Virginia Larger Landlords Must Give 60 Days' Notice Before Nonrenewal

This 60-day notice requirement applies specifically when a landlord has decided not to renew a lease at the end of its current term.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(K), as amended by H.B. 1867/S.B. 1043, 2025 Va. Acts of Assembly, c. 554]

That framing distinguishes this requirement from a rent-increase scenario where the landlord does intend to renew, just at a higher rent; this 60-day notice specifically addresses the situation where the tenancy itself is ending rather than continuing under new terms.

The requirement applies to a landlord owning more than 4 units directly, or holding more than a 10% interest in more than 4 units.

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

That same threshold structure appears across several of Virginia's recent landlord-tenant amendments; a landlord who's already determined whether their portfolio crosses this line for other purposes, the payment-plan requirement or the renewal rent-increase notice, can apply that same determination here.

A tenant facing nonrenewal needs real lead time to search for new housing, arrange moving logistics, and budget for moving costs; a 60-day notice period gives a tenant considerably more runway than a shorter, last-minute notification would.

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

A landlord who provides this notice right at the 60-day minimum, rather than earlier, should recognize that's the floor the law requires, not necessarily the most tenant-friendly or practically smoothest timeline for either party to work with.

This 60-day nonrenewal notice doesn't apply to periodic, month-to-month tenancies.

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

That exclusion reflects how a month-to-month tenancy already operates without a fixed term to measure 60 days against; a landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy follows whatever separate notice rules apply to periodic tenancies rather than this fixed-term nonrenewal framework.

This 60-day nonrenewal notice requirement was enacted in 2025, while a separate amendment extending the related renewal rent-increase notice to 90 days came later, in the 2026 Session, effective July 1, 2027.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(K); cf. Va. Code 55.1-1204, as further amended by H.B. 678, 2026 Va. Acts, c. 1066, eff. 2027-07-01]

A landlord needs to keep these as 2 separate timelines: this 60-day nonrenewal requirement has already been in force since mid-2025, while the newer 90-day rent-increase notice requirement doesn't take effect until July 2027; conflating the 2 risks a landlord applying the wrong deadline to the wrong scenario.

The statute requires this 60-day written notice whenever a covered landlord decides not to renew, without conditioning the requirement on the landlord's specific reason for that decision.

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

A landlord choosing not to renew for a business reason, a planned renovation, a change in rental strategy, or any other legitimate basis, still has to meet this same 60-day notice requirement; the timing obligation applies regardless of why the landlord has decided against renewal.

Since the notice has to be delivered at least 60 days before the term ends, and a landlord needs time internally to actually make and document the nonrenewal decision before sending that notice, building in a longer internal planning window, closer to 75 to 90 days out, helps avoid a rushed, last-minute notice.

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

A property manager handling renewal decisions across a larger portfolio benefits from a standing internal deadline well ahead of the statutory 60-day floor, giving enough buffer to finalize the decision, draft the notice, and confirm delivery with time to spare.

Since the 60-day period is measured from actual notice delivery, a landlord benefits from using a delivery method that creates a clear, verifiable record of when the tenant actually received the notice.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204(K); Va. Code 55.1-1202, notice delivery methods]

A landlord who can't clearly establish the actual delivery date risks a dispute over whether the full 60-day period was genuinely provided before the lease term ended; proper documentation protects against that kind of challenge.

This 60-day nonrenewal notice is one of several notice-timing requirements that specifically apply to landlords crossing the more-than-4-units threshold, alongside the newer 90-day rent-increase notice and the small-arrears payment-plan requirement.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204; Va. Code 55.1-1245]

A larger Virginia landlord should treat these as a connected set of obligations tied to the same portfolio-size threshold, rather than evaluating each one in isolation; a single compliance calendar tracking all of them together reduces the risk of missing one while focused on another.

This 60-day nonrenewal requirement, alongside the state's other 2025-2026 extensions, the 14-day pay-or-quit notice and the 90-day rent-increase notice, reflects a consistent legislative direction toward giving Virginia tenants more advance notice across multiple types of landlord decisions.

[Cite: Va. Code 55.1-1204; Va. Code 55.1-1245]

A property manager should expect this general trend toward longer notice periods to continue shaping Virginia landlord-tenant law, and building flexible, generously timed internal processes now helps absorb whatever further extensions might follow.

The practical starting point is building a standing internal review date, roughly 75 to 90 days before each lease's term end, to finalize the renewal or nonrenewal decision with enough buffer before the 60-day statutory deadline.

Confirming which properties in a portfolio actually cross the more-than-4-unit or 10%-interest threshold ensures this requirement is applied consistently across every covered lease, not just the ones a manager happens to remember are subject to it.