Virginia Fee-Free Rent Payment Law 2025: No Collection Fees Unless Landlords Offer a No-Fee Option

This requirement traces to Senate Bill 1356; its House companion bill, which would have required landlords to accept several specific payment methods, didn't advance out of a House subcommittee during the same 2025 session.

[Cite: S.B. 1356, 2025 Va. Acts of Assembly, c. 627, amending Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)]

A note on sources: several secondary summaries list this requirement under both a House and Senate bill number, as companion legislation. The House bill, which would have required accepting checks, electronic transfer, debit/credit cards, cash, and money orders, failed to report out of its subcommittee in January 2025. Senate Bill 1356 is what actually passed and became Chapter 627; this article cites that enacted Senate bill specifically, rather than attributing the enacted requirement to both companion bills equally.

The statute doesn't prohibit a landlord from ever charging a payment fee; it requires that an alternative, fee-free method also be offered.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(1)]

That structure gives a landlord flexibility; a landlord can still offer a convenience-fee-bearing option, say, a credit card payment with a processing charge, as long as a genuinely fee-free method, like a check or a specific online transfer option, is also available to the tenant.

A landlord has to provide a written receipt upon request when a tenant pays by cash or money order.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(1)]

That requirement is specific to those 2 payment types; cash and money order payments don't generate the automatic electronic payment confirmation that a card or bank transfer typically does, so the written receipt requirement fills that documentation gap specifically where it's most needed.

A landlord owning 4 or fewer rental units isn't required to accept debit or credit card payment under this provision.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(2)]

That exception recognizes the added cost and administrative burden of setting up card payment processing can fall disproportionately on a very small landlord; a landlord just under that 4-unit threshold isn't forced to build out card-payment infrastructure simply because this provision exists, though the fee-free-option requirement itself still applies.

A year later, House Bill 1005 and Senate Bill 313 built directly on this fee-free foundation, adding a mandatory check-and-money-order acceptance requirement and capping any processing fee at the actual third-party cost to process it.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J), as further amended by H.B. 1005/S.B. 313, 2026 Va. Acts of Assembly, cc. 722/723]

A landlord who achieved compliance with this 2025 requirement by mid-2025 needed to revisit that compliance again by July 2026, when the stronger acceptance-and-fee-cap requirements layered on top of this original fee-free-option rule.

Since the requirement is that at least one method carries no added fee, a landlord should specifically verify that whatever method is being presented as fee-free genuinely carries zero fee, not just a lower fee than the alternatives.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(1)]

A landlord offering a "reduced fee" online payment option alongside a higher-fee card option hasn't satisfied this requirement; the statute calls for a method with no added fee at all, not merely a cheaper paid option relative to another.

A landlord benefits from clearly documenting, in the lease itself or in a separate payment-methods disclosure, exactly which payment method is offered fee-free.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(1)]

A tenant disputing whether a fee-free option was actually available is much easier to address when the lease or a related document explicitly states which method qualifies; a landlord relying on informal or undocumented communication about payment options is in a weaker position if that availability is ever questioned.

The 4-or-fewer-unit exception applies specifically to debit and credit card acceptance; it doesn't exempt a smaller landlord from the underlying fee-free-option requirement itself.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)(1)-(2)]

A small landlord who isn't required to accept card payment still has to offer some payment method, a check, a money order, or another option, with no added fee; the card exception narrows one specific obligation without eliminating the broader fee-free requirement.

This fee-free-option requirement addresses a tenant's exposure to payment-processing costs that are often set by third-party processors, costs a tenant has limited ability to negotiate or avoid if every available payment method carries a fee.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)]

A property manager should understand this requirement's purpose that way; it's aimed at making sure a tenant isn't effectively forced to absorb a processing cost simply because every payment channel the landlord offers happens to carry one.

Since the 2026 law built directly on this 2025 fee-free foundation rather than replacing it, a landlord's compliance review should cover both requirements together: the fee-free option itself, and the check-and-money-order acceptance plus actual-cost fee cap added later.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(J)]

A landlord treating these as one combined payment-method compliance framework, rather than 2 separate, disconnected rules, is less likely to miss a piece of either requirement when reviewing current payment practices.

The practical starting point is confirming exactly which current payment method is genuinely fee-free, documenting that clearly in lease materials, and verifying it hasn't quietly picked up a fee through a payment processor's own fee structure.

For any landlord with 4 or fewer units relying on the card-acceptance exception, confirming that whatever non-card method is offered still satisfies the underlying fee-free requirement keeps that smaller operation compliant without needing to build out card-payment infrastructure.