West Virginia · Landlord Forms

Free West Virginia Landlord Forms

Every West Virginia landlord form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the code section behind it — and, just as usefully, an honest account of the rules West Virginia does not have, because that is where most published guidance goes 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. West Virginia’s landlord law sits in W. Va. Code chapter 37 article 6, the deposit rules in article 6A, and the eviction procedure — called wrongful occupation — in chapter 55 article 3A. It is one of the thinnest landlord-tenant codes in the country, and that thinness is the story.

No Notice Is Required Before Filing

The same petition covers all three grounds — arrears, breach of a warranty or leasehold covenant, and deliberate or negligent damage. There is no statutory cure period for any of them. A tenant who fixes the problem has no statutory right to stay, though a court weighing the equities is another matter.

See our West Virginia eviction notice laws guide.

Termination: One Period, or Three Months — and the Lease Wins

Section 37-6-5 sets two numbers and then hands control to the parties.

Tenancy	Notice
Year to year	At least three months prior to the end of any year
Periodic, period less than one year	“may be terminated by like notice, or by notice for one full period before the end of any period” — in writing

Service of a termination notice is flexible: “When such notice is to the tenant, it may be served upon him or upon anyone holding under him the leased premises, or any part thereof. When it is by the tenant, it may be served upon anyone who at the time owns the premises in whole or in part, or the agent of such owner, or according to the common law.”

There is no add-days-for-mailing rule in the landlord-tenant statutes. See our West Virginia lease termination laws guide.

Every West Virginia Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy

An alphabetical index is the least useful arrangement, because a landlord arrives knowing what has happened, not what the document is called. These are ordered by where you are in the tenancy.

The Deposit: Two Clocks, Whichever Is Shorter

There is no cap. Article 6A comprises six sections and none sets a maximum, requires interest, or requires a separate or escrow account. Any site asserting a West Virginia deposit cap is describing another state.

Rule	Detail
Permitted deductions — five	“(1) The payment of rent due, including the reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement; (2) The payment of the amount of damages which the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant’s noncompliance with the rental agreement, less reasonable wear and tear; (3) The payment of unpaid utilities that were billed to and paid by the landlord…; (4) The payment of reasonable costs for the removal and storage of the tenant’s personal property…; and (5) To other damages or charges as provided in the rental agreement, including… the services of a third party contractor”
Penalty — and it is conditional	“If a landlord fails to comply…, and such noncompliance is willful or not in good faith, the tenant is entitled to a judgment for: (1) The amount of any unreturned security deposit; and (2) Damages for annoyance or inconvenience… equal to one and a half times the amount wrongfully withheld, unless the tenant owes rent to the landlord, in which case, the court shall order an amount equal to any amount awarded… to be credited against any rent due”
Attorney’s fees — NOT here	The penalty section contains no fee provision. The only fee award in the article is in a different section, and it applies only where “a landlord brings an action to enforce any of the prohibited provisions” — that is, a waiver clause. Sites attaching attorney’s fees to a late deposit return have conflated two sections
Anti-waiver	“A rental agreement may not contain a provision that the tenant agrees to waive or forego rights or remedies under this article. A provision prohibited by this section… is unenforceable.”
Records — one year, 72 hours	The landlord must maintain and itemise deduction records for each tenant for one year after termination, and permit review or provide copies during normal business hours within seventy-two hours of a written request
Successor landlords bound	The holder of the landlord’s interest at termination “shall be required to return any security deposit received by the original landlord that is duly owed to the tenant… regardless of any contractual agreements between the original landlord and his or her successors”
Delivery	Personal delivery, or mail to the tenant’s last known or forwarding address. “It shall be the responsibility of the tenant to provide an accurate address.” Where delivery fails and mail is returned, the landlord holds it for six months, to be delivered in person at the landlord’s place of business within seventy-two hours of a written request

See our West Virginia security deposit laws guide.

Wrongful Occupation: 5 to 10 Judicial Days

Stage	Rule
Where	“magistrate court or the circuit court of the county in which the property is located, by verified petition”, ending in “A prayer for possession of the property”
Hearing — 5 to 10 judicial days	“Upon filing the petition, the court shall schedule a hearing, which may not be less than five nor more than 10 judicial days following the filing of the petition.” Note judicial days — and note it is a window with both a floor and a ceiling. Changed by legislation effective 11 July 2025
Service of the hearing notice	“Immediately upon being apprised of the time and place for hearing the petitioner shall cause a notice of the hearing to be served upon the tenant in accordance with the provisions of Rule 4 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure or by certified mail, return receipt requested.” The petition and proof of service are then filed with the court
The tenant’s five days	The notice must tell the tenant that any written defence “may be filed and served upon the petitioner within five days of the receipt by the tenant of the notice” — running from receipt, not from mailing
Defences	“a tenant against whom a petition has been brought may assert any and all defenses which might be raised in an action for ejectment or an action for unlawful detainer”
No appearance	“If at the time of the hearing there has been no appearance, answer or other responsive pleading filed by the tenant, the court shall make and enter an order granting immediate possession”
Continuances	“Continuances… shall be for cause only and the judge or magistrate shall not grant a continuance to either party as a matter of right. If a continuance is granted upon request by a tenant, the tenant shall be required to pay into court any periodic rent becoming due”
The move-out date is the judge’s	“The court order shall specify the time when the tenant shall vacate the property, taking into consideration such factors as the nature of the property (i.e., furnished or unfurnished), the possibility of relative harm to the parties, and other material facts… The order shall further provide that if the tenant continues to wrongfully occupy the property beyond such time, the sheriff shall forthwith remove the tenant, taking precautions to guard against damage to the property”
On appeal	“if the tenant prevails upon appeal, the relief ordered by the appellate court shall be for monetary damages only and shall not restore the tenant to possession if the term of the lease has expired, absent an issue of title, retaliatory eviction, or breach of warranty. During the pendency of any such appeal, the tenant is not entitled to remain in possession”
Magistrate jurisdiction	Civil actions up to twenty thousand dollars, plus “all matters involving unlawful entry or detainer of real property or involving wrongful occupation of residential rental property, so long as the title to such property is not in dispute”

See our West Virginia landlord-tenant laws guide.

Habitability: Seven Duties, and No Statutory Tenant Remedy

Section 37-6-30 is the closest thing West Virginia has to a warranty of habitability, and it is a duty list rather than a remedy scheme. With respect to residential property, a landlord shall:

1. “At the commencement of a tenancy, deliver the dwelling unit and surrounding premises in a fit and habitable condition, and shall thereafter maintain the leased property in such condition”;
2. maintain the property in a condition meeting “applicable health, safety, fire and housing codes, unless the failure… is the fault of the tenant”;
3. in multiple housing units, “keep clean, safe and in repair all common areas”;
4. “Make all repairs necessary to keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition, unless said repairs were necessitated primarily by a lack of reasonable care by the tenant”;
5. maintain in good and safe working order “all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and other facilities and appliances, including elevators” supplied or required to be supplied;
6. in multiple housing units, provide and maintain conveniences for removing ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste;
7. and, where the unit has direct public utility connections, “supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times, and reasonable heat between October 1, and the last day of April” — except where the tenant has exclusive control of the installation generating it.

See our West Virginia habitability laws guide.

Abandoned Property: Two Different Regimes

West Virginia has one procedure for a deserted property and a different one for property left after a judgment. Do not merge them.

Situation	Procedure
Desertion — before any court order	“If any tenant from whom rent is in arrears and unpaid abandons the leased property, the landlord… shall post a notice in writing in a conspicuous part of the property, requiring the tenant to pay the rent within one month. If the rent is not paid within that time, the landlord shall be entitled to possession… and the right of the tenant to the leased property shall end.”
Disposing of the goods	Written notice must be both posted conspicuously and sent “by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing… in an envelope endorsed ‘Please Forward’” to the leased property, any known post office box, and the most recent forwarding address. The removal deadline must be “not less than thirty days after the date the written notice was mailed; or not less than sixty days… if the tenant has notified the landlord… that he or she is on active duty in the Armed Forces”. Thereafter “the tenant forfeits his or her ownership rights”
Property worth more than three hundred dollars	Must be stored “for up to thirty additional days” where the tenant or a secured party states an intent to remove it and pays reasonable storage and removal costs
After a possession judgment	The landlord may dispose of it with no liability “if the tenant informs the landlord in writing that the personal property is abandoned or if the property is garbage”; or remove and store it and dispose “after thirty days” if costs are unpaid and possession untaken, “or… the costs of storage equal the value of the personal property”; or leave it in place and dispose after thirty days on the same condition. The same three-hundred-dollar rule and thirty-day extension apply

Separately, if the tenant does not vacate as the court ordered, “the sheriff may remove the renter’s possessions and prevent the renter from reentering the premises without further action by the court”. And a tenant “shall remain liable for any damages beyond the damages paid by the deposit, plus interest at ten percent per annum on any unpaid amounts”.

Squatters Are Outside Article 6 Entirely

What West Virginia Does Not Have — and Why That Matters

Most of what goes wrong on West Virginia landlord pages is imported Virginia law. The two states have entirely separate codes, and Virginia has all four of the rules below while West Virginia has none of them. If you see any of these stated as West Virginia law, the source has confused the two.

Rule	West Virginia
Security deposit cap	None. Article 6A contains no maximum, no interest requirement and no separate-account requirement
Landlord entry notice	None. Article 6 runs from section 1 to section 31 and contains no section on access to an occupied dwelling. No twenty-four-hour rule, no reasonable-notice rule, no hours. The only entry provisions are for a deserted property and for reentry on forfeiture
Retaliation statute	None. No protected-activity list, no presumption, no remedy. The phrase “retaliatory eviction” appears once, in the appeal provision, which presupposes the doctrine without creating or defining it
Self-help / lockout ban	No statutory prohibition and no statutory penalty. The nearest text gives a possessory action to a party ousted by “any forcible or unlawful entry… upon any land, building, structure, or any part thereof”, suable “within three years” — a civil cause of action, not a ban with defined damages
Tenant duties in the habitability section	None enumerated
Rent increase notice, late fee cap, grace period	None. The only statutory mention of late fees is that “reasonable charges for late payment of rent specified in the rental agreement” are deductible from the deposit
Move-in condition report or deposit receipt requirement	None
URLTA	Not adopted. There is no uniform-act article anywhere in chapter 37

The one general provision that does exist is the bad-cheque statute, which permits a fee of up to twenty-five dollars per worthless cheque, with the drawer given ten days to tender full payment and no fee assessable once a complaint for warrant has gone to magistrate court. That is general law, not a landlord rule. See our West Virginia late fee laws and West Virginia landlord entry laws guides.

Statewide Forms Exist — and There Are Only Four

The West Virginia Judiciary publishes a small, focused set for wrongful occupation. We name only the four landlord-tenant forms we actually saw: the Petition for Summary Relief Wrongful Occupation of Residential Rental Property; the Petition for Summary Relief Wrongful Occupation of Factory-Built Home Site; the Civil Summons: Wrongful Occupation of Residential Rental Property or Factory-Built Home Site; and the Answer to it. General magistrate civil forms — a civil complaint, a commercial-creditor complaint and a general answer — sit alongside them.

Two things follow. There is no statewide notice-to-quit form, which fits a state that requires no notice. And the factory-built home site variants are a separate article we have not covered here.

What Changed, and What Did Not

Item	Status
Wrongful occupation hearing window rewritten to “not less than five nor more than 10 judicial days”, with the tenant’s five-day written-defence right	Effective 11 July 2025 — in force. Any source describing the earlier timing is stale
Squatters removed from article 6	Added 2024 — in force
A 2026 bill on posting a summons as acceptable service when a tenant is unavailable for personal service	Passed the House, did not complete legislation. NOT law.
A 2026 bill on filing the return of service or return receipt with the court	Passed the Senate, did not complete legislation. NOT law.
Future-effective versions of any relevant section	None found. No effective-date banner appears on any of the sections we read

Which West Virginia Form Do I Need?

1. The tenant has not paid rent. Check your lease for a reentry period; if there is none, you may file the verified petition.
2. They have broken a warranty or covenant. Same petition, same lack of a statutory notice.
3. They have damaged the property deliberately or negligently. Same petition — and describe the act or omission in it.
4. Nobody is at fault, periodic under a year. One full rental period, unless your lease says otherwise.
5. Nobody is at fault, year-to-year. At least three months before the end of the year.
6. The term simply ends on a certain date. No notice is necessary.
7. They have gone and left rent unpaid. Post the one-month notice for desertion, then follow the disposal procedure.
8. The tenant has moved out. Work out which of sixty days or forty-five days expires first, and send the itemisation with the balance.
9. Someone is occupying with no tenancy at all. That is outside article 6 — but a holdover tenant is not a squatter.

How to Handle a West Virginia Filing

1. Read your own lease first. A reentry period you wrote binds you even though the Code sets none.
2. Send a written notice anyway where practical. It costs nothing and it is often the fastest resolution.
3. Prepare the verified petition, describing the arrearage, breach, or act or omission specifically.
4. Get the hearing date and serve immediately — the statute says “immediately upon being apprised”.
5. Serve under Rule 4 or by certified mail, return receipt requested.
6. Tell the tenant about the five days, which run from their receipt.
7. File the petition with the proof of service.
8. Do not assume a move-out date. The judge sets it, weighing the nature of the property and the relative harm.

What Happens If the Form Is Wrong

The distinctively West Virginia failure runs in the opposite direction from most states: it is waiting for a notice period that does not exist, or serving a notice type borrowed from Virginia and treating it as a precondition.

The second is the deposit clock. Diarising sixty days and re-renting in three weeks means you have missed the deadline by a fortnight without ever knowing it.

The third is the contractor extension, which is conditional on giving the notice of that fact within the original window.

And the fourth is treating a holdover tenant as a squatter, which the 2024 section expressly forbids.

What This Page Does Not Have

We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. West Virginia landlords also commonly want a rental application, a sublease, a roommate agreement, a commercial lease, a pet addendum, a lease amendment and an adverse action notice. Those are not published here as West Virginia-specific forms.

Common West Virginia Landlord Form Mistakes

• Waiting out a statutory notice period before filing. There is none.
• Ignoring a reentry period in your own lease. That one does bind you.
• Importing a Virginia notice, deposit cap or entry rule. Different state, different code.
• Giving one month’s notice on a year-to-year tenancy. Three months before the year ends.
• Serving a notice on a term that ends at a certain time. None is necessary.
• Not serving the hearing notice immediately after the court gives you a date.
• Counting the tenant’s five days from mailing rather than from receipt.
• Expecting a continuance as of right. Cause only.
• Promising a move-out date. The judge sets it.
• Diarising sixty days for the deposit after re-renting inside forty-five.
• Taking the fifteen-day contractor extension without having given the notice in time.
• Deducting a late charge not specified in the rental agreement.
• Deducting for reasonable wear and tear.
• Assuming the deposit penalty is automatic. It requires willfulness or bad faith.
• Expecting attorney’s fees on a late deposit return. The fee provision is in a different section.
• Using a lease clause waiving deposit rights. Unenforceable.
• Refusing a records request. Seventy-two hours, for a year after termination.
• Refusing repairs while rent is current — the arrears carve-out only applies when the tenant is behind.
• Skipping the ‘Please Forward’ endorsement or the certificate of mailing on a desertion notice.
• Treating a holdover tenant as a squatter.

Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid West Virginia Form Sites

West Virginia’s results page for this query is the shallowest of any state we have covered — a little under twelve hundred words at its deepest. That is not because the state is simple. It is because a thin code makes it easy to publish a thin page, and easier still to fill the gaps with numbers borrowed from next door.

The genuinely useful West Virginia content is the inverse of the usual: knowing that you need no notice, that your own lease may impose one anyway, that the deposit clock can shorten without warning, and that four rules everyone assumes exist do not. None of that is visible from a form’s file name.

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.

West Virginia Landlord Forms: FAQ

Related West Virginia Guides

• West Virginia landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
• West Virginia eviction notice laws — and why no notice is required.
• West Virginia security deposit laws — the two clocks and the conditional penalty.
• West Virginia rent increase laws — what the statute does and does not say.
• West Virginia lease termination laws — and how the lease can override it.
• West Virginia breaking lease laws — early termination and liability.
• West Virginia late fee laws — the agreement-driven position.
• West Virginia landlord entry laws — and the absence of any statute.
• West Virginia habitability laws — the seven duties and the arrears carve-out.
• West Virginia pet and ESA laws — pets, deposits and assistance animals.
• West Virginia tenant screening laws — screening, reports and adverse action.

About the Author

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. West Virginia’s central risk is contamination from Virginia, so we checked for it explicitly: every quotation here comes from a West Virginia Code URL, and the four absences on this page — no deposit cap, no entry rule, no retaliation statute, no self-help ban — are precisely the four rules Virginia has. We also traced both 2026 bills to their status pages to confirm neither became law.

Updated 2026

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Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about West Virginia landlord-tenant law, not legal advice. It rests substantially on the West Virginia Legislature’s own code; independent publishers were unreachable on this pass, so most of it is single-sourced. Retaliatory eviction and tenant remedies for uninhabitable conditions are judge-made in this state and no case law is described here. Two 2026 bills affecting service did not complete legislation and are not law. Factory-built home sites fall under a separate article. Confirm the current position with your magistrate or circuit court, or a West Virginia attorney, before filing a petition.