new rule gives them leverage.

If you self-manage and this is the first you're hearing of the 14-day rule, that's exactly the gap I keep writing about. The rules change every July. Tracking them is a job — ours. The full rundown from Virginia Realtors is here if you want the source material, and if you'd rather talk through what any of this means for your property, grab 15 minutes on my calendar.