Free Virginia Landlord Forms
Every Virginia landlord form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the Virginia Code section and the deadline that triggers it — beginning with the pay-or-quit period that changed on the first of July 2026 and which almost every form pack in circulation still gets wrong.
Every form linked on this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloadable as a PDF with no account, no membership and no paywall. Virginia landlord forms are governed by the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, in Title 55.1 Chapter 12 of the Virginia Code, and the most important thing to know about it today is that its most-used deadline nearly tripled six weeks ago.
The Virginia pay-or-quit notice is no longer five days. It is FOURTEEN DAYS. The change took effect on 1 July 2026 under Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 15, amending § 55.1-1245. A five-day notice served on a VRLTA tenancy today is short by nine days, and a short notice is a procedural defect in an unlawful detainer action. If you have a stored five-day template — and most Virginia landlords do — it needs replacing before you serve again.
The short version
- Nonpayment of rent — fourteen days after written notice, § 55.1-1245. Changed from five days on 1 July 2026.
- Any other material breach — a two-number notice: twenty-one days to remedy, and termination not less than thirty days after receipt.
- Criminal activity or a wilful health-and-safety threat — immediate termination, with the court hearing held within fifteen calendar days.
- Month-to-month termination — thirty days before the next rent due date, unless the rental agreement provides a different period, § 55.1-1253. Week-to-week is seven days.
- Entry — notice of intent and only at reasonable times; seventy-two hours for routine maintenance the tenant did not request, § 55.1-1229.
- Security deposit — capped at two months’ periodic rent; itemised disposition within forty-five days, § 55.1-1226.
- A five-day rule still exists outside the VRLTA — check which chapter governs your tenancy before you pick a period.
What Changed on 1 July 2026
Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 15 amended § 55.1-1245 so that a landlord terminating a residential tenancy for unpaid rent must give the tenant fourteen days after written notice to pay, rather than five. Nothing else about the mechanics changed: the notice is still written, still served on the tenant, and still terminates the rental agreement if the rent is not paid in full within the period.
The practical consequences are worth spelling out, because a nine-day extension changes more than it looks like it does.
- Your stored template is now a liability. A form headed “Five-Day Notice to Pay or Quit” produces a defective notice, and the defect goes to your right to bring the unlawful detainer at all.
- Your filing calendar has moved. A landlord who serves on the first and files on the seventh has filed early. The earliest filing date is now nine days later than it used to be.
- Late-rent workflows need revisiting. If your process was “notice on the sixth, file on the twelfth”, it no longer works.
A wrinkle almost nobody covers: five days still exists, just not here. The fourteen-day rule is a VRLTA rule, in Title 55.1 Chapter 12. Chapter 14 of the same title still contains § 55.1-1415, headed “Failure to pay certain rents after five days’ notice forfeits right of possession”. So a five-day period survives for tenancies outside the VRLTA. Before you choose a period, be clear which chapter governs the letting — and if you are not sure, take advice rather than assuming. We have not set out the contents of § 55.1-1415 here because we read only its heading on the official site, not its text.
One more change is coming, and it is not law yet
The Virginia Code currently publishes three effective-dated versions of § 55.1-1245 side by side. The one in force today is headed “Effective until July 1, 2027”. A later version, effective 1 July 2027, will add a payment-plan duty on landlords of five or more units: where the rent owed is not more than one month’s rent, the landlord must offer equal monthly instalments over the lesser of six months or the time remaining under the rental agreement.
That duty is not law today. We mention it because it is coming and worth planning for, not because it binds you now. It is also a good illustration of why Virginia repays care: the official code site shows future versions alongside the current one, and it is easy to read the wrong one.
Every Virginia Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
Alphabetical form lists are the least useful arrangement, because a landlord arrives knowing what has happened, not what the document is called. The index below is ordered by where you are in the tenancy.
Starting the tenancy
- Virginia residential lease agreement — the master document, and it does real work in Virginia: § 55.1-1253 lets the rental agreement set a different month-to-month notice period from the statutory thirty days, so what you write here can change your own deadline.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not Virginia law, for any dwelling built before 1978.
- Move-in / move-out condition checklist — the most valuable optional form here, because § 55.1-1226 requires every deduction, damage and charge to be itemised in a written notice, and an itemisation is only as good as the baseline behind it.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — § 55.1-1229. Notice of intent to enter, at reasonable times, and seventy-two hours where the entry is for routine maintenance the tenant did not request.
- Rent increase notice — Virginia has no statewide rent control. For a month-to-month tenancy the operative constraint is the § 55.1-1253 thirty days before the next rent due date, subject to whatever your lease says instead.
- Late rent notice — a courtesy reminder, not a statutory notice. It starts no clock and does not substitute for the fourteen-day notice.
- Abandoned Property Notice
- Lease Extension Agreement
- Month-to-Month Rental Agreement
- Rental Application
- Roommate Agreement
- Sublease Agreement
When the tenant breaches
- Notice to pay rent or quit — read this before you use it. This form is titled for the old five-day rule. For a VRLTA tenancy the period has been fourteen days since 1 July 2026. Use it only if you set the period to fourteen days. The five-day heading remains apt only for a tenancy governed outside the VRLTA under § 55.1-1415, which is a minority of residential lettings.
- Notice to cure or quit — § 55.1-1245, and note that Virginia uses a two-number notice: twenty-one days to remedy, terminating not less than thirty days after receipt.
- Unconditional quit notice — for criminal activity or a wilful act posing a threat to health or safety, where Virginia allows immediate termination.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — used when a fixed term is ending and you do not intend to renew.
- Tenant notice to vacate — the tenant’s side of § 55.1-1253, and it runs on the same thirty days before the next rent due date.
After the tenant moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — § 55.1-1226, the written notice itemising the deposit and every deduction, damage and charge, together with any amount due to the tenant.
- Security deposit return letter — the covering document that goes with the refund.
The Twenty-One / Thirty Cure Notice
Where the breach is not about rent, Virginia uses a structure many states do not: a single notice carrying two different periods. Section 55.1-1245 requires the landlord to give written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach, stating that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than thirty days after receipt of the notice, and giving the tenant twenty-one days in which to remedy the breach. If the tenant remedies within twenty-one days, the agreement does not terminate.
Two errors follow from misunderstanding that shape. The first is collapsing it to one number — serving a “twenty-one day notice” that terminates on day twenty-one, which understates the tenant’s statutory period by nine days. The second is treating the thirty days as a cure period, and accepting a remedy on day twenty-eight as if it saved the tenancy. Both numbers do separate work, and a compliant Virginia notice states both. Our Virginia eviction notice laws guide sets out the wording and the counting.
Immediate termination is available, but narrowly. Section 55.1-1245 allows a landlord to terminate immediately for criminal activity or for a wilful act that poses a threat to health or safety — no cure period at all. Where that route is used the court hearing is held within fifteen calendar days. It is a genuinely fast track, and correspondingly it is not the route for an untidy garden or an unauthorised pet.
Ending a Periodic Tenancy — and the Rule Your Lease Can Change
Section 55.1-1253 requires thirty days’ notice prior to the next rent due date to end a month-to-month tenancy, and seven days for week-to-week. Both periods run from either side.
Two features are distinctive. First, the month-to-month period applies “unless the rental agreement provides for a different notice period” — so unlike most states, Virginia lets the lease displace the statutory figure. If your agreement says sixty days, sixty days is your period. Second, the notice requirement does not apply where the tenant has failed to pay rent; that situation runs on the fourteen-day route instead.
A sixty-day rule for larger portfolios that almost no competitor mentions. Where a multifamily property owner declines to renew twenty or more month-to-month tenancies, or fifty per cent of them, within a thirty-day window, the required notice becomes sixty days. If you are repositioning a building, converting to fixed terms, or clearing units ahead of a sale or renovation, count your non-renewals before you serve — the threshold is reached faster than owners expect.
See our Virginia lease termination laws guide for worked counting examples.
Entry: the Seventy-Two Hour Maintenance Rule
Section 55.1-1229 sets the general position: except in an emergency, or where it is impractical to do so, the landlord must give the tenant notice of intent to enter and may enter only at reasonable times. The tenant, for their part, must not unreasonably withhold consent to entry to view the premises, carry out necessary or agreed repairs, and the other listed purposes.
The specific figure Virginia supplies is narrower than the general twenty-four hours landlords often assume. For routine maintenance that the tenant did not request, the landlord must give at least seventy-two hours’ notice, and the work must be completed within fourteen days of that notice. That is a longer lead time than most states require, and the fourteen-day completion window is a genuine obligation rather than guidance — a notice served and then not acted on for a month has not been complied with.
In an emergency the landlord may enter without the tenant’s consent. Otherwise the section is closed: the landlord has no other right of access except by court order or under the specific statutory provisions dealing with repairs and abandoned premises. Our Virginia landlord entry laws guide covers the listed purposes.
Security Deposits: Two Months, Forty-Five Days, No Interest
The cap under § 55.1-1226 is two months’ periodic rent — no landlord may demand or receive a deposit, however denominated, in excess of that.
The disposition deadline is forty-five days, and the trigger is worth reading precisely: it runs from the termination date of the tenancy or the date the tenant vacates the dwelling unit, whichever occurs last. A tenant who hands back keys early has not started your clock; a tenant who holds over past the termination date has moved it. Within that window the deposit and any deductions, damages and charges must be itemised by the landlord in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due.
Virginia requires no interest on security deposits — the section contains no interest provision at all. Sources that tell you otherwise are describing either another state or a repealed rule.
The penalty turns on wilfulness, and it includes fees. Where a landlord wilfully fails to comply with the section, the court shall order the return of the security deposit together with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees. Note what that does and does not say: it is not an automatic doubling, and an honest, documented dispute is not the target. But the attorney-fee exposure means a modest deposit argument can become a disproportionately expensive one, which is the practical reason to hit the forty-five days even when you are confident in your deductions.
Our Virginia security deposit laws guide covers the permitted deductions.
Which Virginia Form Do I Need?
- The tenant has not paid rent. Fourteen days after written notice under § 55.1-1245 — not five. Confirm the tenancy is governed by the VRLTA before you count.
- The tenant has breached the agreement in some other material way. The two-number notice: twenty-one days to remedy, terminating not less than thirty days after receipt.
- There is criminal activity, or a wilful act threatening health or safety. Immediate termination, with the hearing within fifteen calendar days.
- Nobody is at fault and the tenancy should end. Thirty days before the next rent due date — unless your lease sets a different period, in which case follow the lease.
- You are not renewing a large number of month-to-month tenancies. Twenty or more, or fifty per cent, inside thirty days makes it sixty days’ notice.
- You need to get into the property. Notice of intent at a reasonable time; seventy-two hours if it is routine maintenance the tenant did not ask for, with the work done inside fourteen days.
- The tenant has moved out. Forty-five days from the later of termination and vacating, with a written itemisation.
- The notice period has run. The action is an unlawful detainer in the General District Court for the locality.
How to Fill Out a Virginia Fourteen-Day Notice
- Confirm the VRLTA governs the tenancy. If it does not, a different chapter and a different period may apply. This is the first question, not an afterthought.
- Set the period to fourteen days. If your template says five, change the heading and the body — a document headed “Five-Day Notice” that gives fourteen days in the text invites an argument you do not need.
- Name every tenant on the rental agreement, and identify the premises exactly as the agreement does.
- State the rent owed as a figure and the period it covers. If you are claiming late charges or other sums recoverable under the agreement, itemise them rather than rolling them into one number.
- State the consequence — that the rental agreement terminates if the rent is not paid in full within the period.
- Give the end date rather than leaving the tenant to count fourteen days themselves.
- Record how and when it was served. The period runs from written notice, so the service record anchors your earliest filing date.
- Diarise the filing date — nine days later than it used to be. This is where landlords with long-standing processes will trip through 2026.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
A defect that shortens a tenant’s statutory period is the serious one, and in Virginia right now the commonest version of it is not carelessness but obsolescence. A stored five-day template produces a notice short by nine days, and a short notice goes to the landlord’s right to bring the unlawful detainer at all. The same applies to collapsing the cure notice to a single twenty-one day period.
A defect that lengthens a period, or gives the tenant more information than the statute requires, generally works in the tenant’s favour and creates no problem for the landlord. Errors of identity sit in between: a misspelled name or transposed unit number can usually be cured where it is obvious who and what was meant, but it hands the tenant an argument and costs a hearing.
The specifically Virginian trap is reading the wrong version of the statute. The official code site publishes future versions of § 55.1-1245 alongside the current one, and a landlord who lands on the version effective in July 2027 will come away believing they owe a payment plan they do not yet owe — or, reading in the other direction, may miss the amendment that is already in force. Check the effective-date heading before you rely on any Virginia section.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. Virginia landlords also commonly want a rental application, a sublease or assignment agreement, a rent receipt, and an abandoned-property notice. Those are not yet published as Virginia-specific forms.
We have also declined to publish court form numbers, filing fees and any late-fee or grace-period figure for Virginia, because we could not confirm them from a primary source when this page was verified. The clerk of the General District Court for your locality is the right place to confirm the first two. We have likewise not set out the contents of § 55.1-1415 beyond its heading, because we read only the heading.
Common Virginia Landlord Form Mistakes
- Serving a five-day pay-or-quit on a VRLTA tenancy. The period became fourteen days on 1 July 2026.
- Filing on the old calendar. The earliest filing date moved out by nine days.
- Collapsing the cure notice to one number. It is twenty-one days to remedy and termination not less than thirty days after receipt.
- Treating the thirty days as the cure period. The cure window is twenty-one.
- Using immediate termination for an ordinary breach. It is confined to criminal activity and wilful health-and-safety threats.
- Ignoring your own lease on month-to-month notice. Section 55.1-1253 lets the agreement set a different period.
- Missing the sixty-day multifamily rule when declining to renew twenty or more, or half, of your month-to-month tenancies inside thirty days.
- Assuming twenty-four hours for entry. Routine maintenance the tenant did not request needs seventy-two, and the work must be done within fourteen days.
- Starting the deposit clock at the termination date. It is the later of that and the date the tenant vacates.
- Paying interest on a deposit. Virginia does not require it.
- Reading a future version of § 55.1-1245 and applying a payment-plan duty that does not begin until July 2027.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid Virginia Form Sites
The Virginia results are dominated by subscription form packages and template funnels, with the deepest ranking page a paid landlord-tenant forms product. The membership-walled association directory lists about a dozen Virginia form titles with no Virginia law on the page at all.
On this query in particular, currency beats length. A page written before July 2026 that still describes the five-day notice as the rule is not merely dated — it will produce a defective notice for anyone who follows it. Every deadline on this page was checked against the effective-dated version of the statute in force today, which is a distinction the Virginia Code site makes and most secondary writers miss.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a finished PDF. There is no account, no trial, and no upsell attached to the documents themselves. What we ask in return is straightforward: if you are about to hand keys to someone, run the screening first, because nearly every dispute described on this page is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
Virginia Landlord Forms: FAQ
How many days is a Virginia pay-or-quit notice?
Fourteen days after written notice under § 55.1-1245, for a tenancy governed by the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. The period changed from five days to fourteen on 1 July 2026 under Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 15. A five-day notice served on a VRLTA tenancy today is short.
Does Virginia still have a five-day rent notice?
Not under the VRLTA. A five-day provision does survive outside it — § 55.1-1415, in Chapter 14 of Title 55.1, is headed “Failure to pay certain rents after five days’ notice forfeits right of possession”. Establish which chapter governs the tenancy before choosing a period, and take advice if it is unclear.
What is the Virginia notice period for a lease violation?
A two-number notice under § 55.1-1245: the tenant has twenty-one days to remedy the breach, and the rental agreement terminates on a date not less than thirty days after receipt of the notice. Both figures must appear; if the tenant remedies within twenty-one days the agreement does not terminate.
Can a Virginia landlord terminate immediately?
Yes, but narrowly. Section 55.1-1245 permits immediate termination for criminal activity or for a wilful act that poses a threat to health or safety, with no cure period. Where that route is used the court hearing is held within fifteen calendar days.
How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in Virginia?
Thirty days prior to the next rent due date under § 55.1-1253, from either side — unless the rental agreement provides for a different notice period, which Virginia expressly permits. Week-to-week takes seven days. The requirement does not apply where the tenant has failed to pay rent.
Is there a sixty-day rule for Virginia landlords?
Yes, for larger portfolios. A multifamily property owner who declines to renew twenty or more month-to-month tenancies, or fifty per cent of them, within a thirty-day period must give sixty days’ notice.
How much notice must a Virginia landlord give before entering?
Under § 55.1-1229 the landlord must give notice of intent to enter and may enter only at reasonable times, except in an emergency or where it is impractical. For routine maintenance the tenant did not request, at least seventy-two hours’ notice is required and the work must be completed within fourteen days.
What is the Virginia security deposit cap?
Two months’ periodic rent. No landlord may demand or receive a security deposit, however denominated, in excess of that amount, under § 55.1-1226.
How long does a Virginia landlord have to return a deposit?
Forty-five days after the termination date of the tenancy or the date the tenant vacates, whichever occurs last. The deposit and any deductions, damages and charges must be itemised in a written notice given to the tenant together with any amount due.
Does Virginia require interest on security deposits?
No. Section 55.1-1226 contains no provision requiring a landlord to pay interest on a security deposit.
What is the penalty if a Virginia landlord keeps a deposit?
Where the landlord wilfully fails to comply with § 55.1-1226 the court shall order return of the deposit together with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees. It is not an automatic doubling, but the attorney-fee exposure can make a small dispute expensive.
Will Virginia require landlords to offer payment plans?
From 1 July 2027, under a later version of § 55.1-1245, a landlord owning five or more units will have to offer a payment plan where the rent owed is not more than one month’s rent — equal monthly instalments over the lesser of six months or the time remaining under the agreement. That duty is not in force today.
Related Virginia Guides
- Virginia landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- Virginia eviction notice laws — the fourteen-day rule and the 21/30 split.
- Virginia security deposit laws — the forty-five day disposition.
- Virginia lease termination laws — periodic tenancies and the sixty-day rule.
- Virginia breaking lease laws — early termination and mitigation.
- Virginia rent increase laws — why Virginia has no statewide rent control.
- Virginia late fee laws — late charges and what the VRLTA regulates.
- Virginia landlord entry laws — the seventy-two hour maintenance rule.
- Virginia habitability laws — the landlord’s repairing duties.
- Virginia pet and ESA laws — pet deposits and assistance animals.
- Virginia tenant screening laws — background checks and adverse action.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. For this page we worked from the Virginia Code on the Commonwealth’s own site, and we checked the effective-date heading on every section — because the code publishes future versions of § 55.1-1245 alongside the current one, and because most Virginia form packs still describe a five-day notice the General Assembly replaced on 1 July 2026.
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Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about Virginia landlord-tenant law, not legal advice. Virginia changed its pay-or-quit period on 1 July 2026, a further amendment to § 55.1-1245 takes effect on 1 July 2027, and a separate five-day provision applies to tenancies outside the VRLTA. We have deliberately omitted court form numbers and filing fees we could not verify from a primary source. Confirm the current requirements with the clerk of the General District Court for your locality or with a Virginia attorney before you serve a notice or file a case.
