Free Virginia Abandoned Property Notice

An abandoned property notice is the written notice that lets a landlord dispose of belongings a tenant left behind. Virginia’s version is unusual twice over. First, the clock is among the shortest anywhere: Va. Code § 55.1-1254 works in a 24-hour window rather than the weeks or months most states allow. Second, and more important in practice, Virginia does not have a free-standing abandoned property notice at all. The disposal right is conditional on a statement that has to sit inside one of three other notices — two of which have to be in place before the tenancy ends, with a separate written notice available afterwards. Get the statement into the right notice and the 24 hours runs. Leave it out and the landlord has no route to disposal, however long the goods sit there.

Fill in the fields below and the generator produces a dated notice of intent to dispose of personal property you can print, sign, serve and keep a copy of. Nothing is stored and there is no charge. Fields you leave blank print as a dash so you can complete them by hand.

Watch: Free Virginia Abandoned Property Notice — Fillable PDF explained

▶ Watch overview

Because Virginia’s disposal right is unlocked by a statement rather than by a waiting period, the document a landlord actually needs is not a stand-alone notice served after the tenant has gone — it is a clause that was already in the notice that ended the tenancy. That is why the generator above asks which route is being used before it prints a window, and why it prints one window rather than listing all three: a notice naming the wrong period has misstated the tenant’s own deadline on the face of the document, and there is no route in the statute for a notice that hedges. Route (iii) exists precisely for the case where nothing was set up in advance, and it is the one to reach for when the tenancy is already over and the termination notice said nothing about belongings. Two further points belong on the page rather than in the form. Virginia does not require the landlord to sell, to advertise, to appraise or to hold a public auction — and Virginia does not let the landlord keep the proceeds if there is a sale. Both facts follow from the same short paragraph of § 55.1-1254.

• The tenant’s name and the address of the dwelling unit, including any unit number.
• The landlord’s name and the address or agent for the tenant to respond to.
• The disposal statement itself — that any items of personal property left in the dwelling unit, the premises, or the storage area would be disposed of within the window that belongs to the route being used — § 55.1-1254(i), (ii) or (iii). Without it, no route opens.
• One window, correctly matched to the route: 24 hours after termination; 24 hours after expiration of the seven-day notice period; or 24 hours after expiration of a 10-day period from the date the notice was given.
• Where route (iii) is used, the date the notice was given, because the 10-day period is measured from it.
• A statement of the tenant’s right to remove the property “at reasonable times” during the window — the access right § 55.1-1254 protects with injunctive relief.
• For a deceased sole tenant, the § 55.1-1256 notice instead: at least 10 days’ written notice to the authorized contact person identified in the rental application, lease or other landlord document, or to the tenant under § 55.1-1202 if none is identified, stating that the property would be treated as abandoned and disposed of in accordance with § 55.1-1254 if not claimed within 10 days.
• Delivery in accordance with § 55.1-1202 — service at the tenant’s last known place of residence, which may be the dwelling unit; electronic form only if the rental agreement provides for it and with proof of delivery retained.
• The date of the notice and the signature of the landlord or agent.
• Kept with the notice rather than inside it: a dated inventory and photographs of what was left behind. The statute requires no inventory, but the 24-hour window leaves very little room to reconstruct the facts afterwards.

• Printing the 30-day sheriff’s storage rule. § 8.01-156 does set a 30-day period and a publicly advertised public sale — and § 55.1-1255 opens “Notwithstanding the provisions of § 8.01-156,” displacing it for residential tenancies. It is not Virginia’s landlord-tenant rule and must never be quoted as one.
• Serving a stand-alone notice after the tenant has already gone, and treating 24 hours as the whole answer. The 24-hour route only exists where an earlier notice carried the statement. Starting from scratch means route (iii): a separate written notice, a 10-day period, then 24 hours.
• Using § 55.1-1254 after an executed writ. The section says in terms that it “shall not be applicable” once an order of possession has been granted and a writ executed under § 8.01-470. § 55.1-1255 governs, and the sheriff carries the notice duty.
• Disposing before both limbs of the trigger are satisfied. § 55.1-1254 applies only “after the rental agreement has terminated and delivery of possession has occurred.” It is not a licence to clear out a sitting tenant’s belongings.
• Treating a seven-day absence as automatic abandonment. § 55.1-1249’s presumption is expressly rebuttable, and the section says that if the tenant gives written notice of intent to remain, or the landlord otherwise determines the tenant remains in occupancy, “the landlord shall not treat the premises as having been abandoned.”
• Keeping the sale proceeds. § 55.1-1254 requires the landlord to “pay such funds to the account of the tenant,” apply them to what is owed, and treat any remainder as a security deposit under § 55.1-1226 — which carries a 45-day itemized disposition and, if unclaimed, escheat to the State Treasurer after a year.
• Denying access during the window. The tenant’s right to remove property at reasonable times is statutory and backed by “injunctive or other relief.” The risk-of-loss shield in the same paragraph is a liability rule, not permission to lock the tenant out.
• Carrying the nonresidential rule across. § 55.1-1414’s 10 days for a monthly tenant and one month for a yearly tenant belong to nonresidential tenancies, and that section is about possession of the premises rather than disposal of goods.
• Writing a waiver into the lease. § 55.1-1208(A)(1) prohibits a rental agreement provision that the tenant “agrees to waive or forgo rights or remedies under this chapter,” and (B) makes any such provision unenforceable.

Twenty-four hours — and the window only exists because an earlier notice said it would. Va. Code § 55.1-1254 provides that where items of personal property are left in the dwelling unit, the premises or any storage area provided by the landlord “after the rental agreement has terminated and delivery of possession has occurred, the landlord may consider such property to be abandoned,” and may dispose of it “as the landlord sees fit or appropriate.” There is no “reasonable time” standard in the section and no long storage duty anywhere in it.

What there is, instead, is a proviso with three alternatives, and each alternative names its own window. Route (i) runs 24 hours from termination and depends on the termination notice having included the disposal statement. Route (ii) is keyed to a § 55.1-1249 notice and runs 24 hours after the seven-day notice period expires. Route (iii) is a separate written notice, a 10-day period measured from the date it was given, and then 24 hours — eleven days end to end, and the only route that can be started after the fact.

So the honest way to state Virginia’s period is this: the storage obligation is 24 hours, but the process can be as long as eleven days depending on which notice the landlord has. Read the trigger precisely too. Both limbs must be satisfied — the agreement terminated and delivery of possession occurred. A tenant who is still in possession is not covered by this section at all.

No, and this is the wrong number most likely to reach a Virginia landlord. Va. Code § 8.01-156 is the general statute on a sheriff’s removal of personal property from premises, and it does contain a 30-day period: an owner who fails to pay removal and storage costs “within 30 days from the date of placing the property in storage” may have it disposed of “by publicly advertised public sale.” It is a real statute and it is easy to find.

It is also displaced. § 55.1-1255 begins “Notwithstanding the provisions of § 8.01-156” and then legislates a completely different regime for a residential eviction; the nonresidential twin, § 55.1-1416, does the same. So neither the 30 days nor the advertised public sale is Virginia’s landlord-tenant rule, in either sector. Printing them as such is not a rounding error — it tells a landlord to hold goods for a month they are entitled to clear in a day, and tells a tenant they have four weeks when they have one.

It goes to the public way, unless the landlord asks for it to go into storage — and the sheriff, not the landlord, gives the notice. Once an order of possession has been granted under Title 8.01 and a writ of eviction executed under § 8.01-470, § 55.1-1254 “shall not be applicable” and § 55.1-1255 governs. Under it “the sheriff shall oversee the removal of such personal property to be placed into the public way,” and “the tenant shall have the right to remove his personal property from the public way during the 24-hour period after eviction.” When that period ends, “the landlord shall remove, or dispose of, any such personal property remaining in the public way.”

The alternative is at the landlord’s option: “At the landlord’s request, any personal property removed pursuant to this section shall be placed into a storage area designated by the landlord, which may be the dwelling unit.” The tenant keeps a right of reasonable access to that area during the 24 hours after eviction and until disposal. Anything left in the landlord’s storage area when the 24 hours expires “may be disposed of by the landlord as the landlord sees fit or appropriate.”

The notice duty is the part landlords most often assume is theirs. It is not. § 55.1-1255 requires that the notice the sheriff posts with the writ “shall provide notice to the tenant of the rights afforded to tenants in this section and shall include a copy of this statute attached to, or made a part of, the notice.” § 8.01-470 fixes the timing: the officer must, “at least 72 hours before execution, serve notice of intent to execute, including the date and time of execution, as well as the rights afforded to tenants in §§ 55.1-1255 and 55.1-1416.” The same section sets the writ’s own calendar — execution should occur within 15 calendar days of the sheriff receiving the writ and in no event later than 30 days from issue, and an order of possession “shall remain valid for 180 days.” Those are writ deadlines, not storage periods, and they should never be quoted as the latter. Our Virginia eviction notice laws guide covers what comes before the writ.

Under § 55.1-1202, and the address rule is more forgiving than most states’. § 55.1-1254 sends every notice through one section: “Any written notice to the tenant shall be given in accordance with § 55.1-1202.” That section provides that “in the case of the tenant, notice is served at the tenant’s last known place of residence, which may be the dwelling unit.”

Read the last clause. The unit the tenant has just left can itself be the address of service. Virginia does not require a landlord to chase down a forwarding address before disposing of property. A forwarding address does matter in Virginia, but for the security deposit under § 55.1-1226, which is a separate obligation on a separate clock — see our Virginia security deposit laws guide.

Electronic delivery is permitted on conditions. § 55.1-1202(A): “If the rental agreement so provides, the landlord and tenant may send notices in electronic form; however, any tenant who so requests may elect to send and receive notices in paper form.” Where electronic delivery is used the sender “shall retain sufficient proof of the electronic delivery,” which may be an electronic receipt, a fax confirmation, or a certificate of service prepared by the sender. Two conditions, then: the lease has to allow it, and the tenant can opt out of it. One currency note belongs here as well — § 55.1-1202 is one of the sections the Commonwealth publishes in two versions, the second effective July 1, 2027. Because § 55.1-1254 incorporates it by reference, a Virginia notice built on today’s rule should be re-checked after that date.

No. Virginia sets no value threshold of any kind. There is no dollar figure, no fair-market-value test and no de minimis rule anywhere in §§ 55.1-1254, 55.1-1255, 55.1-1256 or 55.1-1416. The operative words are simply that the landlord “may dispose of the property so abandoned as the landlord sees fit or appropriate.”

That cuts both ways, and it is worth saying plainly rather than presenting the absence as generosity. Value never expands a Virginia landlord’s rights, because there is nothing to expand: what unlocks disposal is notice plus the expiry of the window, full stop. But value never protects the tenant either. A Virginia landlord who has given a compliant notice may lawfully dispose of valuable property once the window closes, and the statute imposes no duty to appraise it, store it longer because it is worth more, or sell it rather than discard it.

The landlord may sell — and may not keep the surplus. Selling is one permitted form of disposing “as the landlord sees fit or appropriate.” Nothing in § 55.1-1254 requires a sale, an appraisal, an advertisement or a public auction, and nothing requires the landlord to maximise value. The proceeds paragraph is conditional on its own face — it begins “If the landlord received any funds from any sale” — so a landlord who simply discards the goods never engages it.

Where there is a sale, the money is directed: the landlord “shall pay such funds to the account of the tenant and apply the funds to any amounts due the landlord by the tenant, including the reasonable costs incurred by the landlord in selling, storing, or safekeeping such property. If any such funds are remaining after application, the remaining funds shall be treated as a security deposit under the provisions of § 55.1-1226.” § 55.1-1255 states the same rule on the writ track, widening the deductible costs to include the reasonable costs of the eviction process itself.

Being treated as a security deposit is not a formality. It imports § 55.1-1226’s machinery: disposition itemized in a written notice to the tenant within 45 days after the later of the termination date or the date the tenant vacates; application only to accrued rent including contracted late charges, damages from the tenant’s noncompliance less reasonable wear and tear, other charges provided for in the rental agreement, or actual damages; and, where there is no forwarding address, a right to continue holding the balance in escrow and then, “upon the expiration of one year from the date of the end of the 45-day time period,” to remit it to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property. The landlord does not simply keep it.

A lien is not barred — but § 55.1-1254 is a disposal right, not a retention right. The section’s final paragraph is an express savings clause: “Nothing in this section shall affect the right of a landlord to enforce an inchoate or perfected lien of the landlord on the personal property of a tenant in a dwelling unit or on the premises leased to such tenant and the right of a landlord to distress, levy, and seize such personal property as otherwise provided by law.” The identical clause appears in the nonresidential twin at § 55.1-1416.

Read the closing words as the limit they are. “As otherwise provided by law” means the clause preserves a lien and a distress right; it does not create either one, and it does not authorise self-help retention. That machinery lives in Title 8.01, which was outside the statutory record behind this page, so this page states that the rights are saved and deliberately declines to describe how they are perfected or exercised. Anyone relying on them needs Virginia-specific advice on Title 8.01, not a summary drawn from Chapter 12.

Inside the abandoned-property sections themselves there is no retention power at all. The tenant “shall have the right to remove his personal property … at reasonable times during the 24-hour period after termination or at such other reasonable times until the landlord has disposed of the remaining personal property,” and a landlord who fails to allow that access gives the tenant “a right to injunctive or other relief as provided by law.” The risk-of-loss sentence in the same paragraph — “the landlord shall not have any liability for the risk of loss for such personal property” — is a liability shield for the holding period, not a permission to refuse entry. And § 55.1-1252 bars a landlord from recovering possession “by willful diminution of services” or “by refusal to permit the tenant access to the unit unless such refusal is pursuant to a court order for possession.”

A separate section runs first, and it gives 10 days rather than 24 hours. § 55.1-1256 applies where a tenant who is the sole tenant under a written rental agreement and still residing in the dwelling unit dies and there is no person authorized by order of the circuit court to handle probate matters. The landlord may then dispose of the personal property left behind, “however, the landlord shall give at least 10 days’ written notice” to the person identified in the rental application, lease agreement or other landlord document as the authorized contact in the event of the tenant’s death or emergency, or to the tenant in accordance with § 55.1-1202 if no such person is identified.

The contents are prescribed as tightly as in § 55.1-1254: the notice “shall include a statement that any items of personal property left in the premises would be treated as abandoned property and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of § 55.1-1254, if not claimed within 10 days.” So § 55.1-1256 is a front-end clock rather than a substitute regime — the disposal itself still runs through § 55.1-1254.

Two further rules sit alongside it. Under subsection B the authorized contact person may have access to the dwelling unit and to the tenant records the landlord holds, and may “rightfully claim the personal property of the deceased tenant.” Under subsection C the rental agreement “is deemed to be terminated by the landlord as of the date of death” and the landlord “shall not be required to seek an order of possession,” with the estate remaining liable for actual damages and the landlord obliged to mitigate them. Authorized occupants, guests and invitees may not stay on and must vacate before the 10-day period ends.

No — and a great many summaries still say there is. Virginia historically split residential tenancies into those governed by the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and those outside it, with different rules attaching. That split is gone. § 55.1-1201(B) now reads: “The provisions of this chapter shall apply to occupancy in all single-family and multifamily dwelling units and multifamily dwelling units located in the Commonwealth.”

What replaced the old carve-out is an enumerated exclusion list in § 55.1-1201(C), and it is about the kind of occupancy rather than the size of the landlord’s portfolio: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counseling or religious services; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in a structure operated for the organization’s benefit; occupancy by an owner of a condominium unit or a holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; occupancy in a campground; occupancy by a tenant who pays no rent; certain employee occupancies; occupancy under a contract of sale; and occupancy in a recovery residence. Subsection D handles transient lodging by reference to primary residence and a 90-day line.

The amendment history is the evidence rather than an inference: the 2017 and 2019 chapters that carried out the recodification are the same chapters that last touched §§ 55.1-1254 and 55.1-1255. So for abandoned property there is now one residential answer — § 55.1-1254, or § 55.1-1255 after an executed writ — subject only to those enumerated exclusions. And the chapter cannot be varied locally: § 55.1-1201(A) states it “may not be waived or otherwise modified, in whole or in part, by the governing body of any locality” and “shall supersede all other local ordinances or regulations concerning landlord and tenant relations.” Our Virginia landlord tenant laws overview covers the wider chapter.

No — and the reason is a list that stops one section short. Virginia’s Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act does not repeat the VRLTA; it imports named pieces of it. § 55.1-1311 sets out which ones, and the incorporated run is “§§ 55.1-1234 through 55.1-1252.” §§ 55.1-1253, 55.1-1254, 55.1-1255 and 55.1-1256 all sit outside that range.

So the 24-hour disposal machinery on this page is not imported into a lot tenancy, even though § 55.1-1249’s abandonment definition — which is inside the imported run — is. The lot act has its own provisions dealing with an abandoned manufactured home and with the right to sell or rent one on eviction. Those were outside the statutory record behind this page and nothing here describes what they require. A landlord or tenant on a manufactured home lot needs that chapter, not this one.

Not for a residential tenancy. For a nonresidential one, the answer is the exact opposite. § 55.1-1208(A) provides that “a rental agreement shall not contain provisions that the tenant: 1. Agrees to waive or forgo rights or remedies under this chapter,” and subsection (B) adds that any such provision “is unenforceable” and that if a landlord brings an action to enforce it “the tenant may recover actual damages sustained by him and reasonable attorney fees.” §§ 55.1-1254, 55.1-1255, 55.1-1249 and 55.1-1256 are all in that chapter, so none of them can be signed away.

Nonresidential tenancies are governed by a different chapter and a different philosophy. § 55.1-1400(B): “The lease or rental agreement controls the landlord-tenant relationship unless such lease or rental agreement is silent, in which case the provisions of this chapter apply,” and the right to evict a commercial tenant whose right of possession has terminated “may be effectuated by self-help eviction without further legal process so long as such eviction does not incite a breach of the peace.” That is the reverse of the residential rule in both respects, and the two must never be merged. The nearby § 55.1-1414, which gives a nonresidential tenant 10 days if a monthly tenant or one month if a yearly tenant, is likewise a commercial provision — and it is about possession of the premises rather than disposal of goods. Where a tenancy is being ended for nonpayment in the first place, our Virginia 5-day notice to pay rent or quit is the document that starts it.

Everything above turns on one question — what happens to the things a tenant leaves behind — and the answer is what it is because Virginia measures the whole thing in hours. The route the tenancy took decides which rule applies, so the notice that ended it and the money still in dispute are governed separately.

Virginia eviction notice laws. Virginia security deposit laws. Virginia landlord tenant laws.

Published by Tenant Screening Background Check

Established 2004 · 20+ Years · All U.S. States & Territories · Statute-Based · Attorney-Reviewed

A Private Eye Reports™ service trusted by landlords, property managers, and attorneys.