West Virginia · State Breaking a Lease Guide

West Virginia Breaking Lease Laws: When a Tenant Can End a Lease Early

West Virginia is a landlord-friendly state with few statutory early-outs. Federal law protects servicemembers under 50 U.S.C. 3955, the implied warranty of habitability from Teller v. McCoy can excuse a tenant from an unfit unit, and the landlord must still mitigate. Here is how it works in 2026.

Breaking a lease early in West Virginia sits between two hard rules with little in between. A fixed-term lease is a binding contract, so a Mountain State tenant cannot simply walk away without consequences – and West Virginia, unlike many states, has not written a long list of statutory escape hatches. What the tenant does have is a federal servicemember right, an implied warranty of habitability built by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and the landlord’s duty to mitigate, which caps what an early departure costs. This guide covers the limited legal grounds, the servicemember protection, the habitability path, the duty to re-rent, and what a tenant owes with no justification. If you are filling a unit a tenant left early, our overview of how to screen tenants step by step pairs well with the rules below.

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Video: a plain-language walkthrough of West Virginia early lease-termination rules – the legal grounds to break a lease and the landlord’s duty to mitigate.

Key Takeaways: West Virginia Breaking Lease Laws

• West Virginia has few statutory early-outs – it is a landlord-friendly state, so most lease breaks turn on the federal servicemember right, the implied warranty of habitability, or a negotiated exit.
• Servicemembers may terminate under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3955) with active-duty, permanent-change-of-station, or ninety-day-plus deployment orders, written notice, and a copy of the orders.
• There is no West Virginia domestic-violence lease-termination statute as of 2026 – a 2024 bill (HB 5333, proposed Article 6B) did not become law, so a survivor’s path is a protective order under W. Va. Code 48-27 plus federal VAWA in federally assisted housing.
• An unfit unit can justify leaving under Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367 (1978), and W. Va. Code 37-6-30 – the duty to pay rent is dependent on habitability, and a serious uncured defect can be a constructive eviction.
• The landlord must mitigate – with no legal ground the tenant owes rent only until a reasonable re-rental, not the full remaining term.
• The deposit returns within the notice period under W. Va. Code 37-6A-2 – sixty days, or forty-five after a new tenant moves in, whichever is shorter – with up to one and one-half times the wrongfully withheld amount under W. Va. Code 37-6A-5.
• A flat lease-break fee is not automatically enforceable – a fee that acts as a penalty can be challenged, and the landlord’s mitigated loss, not the stated fee, is the real measure.

Legal Reasons to Break a Lease in West Virginia

West Virginia recognizes far fewer statutory grounds to end a lease early than a tenant-friendly state would, and that scarcity is the most important thing to understand before giving notice. The Mountain State has not adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, has no domestic-violence early-termination statute, and leaves most of the breaking-lease framework to the lease contract, a thin set of code sections, and a handful of West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals decisions. The grounds that do exist are the federal servicemember right, an uninhabitable unit, and landlord misconduct serious enough to amount to a constructive eviction. Everything else is a negotiation governed by the duty to mitigate. Our companion guide to West Virginia rent increase laws covers how and when a landlord may raise rent during a tenancy.

Military Servicemembers – SCRA, 50 U.S.C. Section 3955

The strongest early-termination right in West Virginia is not a West Virginia right at all – it is federal, and it overrides anything the state code or the lease says. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, codified at 50 U.S.C. section 3955, a tenant who enters active duty, or who is already on active duty and receives orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of ninety days or more, may terminate a residential lease. The mechanics are covered in depth in the dedicated SCRA section below.

Uninhabitable Unit and Constructive Eviction

An unfit unit is the clearest West Virginia ground, and it rests on the implied warranty of habitability the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recognized in Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367 (1978), reinforced by the landlord duties in W. Va. Code section 37-6-30. The warranty makes the duty to pay rent dependent on the landlord keeping the unit fit and habitable, and it cannot be waived. A defect so serious that it drives the tenant out can amount to a constructive eviction; the remedies are detailed below. Our guide to West Virginia habitability laws covers the repair standards in full.

Landlord Misconduct and Unlawful Self-Help

Landlord misconduct is its own ground. West Virginia has no statute setting a fixed entry-notice period, so a landlord’s right to enter is governed by the lease and the tenant’s common-law right to quiet enjoyment, which courts treat as requiring reasonable notice for non-emergency entry. A landlord who crosses into harassment – repeated unannounced entry, threats, or self-help eviction such as changing the locks, removing doors, or shutting off utilities to pry a tenant out – can make the unit unfit for its intended use, which West Virginia treats as a constructive eviction and a ground for the tenant to leave. Self-help eviction is unlawful; a landlord must use the court process. Our look at West Virginia eviction notice laws covers the lawful process if the tenancy instead ends in nonpayment, and West Virginia landlord entry laws covers the reasonable-notice expectation in detail.

Ending a Periodic Tenancy Is Different

It is worth separating two things people both call “breaking a lease.” Ending a periodic, or month-to-month, tenancy is not a breach at all – it is the ordinary way a periodic arrangement ends. Under W. Va. Code section 37-6-5, a periodic tenancy ends on one full rental period of written notice, so a month-to-month tenant generally gives one month’s notice and owes nothing more. A fixed-term lease runs to its end date, and a tenant who leaves before then has broken the contract unless a legal ground or buyout applies. This guide is about that harder case.

Does West Virginia Have a Domestic-Violence Lease-Termination Law?

This is the question survivors most often ask, and the honest answer matters more than a comforting one. As of 2026, West Virginia has not enacted a statute that gives a residential tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking the right to terminate a lease early without penalty. Many states have such a law; West Virginia, as a landlord-friendly state, does not. A bill that would have created one – House Bill 5333 in the 2024 regular session, proposing a new Article 6B with a fear-of-imminent-violence termination right – was introduced but did not pass into law. There is no codified West Virginia section a survivor can cite to walk away from a private-market lease as a matter of right.

That does not leave a survivor without options, but they run through different law. A survivor can petition for a protective order under W. Va. Code section 48-27, the state’s domestic-violence article: a magistrate may enter an emergency order on a showing of immediate danger, and the family court may enter a longer order after a hearing. A protective order does not by itself end a lease, but it can support a relocation, a negotiated release, or a safety claim. Separately, the federal Violence Against Women Act gives housing protections – including against eviction for being a victim – but only in federally assisted housing such as public housing or Section 8, not ordinary private-market rentals.

Uninhabitable Units and Repair Remedies in West Virginia

West Virginia habitability law is built less from a detailed statutory code than from a single landmark case read together with one code section. The case is Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367, 253 S.E.2d 114 (1978), where the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals held that every residential lease – written or oral – carries an implied warranty of habitability: the landlord must deliver the unit fit and habitable and keep it that way. The companion section is W. Va. Code section 37-6-30, which requires a landlord to deliver the premises fit and habitable, maintain it to applicable health, safety, fire, and housing codes, keep common areas clean and safe, and make the repairs needed to keep the unit habitable – unless the damage was the tenant’s own fault.

The most powerful feature of Teller v. McCoy is that it makes the covenants mutually dependent: because a residential lease is treated as a contract, the tenant’s duty to pay rent is dependent on the landlord’s performance of the warranty – the hook that turns a maintenance failure into a defense and, in the serious case, into a lease-ending event. A tenant facing a genuine habitability failure has a layered set of remedies rather than a single switch.

The first remedy is to stay and assert the breach. Under Teller v. McCoy, breach of the implied warranty may be raised as a defense to a landlord’s action for unpaid rent or possession, and a tenant who continues to pay may later sue to recover damages – typically the difference between the rent paid and the reduced value of the defective unit. A tenant who withholds rent over a serious, documented, uncured defect is asserting a recognized defense rather than simply defaulting – though withholding is risky and should be done only with documentation and ideally legal advice, since a court that disagrees can order possession.

The second remedy actually breaks the lease: constructive eviction. When a defect is so serious and so persistently uncured that the unit becomes unusable for its intended purpose, a tenant who gives notice and then vacates within a reasonable time may treat the lease as terminated. The distinction from withholding is the move: a tenant who wants out must actually leave, and should document the defect, the written notice, the non-response, and the move-out date. West Virginia does not provide a broad statutory repair-and-deduct remedy, so the habitability path here is primarily the warranty defense and constructive eviction.

The Landlord’s Duty to Mitigate in West Virginia

Even in a landlord-friendly state, West Virginia does not let a landlord collect rent on an empty unit forever. Because a residential lease is treated as a contract, a landlord whose tenant leaves early must make a reasonable effort to re-rent rather than letting the unit sit vacant and billing the departed tenant for the whole term. The tenant who breaks the lease stays liable – but only until the landlord re-rents or reasonably should have, reduced by what a good-faith re-rental would have recovered.

One practical wrinkle: West Virginia case law does not spell out exactly what “reasonable effort” means. The general standard is that the landlord should market the unit the same way it would between any two tenancies – list it promptly, price it at market, show it to qualified prospects, and screen consistently. Because the line is not statutorily defined, the documented re-rental record carries the day: the listing date, asking rent, showings, and applications received decide what the tenant actually owes.

What a Tenant Actually Owes – A Worked Example

Put real West Virginia numbers on it, where rents run lower than the coastal states. Suppose the rent is eight hundred dollars a month, the tenant leaves with five months left, and a diligent landlord would re-rent in about one month. The remaining rent is five months at eight hundred dollars, or four thousand dollars. Subtract what a reasonable re-rental recovers – four months, or thirty-two hundred dollars. The tenant’s exposure is the one-month vacancy gap of eight hundred dollars, plus actual re-rental costs such as roughly one hundred dollars in advertising. Net, the tenant owes about nine hundred dollars, not the full four thousand.

The arithmetic flips against the landlord who does nothing. If that same landlord never lists the unit and lets it sit all five months, the duty to mitigate still measures damages by what a reasonable re-rental would have avoided – so the landlord generally cannot recover the thirty-two hundred dollars. The failure to try erases most of the claim. The landlord may apply the deposit to the mitigated rent owed, but cannot use it to bill the full remaining term.

Military Servicemembers and the SCRA – 50 U.S.C. Section 3955

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is federal law, so it preempts West Virginia landlord protections, and any lease clause that tries to waive it is void. Section 3955 of Title 50 covers residential leases, and its mechanics are precise. This matters in a state with several military and National Guard communities, where SCRA terminations are routine.

The right is triggered in two ways. First, a person who signs a lease and then enters military service may terminate it. Second, a servicemember already in service who receives orders for a permanent change of station, or a deployment of ninety days or more, may terminate. In either case the servicemember delivers written notice with a copy of the orders – by hand, by private business carrier, or by return-receipt mail.

The effective date is the part most people miss. For a lease that pays rent monthly, termination takes effect thirty days after the first date the next rent payment is due after the notice is delivered – not the day the notice landed. Rent is owed only through that prorated effective date; any rent paid in advance beyond it is refunded, and the deposit is returned under the normal West Virginia rules in W. Va. Code 37-6A-2.

A West Virginia landlord may not charge an early-termination fee, impose a penalty, or hold the servicemember liable for the unpaid balance of the term, and may not refuse to return the deposit on that basis. The SCRA also blocks a landlord from evicting a servicemember or dependents from a modest-rent home during service without a court order. No lease clause or local practice can reduce this federal floor.

Early-Termination Fees and Lease-Break Penalties in West Virginia

Many West Virginia leases include a flat early-termination or buyout fee – one month’s rent, two months’ rent, or a fixed dollar figure – that the landlord treats as the price of leaving early. West Virginia has no statute that automatically validates such a fee, and its enforceability turns on whether it functions as a reasonable pre-estimate of the landlord’s actual loss or as a penalty. A clause that simply punishes the tenant, untethered from real damages, is vulnerable to challenge, especially because the landlord must still mitigate. The actual damages are the mitigated rent loss described above, so a flat penalty stacked on top of that loss is hard to defend.

The practical consequence runs both ways. A tenant who signed a lease with a two-month flat fee is not automatically bound to pay it in full; if the landlord re-rents quickly, the true exposure may be far less. Conversely, a genuine, mutually negotiated buyout – the tenant and landlord agreeing at termination on a sum to release the tenant – is a settlement, not a pre-set penalty, and is generally enforceable. The line is between a penalty written into the lease in advance, which is suspect, and a freely bargained release signed at the exit, which is valid. When in doubt, ask for a specific, documented buyout in writing rather than rely on the boilerplate fee.

When There Is No Legal Justification in West Virginia

If no servicemember protection and no habitability ground applies, a West Virginia tenant who breaks a fixed-term lease is responsible for the rent – but, because the landlord must mitigate, not automatically for the entire remaining term. Liability runs only until the unit is re-rented or the lease ends, less the rent a reasonable re-rental would recover. The tenant’s best move is to manage the mitigation directly: give written notice, present a qualified replacement the landlord can approve, and document everything – that cuts the bill to near zero.

Security Deposit at an Early Exit – W. Va. Code Section 37-6A-2

The deposit is handled separately from the rent claim. Under W. Va. Code section 37-6A-2, a landlord must return the deposit, or the balance after lawful deductions, within the applicable notice period – defined in W. Va. Code section 37-6A-1 as within sixty days of the end of the tenancy, or within forty-five days of a new tenant occupying the unit, whichever is shorter (thirty days where the tenant received government rental assistance). With the refund the landlord must deliver a written itemization of any deductions, and where damages require a contractor and exceed the deposit, the landlord gets an extra fifteen days for the cost breakdown.

The deposit may be applied to unpaid rent and late charges, to damages beyond reasonable wear and tear, to unpaid utilities the landlord paid, and to the cost of removing and storing the tenant’s property – but not to ordinary wear. At a lease break the landlord may apply the deposit to the rent owed after mitigation, plus documented damage, but cannot inflate the deduction to the full remaining term. A landlord who wrongfully withholds the deposit, willfully or not in good faith, can be liable under W. Va. Code section 37-6A-5 for the unreturned amount plus damages equal to one and one-half times the amount wrongfully withheld, along with court costs and reasonable attorney fees. Our overview of West Virginia security deposit laws covers the deduction rules in full. West Virginia sets no statutory cap on the deposit amount itself – the constraint is the return timing and itemization, not the size.

Subletting, Assignment, and the No-Sublet Clause

Subletting or assigning the lease is often the cleanest way to leave early, and it interacts with the duty to mitigate in the tenant’s favor. In a sublet, the original tenant stays on the hook but installs a new occupant who pays the rent; in an assignment, the new tenant steps fully into the lease. Most West Virginia leases require the landlord’s written consent before either, and that requirement is enforceable – subletting in violation of a no-sublet clause breaches the lease.

But the no-sublet clause does not let the landlord ignore mitigation. When a departing tenant presents a qualified, creditworthy replacement in writing and the landlord unreasonably refuses, that refusal works against the landlord: the rent the replacement would have paid becomes loss the landlord could have avoided – evidence that the resulting vacancy was the landlord’s choice, not the tenant’s debt. Screening that replacement to a consistent standard is what protects the landlord here.

Early Termination, Retaliation, and Fair Housing in West Virginia

How a landlord responds to an early-termination request is governed by fair housing and anti-retaliation principles. A landlord may not penalize a tenant for exercising the federal servicemember right, and may not apply a harsher early-exit standard because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability under the federal Fair Housing Act and the West Virginia Human Rights Act. The safeguard is a uniform policy: honor the genuine grounds, mitigate every time, and treat comparable tenants the same. See our Fair Housing Act guide for landlords.

Screening the Replacement Tenant

When a tenant leaves early, filling the unit is itself the duty to mitigate – and screening is what makes the replacement reliable. Screen every applicant to the same standard: get written consent, pull a consumer report for a permissible purpose under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and send an adverse action notice if the report drives a denial. Our West Virginia tenant screening laws page and the broader tenant screening laws by state guide cover that side.

Step-by-Step: Breaking a Lease in West Virginia

Whether you are the tenant invoking a ground or the landlord responding, the order of operations is the same.

1. Identify the legal ground first. Check whether a true exit applies – a servicemember order under SCRA, or a serious uncured habitability defect under Teller v. McCoy and W. Va. Code 37-6-30. There is no statutory domestic-violence, job-relocation, or medical exit; for those, plan a negotiated release.
2. Match the procedure to the ground. SCRA terminates thirty days after the next rent due date following notice; a habitability exit requires written notice of the defect, a reasonable cure window, and vacating as a constructive eviction; a month-to-month exit needs one full rental period under W. Va. Code 37-6-5.
3. Gather the documentation. Military orders for SCRA; dated repair notices, photos, and any inspector record for a habitability claim; a W. Va. Code 48-27 protective order if domestic violence is involved, even though it is not itself a lease-termination ground.
4. Deliver written notice with proof. Put the ground, the effective date, and a forwarding address in writing, and deliver it by a method that creates a record – a signed receipt or return-receipt mail.
5. Mitigate, or help the landlord mitigate. With no statutory ground, the duty to re-rent caps the bill; a tenant who presents a qualified replacement performs the mitigation and cuts the vacancy.
6. Close out the deposit. Within the W. Va. Code 37-6A-2 notice period – sixty days, or forty-five after a new tenant moves in, whichever is shorter – the landlord delivers an itemized statement and returns the balance, deducting only the mitigated rent owed and damage beyond ordinary wear.

West Virginia Lease-Break Documentation Checklist

Keep this file from the day the tenant first raises an early exit – it answers a disputed balance or a fair housing inquiry.

• The written termination request and the legal ground claimed.
• The supporting documentation – military orders, repair notices and photos, or a W. Va. Code 48-27 protective order.
• The written notice itself, with its delivery date and proof of service.
• For a habitability exit, the landlord’s response or silence and any health or building inspection record.
• The re-rental record: the listing date, asking rent, showings, and applications received – the mitigation evidence.
• The date the unit was actually re-rented and the new rent.
• The deposit accounting and itemized statement delivered within the W. Va. Code 37-6A-2 notice period.

Common Mistakes That Create Liability

The recurring West Virginia errors all turn on the same three points – the federal servicemember right, the implied warranty of habitability, and the duty to mitigate. The records that prove honored grounds and a diligent re-rental are the landlord’s strongest rebuttal to a disputed balance. Our guide to screening tenants rounds out the side of managing a tenancy that prevents many breaks.

West Virginia Breaking Lease Laws: FAQ

Can a West Virginia tenant break a lease early?

Sometimes, but West Virginia is a landlord-friendly state with limited statutory exits. The clearest ground is the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3955). A tenant may also have grounds where the landlord breaches the implied warranty of habitability recognized in Teller v. McCoy and W. Va. Code 37-6-30. Outside those, a fixed-term lease is a binding contract, but the landlord’s duty to mitigate limits what the tenant owes.

Does West Virginia have a domestic-violence lease-termination law?

No. As of 2026, West Virginia has not enacted a statute giving domestic-violence, sexual-assault, or stalking victims a right to terminate a lease early without penalty. A bill to create that right (HB 5333, proposed Article 6B) was introduced in 2024 but did not become law. A survivor’s protection runs through a protective order under W. Va. Code 48-27, plus federal VAWA in federally assisted housing. Consult a lawyer or Legal Aid of West Virginia before relying on an early exit.

Can a West Virginia servicemember break a lease under the SCRA?

Yes. Under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. 3955, a tenant who enters active duty, or who receives permanent-change-of-station or ninety-day-plus deployment orders, may terminate a residential lease. The servicemember delivers written notice with a copy of the orders, and the lease ends thirty days after the next rent payment is due following delivery. No early-termination penalty applies.

Does a West Virginia landlord have to mitigate damages?

Yes. West Virginia treats a residential lease as a contract, and a landlord must make a reasonable effort to re-rent the unit after a tenant leaves early rather than billing the departed tenant for the whole term. Because case law does not spell out exactly what “reasonable effort” means, the documented re-rental record – listing date, asking rent, showings, and applications – is what decides the bill.

Can a West Virginia tenant break a lease if the unit is uninhabitable?

Possibly. Under Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367 (1978), and W. Va. Code 37-6-30, a residential lease carries an implied warranty of habitability, and the duty to pay rent is dependent on the landlord keeping the unit fit and habitable. If the landlord fails to repair a serious defect after notice and a reasonable time, the tenant may vacate and treat the lease as terminated – a constructive eviction – or stay, pay or withhold rent, and sue for damages. Document the defect, the notice, and the non-response.

How much notice does a West Virginia tenant give to end a periodic tenancy?

Ending a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy is different from breaking a fixed-term lease. West Virginia requires one full rental period of written notice to end a periodic tenancy under W. Va. Code 37-6-5 – for a month-to-month arrangement, that is generally one month. A fixed-term lease, by contrast, runs to its end date unless a legal ground or a negotiated buyout applies.

When must a West Virginia landlord return the security deposit after a lease break?

Within the notice period set by W. Va. Code 37-6A-2 – sixty days of the end of the tenancy, or forty-five days of a new tenant moving in, whichever is shorter (thirty days where the tenant received government rental assistance), with an itemized statement of deductions. A landlord who wrongfully withholds, willfully or not in good faith, can owe up to one and one-half times the amount wrongfully withheld plus court costs and attorney fees under W. Va. Code 37-6A-5.

What does a West Virginia tenant owe for breaking a lease without legal grounds?

Rent for the time the unit sits vacant until a reasonable re-rental would have filled it, plus the landlord’s actual re-rental costs such as advertising. Because the landlord must mitigate, the tenant does not automatically owe the entire remaining term. On an eight-hundred-dollar unit with five months left and a one-month re-rental, the exposure is roughly the one-month gap plus costs, not the full four thousand dollars.

Is a flat early-termination fee enforceable in West Virginia?

It depends. West Virginia has no statute that automatically validates a flat lease-break fee, and a fee that operates as a penalty rather than a reasonable estimate of actual loss can be challenged. Because the landlord must still mitigate, a tenant charged a one- or two-month flat fee should compare it to the landlord’s real, re-rental-reduced loss. A freely negotiated buyout signed at the exit is generally enforceable as a settlement.

Can a West Virginia landlord enter the unit without notice during a lease break?

West Virginia has no statute setting a fixed entry-notice period, so entry is governed by the lease and the tenant’s common-law right to quiet enjoyment, which courts treat as requiring reasonable notice – commonly about twenty-four to forty-eight hours – for non-emergency entry. A landlord still cannot use lockouts, utility shutoffs, or repeated unannounced entry to force a tenant out; self-help eviction is unlawful and can itself amount to a constructive eviction.

Does West Virginia cap the security deposit a landlord can charge?

No. West Virginia sets no statutory dollar limit on a residential security deposit – the amount is whatever the lease provides and the market bears. The deposit-return rules under W. Va. Code 37-6A-2 still apply in full at an early exit, so the timing and itemization duties are the real constraint, not a cap.

Related West Virginia Breaking a Lease and Rental Guides

• Breaking lease laws by state – compare West Virginia to the rest of the country.
• West Virginia security deposit laws – the sixty-day return rule and the 1.5x penalty.
• West Virginia eviction notice laws – notice periods and the lawful eviction timeline.
• West Virginia habitability laws – the repairs a landlord must make under Teller v. McCoy and 37-6-30.
• West Virginia landlord entry laws – the reasonable-notice expectation with no fixed statute.
• West Virginia rent increase laws – notice and the limits on raising rent.
• West Virginia tenant screening laws – what you can check before renting.
• Free West Virginia lease agreement form – a configurable, fillable West Virginia lease PDF.
• Tenant screening laws by state – screen the replacement tenant.
• Fair Housing Act guide for landlords – the protected classes that govern every early-exit response.

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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, FCRA-compliant tenant screening across all 50 states. We translate state landlord-tenant codes and federal screening rules into processes you can actually follow.

Updated 2026

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. West Virginia and federal laws change, and how they apply depends on your specific facts. Before acting on any screening, fee, deposit, habitability, or fair housing question, consult a licensed attorney in West Virginia or Legal Aid of West Virginia. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.