Virginia Eviction Notice Laws: The Landlord and Tenant Guide

In Virginia, the eviction notice is step one, and a defective notice sinks the whole case. Before a landlord can set foot in the general district court, the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires the right written notice, for the right reason, for the right number of days. Choose the wrong notice, demand the wrong amount, miscount the days, or fail to give the tenant a chance to cure when the law requires one, and a tenant can defeat the unlawful detainer and force the landlord to start the clock over. This guide walks the whole framework end to end — every notice type, how many days each needs, the tenant’s powerful right of redemption, how the process moves from notice to writ of eviction, and what makes a notice valid — in plain English, with every rule tied to a concrete action.

The stakes are practical. Virginia gives tenants a genuine second chance in nonpayment cases through the right of redemption, and it gives them cure rights on ordinary lease breaches, so a landlord who treats the notice as a mere formality often finds the case dismissed. Because the notice statutes and the eviction timeline have been amended in recent sessions — most recently on July 1, 2026, when Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 15 lengthened the nonpayment pay-or-quit period from five days to fourteen days — treat every figure in this guide as a starting point and verify the current statute before you serve or file anything.

Below, an overview video summarizes the Virginia framework; the sections that follow break down each piece — the notice types and their day-counts, the just-cause structure Virginia actually uses, how a notice is served and proven, what makes a notice valid, the unlawful detainer lawsuit and the writ of eviction, retaliation and tenant defenses, local considerations, a landlord playbook, and defensible-versus-fatal scenarios — plus a Virginia-specific FAQ.

Every Virginia eviction begins with a written notice, and that notice is the single most common point of failure. The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets out exactly which notice fits which ground and how long each must run, and Virginia courts expect a landlord who wants the summary eviction remedy to follow those rules. A notice that names the wrong amount, gives the wrong number of days, omits the cure period the law guarantees, or is filed on too early gives the tenant a clean defense — the judge can dismiss the unlawful detainer, and the landlord has to start over from a fresh notice, losing weeks.

This is why the notice deserves more care than any other step. The rest of the process — filing the summons, the return date, the writ — is largely mechanical once the notice is right. Get the notice wrong, or ignore the tenant’s cure or redemption rights, and none of it matters. Throughout this guide, the theme repeats: the exactness of the notice, and respecting the tenant’s statutory second chances, decides the case long before a judge ever reads the complaint.

Virginia recognizes a handful of distinct notices, and using the wrong one is itself a defect. Which notice applies depends entirely on why the landlord wants the tenant out. The nonpayment and breach notices come from Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245; the no-fault ending of a periodic tenancy comes from section 55.1-1253.

14-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit (Nonpayment)

When a tenant is behind on rent, the landlord serves a fourteen-day notice to pay rent or quit under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245(F). Effective July 1, 2026, Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 15 lengthened this period from five days to fourteen days, so the superseded five-day notice no longer satisfies the statute. It gives the tenant a choice: pay the rent due within fourteen days after the notice is served and stay, or the rental agreement terminates and the landlord may proceed to court. If the tenant pays in full within the period, the tenancy continues and the landlord cannot evict on that ground. Crucially, in Virginia the story does not end there — the tenant retains a right of redemption even after the case is filed, discussed below, which makes nonpayment eviction a pay-and-stay process up to a late point.

21/30 Notice to Cure or Quit (Curable Lease Violation)

When a tenant breaches a lease term that can be fixed — an unauthorized pet, an unapproved occupant, a parking or noise violation the tenant can stop — the landlord serves a notice under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245(C). It must specify the acts or omissions constituting the breach and state that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than thirty days after the tenant receives the notice if the breach is not remedied within twenty-one days. In shorthand, this is the twenty-one/thirty notice: twenty-one days to cure, tenancy ends thirty days after receipt if it is not cured. The notice must describe the breach with enough specificity that the tenant knows exactly what to correct.

30-Day Unconditional Notice (Repeat or Non-Remediable Breach)

Not every breach comes with a second chance. If a breach is not remediable, or if the tenant repeats the same or a substantially similar breach within six months of the first twenty-one/thirty notice, the landlord may serve a notice under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245(C) stating that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than thirty days after receipt, with no right to cure. The repeat-violation path is what stops a tenant from curing the same problem over and over; the second time, the tenancy simply ends.

Immediate Termination (Criminal or Willful Act Threatening Safety)

For the most serious conduct, Virginia allows termination with no notice period at all. Under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245(E), if the tenant commits a criminal or willful act that is not remediable and that poses a threat to health or safety, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement immediately and proceed to obtain possession. Because this is the harshest path, the conduct must genuinely fit the statute; an ordinary lease violation does not qualify and must go through the twenty-one/thirty cure process instead.

30-Day No-Fault Termination of a Month-to-Month Tenancy

When the landlord simply wants to end a month-to-month tenancy and the tenant has done nothing wrong, the vehicle is a no-fault termination under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1253. Either party may end a month-to-month tenancy by serving written notice on the other at least thirty days prior to the next rent due date. No reason is required. A separate rule can require sixty days when a multifamily owner discontinues a large share of its month-to-month tenancies at once, but for a routine termination the thirty-day rule governs.

The day-count is where landlords most often trip. Use this table as the quick reference, then read the notes below it. Every figure ties back to the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

Virginia does not have a statewide just-cause-plus-rent-control regime layered on top of its eviction rules the way some states do. Instead, the just cause is built into the notice structure itself: a landlord evicts for a recognized ground — nonpayment, a lease breach, a repeat or non-remediable breach, or a criminal or willful safety threat — and each ground has its matching notice under Code of Virginia section 55.1-1245. Ending a tenancy at the natural close of a periodic term through the thirty-day month-to-month notice under section 55.1-1253 is the no-fault path.

At-Fault Grounds Run Through Section 55.1-1245

The at-fault grounds are the tenant’s own conduct. Nonpayment runs through the fourteen-day pay-or-quit. A curable lease breach runs through the twenty-one/thirty cure notice. A repeat of that breach within six months, or a breach that cannot be fixed, runs through the thirty-day unconditional notice. A criminal or willful act that is not remediable and threatens health or safety runs through immediate termination. Each of these is a legally recognized reason to end the tenancy, provided the matching notice is served correctly.

No-Fault Ending Runs Through Section 55.1-1253

When the landlord has no fault-based ground and simply does not wish to continue a month-to-month tenancy, the thirty-day notice under section 55.1-1253 ends it. This is the closest Virginia analog to a no-fault termination: no reason is required, but the tenancy must be month-to-month (or the fixed term must have ended), and the notice must give at least thirty days ending on a rent due date. A landlord cannot use this route to cut a fixed-term lease short; during a fixed term, only a fault-based ground and its matching notice will do.

A notice that is written perfectly still fails if the landlord cannot show it reached the tenant. Virginia’s notice statutes turn on the tenant receiving the notice, so the practical goal is to deliver it in a way you can prove and to document when receipt occurred. There is no valid “just email it” or “just text it” shortcut for a statutory eviction notice.

Because the cure and termination clocks run from receipt, the method you choose affects when the period starts. Mailed notice should account for transit before the twenty-one-day cure window or the fourteen-day pay window is treated as running, and posting alone — taping a notice to the door with no mailed copy — is a classic weak point that a tenant can exploit. Whatever the method, keep a record of who served the notice, how, when, and where.

Beyond picking the right notice and getting it to the tenant, the notice’s content has to be right. A valid Virginia eviction notice is a written document — never oral for the statutory grounds — and, depending on type, generally includes the following.

For a pay-or-quit notice, the amount matters: demand only the rent actually due, because the tenant is entitled to know the exact sum needed to pay or later redeem. For a twenty-one/thirty cure notice, the breach must be described specifically enough that the tenant knows precisely what to fix, and the notice must actually state the cure period and the termination date — a notice that omits the twenty-one-day cure right where the law requires it is defective. Vague grounds, an overstated amount, or missing cure language each weaken the notice.