Quick Answer: Four significant VRLTA changes take effect July 1, 2027: a 90-day written notice requirement for rent increases, itemized statements required on nonpayment notices, up-front screening and application fee disclosures, and mandatory payment plan offers before terminating for nonpayment. Most apply only to landlords owning more than four rental units, and all of them require process changes that take months to implement properly.
The 2026 General Assembly session produced the most substantial rewrite of Virginia landlord-tenant law in years. Some of it landed on July 1, 2026. A larger and more operationally demanding batch arrives July 1, 2027.
We are writing about the 2027 changes now, in October 2026, because none of them are the kind of thing you handle the week before. They require changing renewal calendars, rebuilding notice templates, and creating documents that do not currently exist. That is a multi-month project, not a compliance checkbox.
Here is what is coming and what to do about each one.
1. Ninety Days Notice Before a Rent Increase
Under HB 678, amending Va. Code section 55.1-1204, a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four units, must provide written notice of any rent increase for the subsequent term at least 90 days before the end of the current term.
The notice must also include a deadline by which the tenant has to say whether they are renewing, and that deadline cannot be sooner than 30 days after the notice is delivered. If you are not renewing the tenant at all, written notice of nonrenewal is required no less than 60 days before the end of the term.
A note on the effective date, since sources disagree. Some legislative trackers list HB 678 with a January 1, 2027 delayed effective date, which reflects an earlier version of the bill. The codified text of section 55.1-1204 carries the 90-day language under an effective date of July 1, 2027. We are planning to the code.
What this actually changes
Everything about renewal timing moves roughly a quarter earlier.
If your current practice is deciding on rent 45 or 60 days out, you now need the pricing decision made, approved, and delivered in writing at 90 days. That means pulling comparables at around 120 days. For anyone managing more than a handful of properties, that is a calendar rebuild, not an adjustment.
There is also a cash flow implication people miss. Under a 90-day notice with a 30-day response window, you can find out four months before expiration that a tenant is leaving. That is good, actually. It is significantly more runway than most landlords currently give themselves.
What to do now
Move to a 90-day standard voluntarily, ahead of the deadline. There is no downside. It gives you more lead time on vacancies, it gets your team used to the rhythm before it is mandatory, and it means July 2027 arrives as a non-event. We are implementing this across our portfolio well ahead of the requirement for exactly that reason.
2. Itemized Statements on Nonpayment Notices
SB 294 adds a documentation requirement to termination notices for nonpayment, effective July 1, 2027.
A nonpayment notice will not be effective unless it includes a written statement of charges and payments over the course of the tenancy, or the past 12 months, whichever is shorter. That statement has to show late charges, attorney fees, costs, and other charges contracted for in the rental agreement, and it must include debits and credits for energy and utility bills where applicable.
In practice this means the familiar lump-sum demand is going away. You cannot simply state an amount owed. You have to show the accounting behind it.
What to do now
Two things. First, make sure your ledger is actually accurate at the tenant level, because this requirement makes any sloppiness in your bookkeeping visible in a courtroom. If your records cannot produce a clean 12-month statement of charges and payments today, that is the real project.
Second, adopt the itemized format early. Courts already expect accurate balances, and a notice with a clear accounting attached is more persuasive than one without, regardless of what the statute requires. There is no reason to wait.
3. Up-Front Screening and Application Fee Disclosures
Also effective July 1, 2027, landlords must provide prospective tenants with disclosures before collecting an application fee or applicant information. The disclosures cover the application fee amount and whether it is refundable, the tenant selection criteria, information about consumer reports used, and the criteria that trigger automatic or possible denial.
This is the change we think is most useful to landlords, which is not something we say often about new requirements.
What to do now
Build a one-page screening criteria disclosure and start using it immediately.
Written, consistently applied selection criteria are already the strongest fair housing protection available to a landlord, and most self-managing owners do not have them in writing. The 2027 requirement is essentially forcing a practice that careful operators already follow. Building the document now gets you eight months of protection you would otherwise not have, plus a fully compliant process the day the requirement takes effect.
4. Mandatory Payment Plans Before Termination
Under HB 95, landlords who own more than four rental dwelling units must offer a written payment plan before terminating a tenancy for nonpayment, when the amount owed is no more than one month's rent plus any contracted late charges.
Combined with the 14-day pay-or-quit notice that took effect in July 2026, this meaningfully extends the timeline on any nonpayment situation involving a modest balance.
What to do now
Draft a standard payment plan form and decide your policy in advance: what terms you will offer, how long a plan can run, and what happens on a missed installment. Making those decisions calmly now is much better than improvising them during an actual nonpayment situation.
It is also worth saying that a payment plan is often the commercially better outcome anyway. Eviction in Virginia is slow and expensive, and a tenant who is one month behind because of a temporary problem frequently catches up. The statute is pushing landlords toward something many of us were already doing.
Does Any of This Apply to You?
Several of the 2027 changes carry a threshold: more than four rental dwelling units, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four units, held individually or through an entity.
That threshold is not always intuitive. Interests held through an LLC count. Multiple properties held across different entities can aggregate depending on structure. If you are anywhere near the line, that is a question for your attorney rather than a judgment call.
And note that thresholds vary by provision. The 2026 payment package, for instance, exempted owners of four or fewer units from only one specific obligation, accepting debit and credit cards. The check and money order requirement, the receipt rule, the processing fee cap, and the maintenance fee ban applied to every VRLTA landlord regardless of size.
What to Fix Between Now and July
Five items, roughly in order of how long they take:
- Rebuild your renewal calendar around a 90-day notice standard, and start using it now
- Audit your tenant ledgers so you can produce a clean 12-month itemized statement for any tenancy on demand
- Write a one-page tenant selection criteria disclosure and use it on every application starting immediately
- Draft a standard payment plan form and decide your policy terms
- Have an attorney review your lease, addenda, and notice templates against the 2026 and 2027 changes together
That last one is worth the money. Virginia has amended this statute in each of the last several sessions, and a lease that was compliant in 2024 has real gaps now. A defective notice form is not a technicality in an unlawful detainer proceeding. It can get the case dismissed and reset the clock entirely.
The Larger Pattern
Look at these four changes together and the direction is consistent. Notice periods lengthen. Documentation requirements tighten. Screening criteria have to be written down and disclosed. Landlords have to show their work.
For an operator who already keeps clean records, applies consistent criteria, and gives tenants reasonable notice, almost none of this is disruptive. It is codifying what you already do.
For a landlord running on informal practices and a lease template downloaded some years ago, it is a real problem, and the time to address it is now rather than in June 2027.
This article is general information about Virginia law and not legal advice. For guidance on your specific properties and structure, talk to a Virginia landlord-tenant attorney.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Virginia 90-day rent increase notice take effect?
The codified text of Va. Code section 55.1-1204 carries the 90-day notice requirement under an effective date of July 1, 2027. Some legislative trackers list a January 1, 2027 date reflecting an earlier bill version, so plan to the code and confirm with counsel if the timing is material to you.
Does the 90-day notice requirement apply to small landlords?
It applies to landlords owning more than four rental dwelling units, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four units, whether held individually or through a business entity. Interests held across entities can aggregate, so if you are near the threshold it is worth confirming with an attorney.
What has to be included in a Virginia nonpayment notice after July 2027?
Under SB 294, the notice must include a written statement of charges and payments covering the tenancy or the past 12 months, whichever is shorter, showing late charges, attorney fees, costs, other contracted charges, and utility debits and credits where applicable. A lump-sum demand will not be sufficient.
What screening disclosures will Virginia landlords have to provide?
Before collecting an application fee or applicant information, landlords must disclose the fee amount and refundability, their tenant selection criteria, consumer report information, and the criteria that trigger automatic or possible denial. Building a written criteria document now satisfies most of this in advance.
Do I have to offer a payment plan before evicting for nonpayment?
Under HB 95, effective July 1, 2027, landlords with more than four rental dwelling units must offer a written payment plan before terminating for nonpayment when the balance is no more than one month's rent plus contracted late charges. Having a standard form and policy ready in advance is the practical step.
