Nolo was born in 1971 as a publisher of self-help legal books. Guided by the motto “law for all,” our attorney authors and editors have been explaining the law to everyday people ever since. Learn more about our history and our editorial standards.
Each article that we publish has been written or reviewed by one of our editors, who together have over 100 years of experience practicing law. We strive to keep our information current as laws change. Learn more about our editorial standards.
Many tenants who sign a lease for their apartment or rental unit plan to stay for the full amount of time required in the lease, such as one year. But, despite your best intentions, you might want (or need) to leave before your lease is up. Leaving before a fixed-term lease expires without paying the remainder of the rent due under the lease is called breaking the lease. Here's a brief review of tenant rights in Virginia to break a lease without further liability for the rent.
A lease obligates both you and your landlord for a set period of time, usually a year. Under a typical lease, a landlord can't raise the rent or change other terms, until the lease runs out (unless the lease itself provides for a change, such as a rent increase mid-lease). A landlord can't force you to move out before the lease ends, unless you fail to pay the rent or violate another significant term, such as repeatedly throwing large and noisy parties. In these cases, landlords in Virginia must follow specific procedures to end the tenancy. For example, your landlord must give you five days' notice to pay the rent or leave (Virginia Code Ann. §§ 55.1-1245, 55.1-1250 (2020)) before filing an eviction lawsuit. If you have repeatedly violated the lease (after a similar earlier violation was cured), your landlord may give you an unconditional quit notice, giving you 30 days to move out. (Va. Stat. Ann. § 55.1-1245 (2020).)
Tenants are legally bound to pay rent for the full lease term, typically one year, whether or not you continue to live in the rental unit—with some exceptions, as follows.
There are some important exceptions to the blanket rule that a tenant who breaks a lease owes the rent for the entire lease term. You may be able to legally move out before the lease term ends in the following situations.
If you enter active military service after signing a lease, you have a right to break the lease under federal law. (War and National Defense Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 App. U.S.C. §§ 501 and following.) You must be part of the "uniformed services," which includes the armed forces, commissioned corps of the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, and the activated National Guard. You must give your landlord written notice of your intent to terminate your tenancy for military reasons. The date for termination must be no less than 30 days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due and payable after the date on which the written notice is given. The termination date should not be more than 60 days before the date of departure necessary to comply with our official orders. You must supply your landlord with official verification of the military orders. (Va. Stat. Ann. § 55.1-1235 (2020).)
Virginia state law provides early termination rights for tenants who are victims of family or sexual abuse, provided that specified conditions are met (such as the tenant securing an order of protection). (Va. Code Ann. §§ 55.1-1208, 55.1-1236, 55.1-1230 (2020).)
If your landlord does not provide habitable housing under local and state housing codes, a court would probably conclude that you have been "constructively evicted;" this means that the landlord, by supplying unlivable housing, has for all practical purposes "evicted" you, so you have no further responsibility for the rent. Under Virginia law, when landlords fail to supply an essential service, such as heat, tenants must serve written notice of the breach on the landlord and give the landlord a reasonable time to correct the breach. If the landlord doesn't correct the breach, the tenant can recover the diminution of the fair rental value of the unit or obtain substitute housing for the period of the breach, and be excused from paying rent. (Va. Stat. Ann. § 55.1-1239 (2020).) In some circumstances, a court might also allow the tenant out of the lease without penalty. (Va. Stat. Ann. § 55.1-1241 (2020).)
Under state law in Virginia, your landlord must give you 24 hours' notice to enter rental property for maintenance, but does not need to give you any notice if you have requested maintenance. (Va. Code Ann. §§ 55.1-1229, 55.1-1249 (2020).) If your landlord repeatedly violates your rights to privacy, or does things like removing windows or doors, turning off your utilities, or changing the locks, you would be considered "constructively evicted," and this would usually trigger the procedure for relief described above.
If you don't have a legal justification to break your lease, the good news is that you may still be off the hook for paying all the rent due for the remaining lease term. This is because under Virginia law (Va. Code Ann. § 55.1-1251 (2020)), your landlord must make reasonable efforts to re-rent your unit—no matter what your reason for leaving—rather than charge you for the total remaining rent due under the lease. So you may not have to pay much, if any additional rent, if you break your lease. You need pay only the amount of rent the landlord loses because you moved out early. This is because Virginia requires landlords to take reasonable steps to keep their losses to a minimum—or to "mitigate damages" in legal terms.
So, if you break your lease and move out without legal justification, your landlord usually can't just sit back and wait until the end of the lease, and then sue you for the total amount of lost rent. Your landlord must try to re-rent the property reasonably quickly and subtract the rent received from new tenants from the amount you owe. The landlord does not need to relax standards for acceptable tenants—for example, to accept someone with a poor credit history. Also, the landlord is not required to rent the unit for less than fair market value, or to immediately turn his or her attention to renting your unit disregarding other business. Also, the landlord can add legitimate expenses to your bill—for example, the costs of advertising the property.
If your landlord re-rents the property quickly (more likely in college towns and similar markets), all you'll be responsible for is the (hopefully brief) amount of time the unit was vacant.
The bad news is that if the landlord tries to re-rent your unit, and can't find an acceptable tenant, you will be liable for paying rent for the remainder of your lease term. This could be a substantial amount of money if you leave several months before your lease ends. Your landlord will probably first use your security deposit to cover the amount you owe. But if your deposit is not sufficient, your landlord can sue you, probably in small claims court where the limit is $5,000 in Virginia.
If you want to leave early, and you don't have legal justification to do so, there are better options than just moving out and hoping your landlord gets a new tenant quickly. There's a lot you can do to limit the amount of money you need to pay your landlord—and help ensure a good reference from the landlord when you're looking for your next place to live.
You can help the situation a lot by providing as much notice as possible and writing a sincere letter to your landlord explaining why you need to leave early. Ideally you can offer your landlord a qualified replacement tenant, someone with good credit and excellent references, to sign a new lease with your landlord.
Every Tenant's Legal Guide (Nolo) provides extensive legal and practical advice that every tenant needs, from move in to move out, including how to get your landlord to cancel your lease, plus dozens of forms and sample letters.
To learn more about landlord-tenant laws in your state, see the State Landlord-Tenant Laws section of the Nolo site.