Housing & Tenant · Landlord Entry
Landlord Entry Notice in Virginia
How much warning a landlord must give before entering your home in Virginia, the hours entry is allowed, and what to do if they walk in unannounced, cited to the statute.
The rules and your rights in Virginia
The notice, the allowed hours, the reasons a landlord may enter, and what to do about an unlawful entry.
| Advance notice | 72 hours before entry |
| Allowed entry hours | Not fixed as clock hours in the section read. The controls are the notice periods and the 14-day performance window. |
| Reasons a landlord may enter | To make inspections, repairs, alterations, or improvements, supply services, show the unit to prospective buyers or tenants, and perform routine maintenance. For purposes other than routine maintenance the framing is that you shall not unreasonably withhold consent. |
| Emergency entry | A landlord may enter without your consent in an emergency, with no advance notice. Separately, for a nonemergency condition that requires you to move out temporarily, the landlord must give at least 30 days written notice. |
| Statute | Va. Code Ann. §55.1-1229 |
If the landlord enters unlawfully
The section read does not spell out a priced remedy, but it builds in a real limit: routine maintenance must be performed within 14 days of the notice, so a landlord cannot serve a 72-hour notice and keep the option open indefinitely. Ask a local legal aid office how to enforce these timelines.
What you can do right now
Concrete, neutral steps if a landlord keeps entering your Virginia home without proper notice. This is legal information, not legal advice.
- Expect 72 hours for routine maintenance
Virginia has the longest routine notice period in the country. For routine maintenance you did not request, you are owed at least 72 hours notice, so a landlord who gives less for that kind of work is short of Va. Code 55.1-1229.
- Hold the 14-day performance window
The maintenance has to actually happen within 14 days of the notice. If a landlord serves a 72-hour notice and the work never follows, that open-ended notice does not keep giving them a right to enter.
- Know the 30-day temporary-relocation rule
If a nonemergency condition needs you out of the home for a while, the landlord must give at least 30 days written notice. That is a separate, longer protection from the routine 72 hours, so do not confuse the two.
- Get local help
For disputes over these timelines, contact a local Virginia legal aid office to learn your options. Search for legal aid in your area.
This is general legal information, not legal advice. Read your own lease and check for a local ordinance, since either can change what applies to your home.
What Virginia renters get wrong
Virginia has the longest routine notice period in the country at seventy-two hours, and it pairs it with something no other state on this topic does. Under Va. Code 55.1-1229 the maintenance has to actually happen within fourteen days of the notice, so a landlord cannot serve a notice and then keep the option to enter open indefinitely. That fourteen-day window turns the notice from a standing permission into a time-limited one. Virginia also handles the situation nobody else names, a nonemergency problem serious enough to need the renter out of the home for a while, which takes thirty days written notice. The 72-hour figure applies to routine maintenance the renter did not request. For other purposes the framing is the familiar one, that the tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent, without the same fixed number, and a genuine emergency needs no notice at all. So Virginia rewards a renter who reads the notice closely: the length depends on what the landlord is coming to do.
Common questions
Why is Virginia notice 72 hours?
Va. Code 55.1-1229 sets 72 hours specifically for routine maintenance the tenant did not request, which is the longest routine notice period of any state. Other purposes use the unreasonably-withhold-consent framing rather than that fixed figure.
What if the maintenance never happens within 14 days in Virginia?
The statute requires routine maintenance to be performed within 14 days of the notice. If the work does not follow, the notice does not keep giving the landlord an open-ended right to enter, so a fresh notice would generally be needed.
Can I be made to move out temporarily in Virginia?
For a nonemergency condition that requires you to vacate temporarily, yes, but the landlord must give at least 30 days written notice. That is a separate and longer protection than the 72-hour routine maintenance rule.
Does the 72 hours apply to repairs I asked for in Virginia?
The 72-hour figure is for routine maintenance you did not request. Work you asked for is treated differently, since you invited it, so read the notice against the purpose, because the required period depends on what the landlord is coming to do.
Not legal advicePlainStatute provides plain-language summaries of public law for general information only. This is not legal advice. Statutes change; always confirm current requirements with the official source linked above before acting.