Is there a security deposit limit in West Virginia?

No. West Virginia sets no statutory maximum on a residential security deposit. W. Va. Code 37-6A-1 through 37-6A-6 are the whole of the Residential Rental Security Deposits article and none of them limits the amount - not a number of months, not a fixed sum, not a formula. The widely repeated claim that West Virginia caps the deposit at one month's rent has no source in West Virginia law.

How long does a West Virginia landlord have to return a security deposit?

Not a flat sixty days. W. Va. Code 37-6A-1(7) defines the applicable notice period as the shorter of sixty days from the termination of the tenancy or forty-five days from the occupation of the premises by a subsequent tenant. A landlord who re-lets quickly is therefore on the forty-five day clock. Within that period the deposit less deductions must be delivered with a written itemization under 37-6A-2(a).

Can a West Virginia landlord take extra time to itemize deposit deductions?

Only on a condition most sources omit. W. Va. Code 37-6A-2(c) gives an additional fifteen days to provide the itemization of damages and cost of repair, but only where the damages exceed the amount of the deposit, the repair requires the services of a third party contractor, and the landlord gave the tenant written notice of that fact within the applicable notice period. Missing the written notice forfeits the extension.

What happens if a West Virginia landlord wrongfully keeps a deposit?

W. Va. Code 37-6A-5 applies where the landlord's noncompliance is wilful or not in good faith. The tenant is then entitled to judgment for the amount of any unreturned deposit and, for annoyance or inconvenience, an amount equal to one and one-half times the amount wrongfully withheld - not double. Where the tenant owes rent the court credits the award against the rent due. Jurisdiction is magistrate court or circuit court in the county where the premises are located.

Is a pet fee a security deposit in West Virginia?

It is, unless the parties say otherwise in writing. W. Va. Code 37-6A-1(14) excludes a pet fee or an application fee from the definition of security deposit only, in the statute's own words, provided that the parties expressly agree in writing that the fee is nonrefundable. Without that written agreement the fee is a security deposit and every article 6A duty attaches to it. The same definition excludes prepaid rent from the deposit entirely.

How much notice must a West Virginia landlord give before entering?

None by statute, because West Virginia has no landlord-entry statute at all. All thirty-one sections of W. Va. Code chapter 37 article 6, all six of article 6A and all of chapter 55 articles 3, 3A, 3B and 3C were read individually to establish it. The only statutory right of entry touching a rented dwelling belongs to a cable operator under 24D-2-6. Any notice before entry exists only because the lease creates it.

Does West Virginia have a warranty of habitability?

Yes, and it comes from two places at once. W. Va. Code 37-6-30 imposes seven statutory duties on a residential landlord. Separately, in Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367, 253 S.E.2d 114 (1978), the Supreme Court of Appeals implied a warranty of habitability into every written or oral residential lease, held that the covenant to pay rent and the warranty are mutually dependent, made breach a defence to unlawful detainer, and held that a waiver of the warranty is void as against public policy.

Can a West Virginia tenant repair and deduct?

No. West Virginia has no repair-and-deduct remedy. The certified question in Teller v. McCoy asked precisely whether a tenant may repair a defect and deduct the cost from rent, and the Court declined to adopt the remedy, holding the ordinary contract remedies adequate. No statute supplies it either. A West Virginia tenant's remedies are rent abatement, damages, termination and the habitability defence to a possession action.

Does a West Virginia landlord have to make repairs if the rent is late?

Not under the statute. W. Va. Code 37-6-30(c) provides that none of the provisions of that section shall be deemed to require the landlord to make repairs when the tenant is in arrears in payment of rent. It is a real limit on the statutory duty and it appears in no ranking page. It limits the section; it does not by its terms cancel duties the lease itself creates.

How much notice ends a West Virginia month-to-month tenancy?

One full rental period, not thirty days as such. W. Va. Code 37-6-5 allows a periodic tenancy of less than a year to be ended by notice for one full period before the end of any period, and requires three months to end a tenancy from year to year. Critically the section does not apply where, by special agreement, some other period of notice is fixed or no notice is to be given - so the lease can set the period, and this generator lets you do it.

What notice comes before a West Virginia eviction for nonpayment?

None by statute. W. Va. Code chapter 55 article 3A prescribes no pre-suit notice to quit for nonpayment and no statutory cure period. The landlord files a verified petition under 55-3A-1 and the court schedules a hearing not less than five nor more than ten judicial days later. The one-month posted notice in 37-6-6 is an abandonment procedure, not a pay-or-quit notice.

Does West Virginia protect tenants against retaliation?

Yes, but through case law rather than a statute. In Imperial Colliery Co. v. Fout, 179 W. Va. 776, 373 S.E.2d 489 (1988), the Supreme Court of Appeals held that retaliation may be asserted as a defence to a summary eviction under 55-3A-1 et seq. if the landlord's conduct is in retaliation for the tenant's exercise of a right incidental to the tenancy. Section 37-15-7, which some sources cite, is a codified retaliation ban that applies only to factory-built home sites.

What happens to property a West Virginia tenant leaves behind?

It depends which route the landlord is on. After abandonment with rent in arrears, 37-6-6 requires a posted notice giving one month to pay, then a written disposal notice both posted and mailed with a certificate of mailing to three addresses, allowing not less than thirty days to remove the property - or sixty days for a tenant on active duty. After a possession order, 55-3A-3(h) allows disposal after thirty days. Under both routes, property worth more than three hundred dollars attracts up to thirty additional days of storage if the tenant or a secured party gives notice of intent and pays the costs.

What happens to a West Virginia lease when the tenant dies?

W. Va. Code 37-6-11(b) lets an heir, personal representative, devisee or assignee of a deceased residential lessee terminate the lease early, effective on the last day of the calendar month that is two months after notice is hand-delivered or postmarked. The right may not be waived by anyone, by contract or otherwise, and any lease provision requiring a longer notice period is void and unenforceable. It applies to leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2012.

Which disclosures does West Virginia require in a residential lease?

None under state law. Neither chapter 37 article 6 nor article 6A contains a disclosure section, and all thirty-seven sections of the two articles were read individually to establish it. Federal law adds the lead-based paint disclosure for target housing built before 1978 under 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 C.F.R. 745.113. The one West Virginia writing requirement that behaves like a disclosure is the nonrefundable-fee designation in 37-6A-1(14).

Who is liable for a West Virginia tenant's unpaid water and sewer bill?

It turns on who bills the service. Where a municipality supplies water or sewer, 8-19-12a(b) and 8-20-10(c) both provide that an owner is not liable and no lien attaches for a tenant's delinquent charges unless the owner contracted directly with the municipality. Where a sewage works under chapter 16 article 13 supplies it, there is no such proviso: 16-13-16(a) makes the rates payable by the owner and 16-13-16a(e) makes unpaid charges a lien on the premises with a ten per cent penalty and a reasonable attorney's fee.

Does a West Virginia lease need to be notarized or witnessed?

No. Nothing in West Virginia law requires a residential lease to be witnessed or notarized. W. Va. Code 36-1-3 provides that no contract for the lease of land for more than one year is enforceable unless the contract, or some note or memorandum of it, is in writing and signed by the party to be charged, so a lease of one year or less may be oral - though a written lease is strongly preferred in a state where the statute is silent on so many terms.

How long does a West Virginia tenant have to move out after judgment?

There is no fixed number. Section 55-3A-3(f) requires the court order to specify the time to vacate, taking into account the nature of the property, the possibility of relative harm to the parties and other material facts. If the tenant stays past it, the sheriff removes the tenant.

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Free West Virginia Residential Lease Agreement

West Virginia residential lease agreement walk-through

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A configurable West Virginia residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to W. Va. Code 37-6 and 37-6A and to the case law that supplies the rest — no deposit cap, a return clock that is the shorter of sixty or forty-five days, and no entry statute at all.

West Virginia W. Va. Code 37-6 & 37-6A Case Law Verified Free PDF 2026 Edition

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Scope West Virginia ~18 min read

A West Virginia residential lease agreement is governed by something most states do not have: no uniform act at all. West Virginia never adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. What it has instead is four sources that have to be read together — W. Va. Code chapter 37 article 6, a nineteenth-century Landlord and Tenant article of thirty-one sections into which a single modern habitability section was inserted in 1978; chapter 37 article 6A, a six-section security deposit article; chapter 55 article 3A, the summary possession procedure; and decided case law, which is where the tenant’s two most important rights actually live. The implied warranty of habitability comes from Teller v. McCoy and the retaliatory-eviction defence comes from Imperial Colliery Co. v. Fout. A page that recites only chapter 37 article 6 is not just thin — it is wrong about what a West Virginia tenant can do and wrong about what a West Virginia landlord owes. This page labels every rule below as STATUTE or CASE LAW on its face, because in West Virginia the distinction changes the answer.

West Virginia Lease Rules at a Glance

Security Deposit Cap

None

Deposit Return

60 or 45 Days*

Entry Notice

No Statute

Repair & Deduct

Does Not Exist

*The West Virginia deposit clock is not a flat sixty days, and this is the single most common error about this state. W. Va. Code 37-6A-1(7) defines the applicable “notice period” as (A) within sixty days of the termination of the tenancy, or (B) within forty-five days of the occupation of the premises by a subsequent tenant, whichever time period is shorter. A landlord who re-lets the unit two weeks after move-out is on the forty-five day clock measured from the new tenant’s occupancy, not the sixty day one. Every ranking page we examined prints sixty days flat.

The Official West Virginia Codification Prints “[Repealed.]” for Sections That Are Still in Force Somewhere Else

This is a real trap and it caught two of the sections this page needs. On the Legislature’s own site, every section of chapter 5 article 11 (Human Rights Commission), chapter 5 article 11A (the West Virginia Fair Housing Act) and chapter 29 article 3 (the Fire Prevention and Control Act) renders as the single word “[Repealed.]” — including 5-11-1, which is nothing but a short title, while the site’s own table of contents still lists all of them under their full section headings. A commercial mirror reproduces the same empty body for 29-3-16a, and the other large mirror serves a stale article index rather than section text. The repeals are genuine, but the pages are useless as an answer: the Human Rights Act was re-enacted at 16B-17, the Fair Housing Act at 16B-18, and the smoke and carbon monoxide detector section at 15A-10-12 when the State Fire Marshal and the State Fire Commission moved into chapter 15A. Every ranking page that cites 5-11-1 for West Virginia fair housing, or 29-3-16a for detectors, is citing a repealed article. The successor text was read in each case and is what this page states. Chapter 37 and chapter 55 render correctly and were used directly, section by section.

How the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Sessions Were Swept — and Why the Legislature’s Own Section Histories Cannot Be Trusted for It

Two of the sections this page depends on were amended within the last thirteen months, so currency was proved rather than assumed. Every bill on the Completed Legislation list for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Regular Sessions was resolved to its enrolled document and its enacting clause matched against the citations used here — 279 completed bills in 2024, 249 in 2025 and 306 in 2026, 834 in total, with no fetch failures, plus the special sessions. Six enacted acts touch this subject matter: SB 300 (2024, effective 8 February 2024) repealed chapter 5 articles 11 and 11A and re-enacted them as 16B-17 and 16B-18; HB 4940 (2024, effective 4 June 2024) added 37-6-31 and created 55-3C-1 and 55-3C-2; SB 587 (2024) amended 15A-11-8; HB 3272 (2025, Chapter 1, effective 11 July 2025) amended 55-3A-1; HB 2434 (2025, effective 10 July 2025) built out the Stop Squatters Act at 55-3C-3 through 55-3C-6; and HB 3080 (2025) amended 16B-17-9. No act of any of the three sessions touched 37-6-5, 37-6-6, 37-6-11, 37-6-30, 37-6A-1 through 37-6A-6, 55-3A-2 or 55-3A-3. The enrolled text of HB 3272 was compared word for word against the codified section — five to ten judicial days, five days for the tenant’s written defence — which is positive proof that the codification of chapter 55 article 3A is current, not merely an absence of evidence that it is stale.

Two bills that read like law are not law. The Legislature’s own per-section Bill History pages make 37-6-5 and 55-3A-1 look freshly amended in 2026. They were not: 2026 HB 4570, which would have amended 37-6-5, passed the House only, and 2026 SB 799, which would have amended 55-3A-1, passed the Senate only. Both died in the opposite chamber. West Virginia’s “Code Affected” metadata is also frozen at a bill’s introduced version and is never corrected for a committee substitute — which is why HB 2434, the act that actually built out the squatter article, is invisible in every metadata-driven view of it. A section-history entry records that a bill referenced a section. It is not proof that the section changed, and it is not proof that the section is current.

How to Fill Out This West Virginia Lease Agreement

The Eight-Step West Virginia Sequence

1. Name the parties, the managing agent and a records address

West Virginia requires no landlord identification disclosure. But W. Va. Code 37-6A-1(5) defines “landlord” to include a managing agent who fails to disclose the name of the owner or lessor, so naming the owner protects the agent. And 37-6A-3 requires deposit deduction records to be kept for a year and inspected or copied within seventy-two hours of a written request, so the lease should say where.

2. Describe the premises and say whether it is a multiple housing unit

Two of the seven landlord duties in 37-6-30 apply only to a “multiple housing unit” as 37-6-30(d) defines it: keeping common areas clean, safe and in repair, and providing conveniences for the removal of ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste. The generated lease states the correct duty set rather than reciting all seven regardless.

3. Set the term, and set the termination notice on purpose

W. Va. Code 37-6-5 is a default, not a floor. Three months ends a year-to-year tenancy; one full period ends a shorter periodic tenancy. But the section says in terms that it “shall not apply where, by special agreement, some other period of notice is fixed, or no notice is to be given”. The form lets you fix thirty or sixty days instead, and says which choice you made.

4. Set rent and any late fee, and know where the authority comes from

West Virginia caps no residential late fee and grants no grace period. The only statutory reference to a late charge is 37-6A-2(b)(1), which lets the deposit be applied to “the reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement”. A fee not written here cannot come out of the deposit at all.

5. Set the deposit, and designate any nonrefundable fee in writing

There is no cap to worry about. The trap is 37-6A-1(14): a pet fee or an application fee is a security deposit unless the parties expressly agree in writing that it is nonrefundable. Ticking the designation box makes the generated lease that written agreement. Leaving it unticked is also a decision, and the lease says so.

6. Allocate water and sewer, and record who bills it

This is the West Virginia question no template asks. Under 8-19-12a and 8-20-10 a municipality’s lien does not reach the owner for a tenant’s delinquent charges unless the owner contracted directly. Under 16-13-16a a sewage works has no such proviso and the charges become a lien on the premises with a ten per cent penalty and a reasonable attorney’s fee.

7. Create the entry notice yourself, because no statute does

West Virginia has no landlord-entry statute of any kind, and this page proves the negative rather than assuming it. Whatever notice the tenant gets before entry exists only because the lease creates it, which makes an express entry clause a required election here rather than boilerplate.

8. Decide the casualty election, then generate and sign

Sections 37-6-28 and 37-6-29 abate rent when the buildings are destroyed and when the land is taken by eminent domain — each “unless the lease otherwise provides”. A generic clause can silently give both away. Choose, then download the PDF and sign. West Virginia requires no witnesses and no notary.

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