How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in West Virginia?

No fixed statutory period — the summary above explains what, if anything, must precede filing. West Virginia requires no pay-or-quit notice before an eviction filing. The landlord may petition the moment rent is in arrears, and the only period that can come first is one the lease itself fixes.

How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in West Virginia?

No statutory period — see the notes on this page. West Virginia has no statutory cure-or-quit period for a lease violation. The landlord may petition immediately once the tenant has breached a warranty or leasehold covenant or damaged the property, and any waiting period comes from the lease alone.

How long does an eviction take in West Virginia?

One to two weeks from filing to a possession order in an uncontested case, with the sheriff removing the tenant on whatever date the order specifies.

How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in West Virginia?

No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes).

Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in West Virginia?

No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address. No West Virginia statute bars a landlord from locking a residential tenant out or shutting off utilities — and none permits it either, so the question is genuinely unanswered by statute rather than answered either way.

What is the eviction process and timeline in West Virginia?

Verified August 5, 2026 All West Virginia topics →

To evict a tenant in West Virginia the landlord files a verified petition for summary relief for wrongful occupation directly with the magistrate court or the circuit court of the county where the property is located -- no pay-or-quit notice, cure period or notice to quit is required first -- and the court must set the hearing not less than five nor more than 10 judicial days after the petition is filed.

Cited to W. Va. Code 55-3A-1 (a)-(c) and 34 more West Virginia statutes · Verified August 5, 2026

The petition must state that the petitioner is the owner or the owner's agent with a right to possession, describe the property, and identify which of three statutory grounds applies: rent arrears, breach of a warranty or leasehold covenant, or deliberate or negligent damage to the property. Once the court fixes the hearing date, the landlord serves notice of the hearing under Rule 4 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure or by certified mail with return receipt requested, and that notice must tell the tenant that a written defense may be filed and served within five days of receiving it. If the tenant does not appear or answer, the court enters an order granting immediate possession; if the tenant answers, the court holds the hearing and enters the same order if it finds wrongful occupation. The possession order itself fixes the date the tenant must be out and directs the sheriff to remove the tenant after that date, so there is no separate writ to apply for. Ending a month-to-month or year-to-year tenancy is a different step governed by a different statute: written notice under W. Va. Code 37-6-5 -- one full rental period for a periodic tenancy shorter than a year, three months for a year-to-year tenancy -- and a tenant who then holds over is removed through unlawful entry or detainer under chapter 55, article 3, which magistrate courts also hear.

West Virginia eviction process at a glance

Nonpayment notice (pay-or-quit)	No fixed statutory period — the summary above explains what, if anything, must precede filing
Nonpayment notice rules (day counting, cure rights, service)	West Virginia requires no pay-or-quit notice before an eviction filing. The landlord may petition the moment rent is in arrears, and the only period that can come first is one the lease itself fixes. No pay-or-quit notice exists in West Virginia and none is required before filing -- this is the single thing a generic template gets wrong about this state. W. Va. Code 55-3A-1(a) lets an owner or the owner's agent apply for relief the moment rent is in arrears, by verified petition stating only: the right to recover possession, a description of the property, that the tenant is wrongfully occupying it because the tenant 'is in arrears in the payment of rent' (describing the arrearage), and a prayer for possession. No demand, no cure period, no notice to quit -- the phrase 'notice to quit' appears nowhere in the West Virginia Code, and the Supreme Court of Appeals' own petition form (SCA MLTPTWR) contains no notice entry and no notice attestation. W. Va. Code 37-6-19 confirms the same for the older unlawful-detainer track: a person with a right of reentry 'by reason of any rent issuing thereout being in arrear' may 'commence an action of unlawful detainer, and obtain service either in person or by publication, as in other such actions, which service shall be in lieu of a demand and reentry.' The one qualifier is contractual, not statutory: 37-6-19's closing sentence provides that 'In case the time for reentering be specified in the instrument creating the rent, covenant or condition, the proceedings in ejectment or unlawful detainer shall not be begun until such time shall have elapsed' -- so a notice period written into the lease must expire first, but nothing supplies one by default. The only notice in the residential track runs AFTER filing: under 55-3A-1(c) the petitioner must, immediately on learning the hearing date, serve notice of the hearing 'in accordance with the provisions of Rule 4 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure or by certified mail, return receipt requested,' and that notice must tell the tenant a written defense may be filed and served on the petitioner within five days of receipt; proof of service is then filed with the petition. Day unit: that five-day window is counted differently by forum. In magistrate court, Rule 20(a)(3) of the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Magistrate Courts excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays from any period 'less than 7 days' set 'by these rules, by the magistrate, or by statute'; in circuit court, W. Va. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)(A) counts every day including weekends and holidays. Generally, W. Va. Code 2-2-1(d) excludes the triggering day and rolls a deadline falling on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday or designated day off to the next open day, and 2-2-1(f) defers to Supreme Court rules for court deadlines. There is no statutory right to cure by tendering rent, though 55-3A-3(d) requires a tenant who obtains a continuance to pay periodic rent into court, and 37-6-20 leaves equitable relief against forfeiture open until twelve months after execution executed. Separate scheme, do not blend: 37-6-6(a) requires a conspicuously posted written notice giving one month to pay, but only where a tenant in arrears has ABANDONED the property.
Lease-violation notice period	No statutory period — see the notes on this page
Lease-violation notice rules (cure vs. termination)	West Virginia has no statutory cure-or-quit period for a lease violation. The landlord may petition immediately once the tenant has breached a warranty or leasehold covenant or damaged the property, and any waiting period comes from the lease alone. There is no two-number statute here and no termination date to show -- this is the MA/IN/MN pattern, where terminations ride the lease's own clause. W. Va. Code 55-3A-1(a)(3) permits an immediate petition once the tenant 'has breached a warranty or a leasehold covenant, or has deliberately or negligently damaged the property or knowingly permitted another person to do so,' the petition merely 'describing the arrearage, breach, or act or omission.' No cure window, no quit period, no waiting period appears anywhere in ch. 55 art. 3A. The only period that can attach to a breach is the one the parties wrote: W. Va. Code 37-6-19 provides that 'In case the time for reentering be specified in the instrument creating the rent, covenant or condition, the proceedings in ejectment or unlawful detainer shall not be begun until such time shall have elapsed.' Materiality is not defined by statute; 55-3A-2 lets the tenant assert 'any and all defenses which might be raised in an action for ejectment or an action for unlawful detainer,' and 55-3A-3(c) sends a contested breach or damage claim to a hearing. Landlord duties that can generate the countervailing 'breach of a material covenant upon which the duty to pay rent depends' defense (55-3A-3(b)) are in 37-6-30(a). KEEP TWO INSTRUMENTS APART: 37-6-5 is NOT a breach notice. It is the no-fault instrument that ends a periodic tenancy -- 'A tenancy from year to year may be terminated by either party giving notice in writing to the other, at least three months prior to the end of any year, of his intention to terminate the same. A periodic tenancy, in which the period is less than one year, may be terminated by like notice, or by notice for one full period before the end of any period.' It is not required for a breach, it creates no cure right, it is displaced 'where, by special agreement, some other period of notice is fixed, or no notice is to be given,' and no notice at all is needed 'from or to a tenant whose term is to end at a certain time.' Its periods are months and full rental periods, not days, which is why nothing from 37-6-5 is reflected in this answer. Repeat-violation escalation is not addressed by statute.
Unconditional-quit grounds	Functionally every ground in West Virginia is unconditional, because no statutory cure right attaches to any of them. W. Va. Code 55-3A-1(a)(3) supplies the three grounds for the residential summary action -- (1) the tenant 'is in arrears in the payment of rent'; (2) the tenant 'has breached a warranty or a leasehold covenant'; (3) the tenant 'has deliberately or negligently damaged the property or knowingly permitted another person to do so.' Each supports filing immediately, with no pre-suit notice attached. A pure holdover is NOT one of the three: where a fixed term has expired or a periodic tenancy has been ended by a 37-6-5 notice, the landlord proceeds in unlawful entry or detainer under W. Va. Code 55-3-1, which reaches a tenant who 'shall detain the possession ... after his right has expired, without the consent of him who is entitled to the possession'; magistrate courts hear that action too under 50-2-1. There is no illegal-activity or drug-nuisance eviction notice in the landlord- tenant statutes; the nearest analogue is 61-13-4(b), under which any person may petition for injunctive relief 'seeking eviction from or closure of any premises used for the operation of an organized criminal enterprise' -- a nuisance-abatement action brought to a court, not a notice a landlord serves. No statute authorises a landlord to skip the court process for any ground.
Court and action	Jurisdiction is CONCURRENT — there is no single eviction court: W. Va. Code 55-3A-1(a) lets a person seeking to remove a tenant 'apply for relief to the magistrate court or the circuit court of the county in which the property is located, by verified petition.' The residential action is styled a petition for summary relief for wrongful occupation of residential rental property (ch. 55, art. 3A). A second, older action -- unlawful entry or detainer (ch. 55, art. 3) -- is the vehicle for a holdover whose right has expired, and it is commenced by summons under 55-3-1. W. Va. Code 50-2-1 gives magistrate courts jurisdiction over 'all matters involving unlawful entry or detainer of real property or involving wrongful occupation of residential rental property, so long as the title to such property is not in dispute,' and applies ch. 55 art. 3 in magistrate court 'except as the same may be in conflict with the provisions of this chapter'; magistrate courts have no jurisdiction over matters in which title to real estate is in issue. Under 50-4-8, in 'any action for wrongful occupation or unlawful detainer involving $2,500 or more any party may, upon payment of the circuit court filing fee, cause such action to be removed to circuit court.' Procedure in magistrate court is the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Magistrate Courts of West Virginia, which 'supplement, and in designated instances supersede,' ch. 50: Rule 3 adopts W. Va. R. Civ. P. 4 for service; Rule 4(b)(4) sets the answer at five days after service 'in cases of unlawful entry and detainer and wrongful occupation of residential rental property' (against the ordinary twenty days in 50-4-5 and Rule 4(b)(1)); Rule 12(a)'s pretrial-motion deadlines expressly 'shall not apply to summary proceedings for wrongful occupation of residential rental property.' Either side may elect a jury -- Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 6A(a) gives the right where the case 'involves possession to real estate,' and in an expedited wrongful-occupation case the election must be made within five days of service. In circuit court the W. Va. Rules of Civil Procedure govern.
Filing to hearing	Set by an eviction-specific statute, bounded at both ends, and measured in JUDICIAL days. W. Va. Code 55-3A-1(b): 'Upon filing the petition, the court shall schedule a hearing, which may not be less than five nor more than 10 judicial days following the filing of the petition.' The window runs from FILING, not from service. Service of the hearing notice follows the court's scheduling (55-3A-1(c)), and the tenant's written defense is due within five days of receiving that notice; the Supreme Court's official summons form (SCA MLTSMWO) adds 'and in no case later than the fifth day next preceding the date of hearing.' In magistrate court the five-day answer period excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays (Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 20(a)(3)); in circuit court every day counts (W. Va. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)(A)). 'Judicial day' is not defined anywhere in the West Virginia Code. Sequence changed in 2025: HB 3272 (ch. 1, Acts, Reg. Sess. 2025, effective July 11, 2025) made the petition the first step and the hearing date a consequence of filing; the older sequence -- request a hearing date, serve, then file -- survives verbatim in the factory-built-home-site article at 55-3B-4(b), so pre-2025 write-ups of West Virginia describe a procedure that art. 3A no longer uses. Continuances are restricted: 55-3A-3(d) allows them 'for cause only,' bars either party from a continuance as of right, and requires a tenant who obtains one to pay any periodic rent falling due into court.
Writ of possession and lockout	The residential article names no writ -- the possession order is itself the removal instrument. W. Va. Code 55-3A-3(a) requires the court, where the tenant has not appeared, answered or otherwise pleaded by the time of the hearing, to 'make and enter an order granting immediate possession of the property to the landlord,' and 55-3A-3(e) requires the same order after a contested hearing if the court finds wrongful occupation. 55-3A-3(f) then makes that order self-executing: 'The court order shall specify the time when the tenant shall vacate the property,' weighing the nature of the property, 'the possibility of relative harm to the parties,' and other material facts, and 'shall further provide that if the tenant continues to wrongfully occupy the property beyond such time, the sheriff shall forthwith remove the tenant, taking precautions to guard against damage to the property of the landlord and the tenant.' Because the vacate date is committed to the court's discretion, there is no statutory minimum or maximum -- the earliest lawful lockout is whatever date the order sets, and the sheriff executes. On the unlawful-detainer track the general writ statute applies: 38-4-4 provides that 'On a judgment for the recovery of specific property, real or personal, a writ of possession may issue for the specific property.' In magistrate court, 50-6-1(a) provides that no enforcement process 'shall issue until after twenty days after the judgment is rendered' or twenty days after determination of a pending motion to set aside. Personal property left after the vacate date is governed by 55-3A-3(h)-(i): the landlord may dispose of it if the tenant states in writing that it is abandoned or if it is garbage; otherwise remove and store it, or leave it in place, and dispose of it after thirty days on the stated conditions -- with up to thirty additional days of storage required where the property is worth more than $300 and the tenant or a secured party gives notice of intent to remove it and pays reasonable storage and removal costs.
Appeal window	No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes)
Best-case uncontested timeline (derived from statutory minimums — contested cases run longer)	One to two weeks from filing to a possession order in an uncontested case, with the sheriff removing the tenant on whatever date the order specifies. This is a derivation from statutory minimums, not a promise and not an observed average. Derived by adding the statutory minimums cited here: 0 days of pre-suit notice (none is statutorily required, 55-3A-1(a)) + at least 5 judicial days between filing the petition and the hearing (55-3A-1(b)) + the vacate date the court writes into its possession order (55-3A-3(f), which sets no minimum). Five judicial days is roughly a calendar week once a weekend intervenes, and the statutory ceiling on the hearing is 10 judicial days, about two calendar weeks. Contested cases run longer: 55-3A-3(d) permits continuances for cause, a jury may be elected under Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 6A, and a timely appeal automatically stays enforcement of the judgment (50-5-12(a); Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 18A) -- though 55-3A-3(g) provides that during the pendency of an appeal 'the tenant is not entitled to remain in possession of the property if the period of the tenancy has otherwise expired.'
Self-help eviction (lockout, utility shutoff) barred	No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address
Self-help scope and tenant remedies	No West Virginia statute bars a landlord from locking a residential tenant out or shutting off utilities — and none permits it either, so the question is genuinely unanswered by statute rather than answered either way. The words 'self-help,' 'notice to quit' and 'change the locks' appear nowhere in the West Virginia Code, and every occurrence of 'lockout' is in labour or insurance law. The one express landlord self-help ban is confined to a scheme outside this page: W. Va. Code 37-15-6(d) (factory-built home sites) provides that 'A landlord may not cause the eviction of a tenant by willfully interrupting gas, electricity, water or any other essential service, or by removal of the factory-built home from the factory-built home site, or by any other willful self-help measure.' The absence of any counterpart in ch. 37 art. 6 or ch. 55 art. 3A is therefore a drafting choice, not an oversight. What the Code supplies instead is a remedy, not a prohibition: W. Va. Code 55-3-1 provides that 'If any forcible or unlawful entry be made upon any land, building, structure, or any part thereof ... the party so turned out of possession, no matter what right or title he had thereto,' may within three years sue out a summons for possession and damages -- which reaches an extrajudicial ouster by entry, but is framed as a cause of action and says nothing about a utility shutoff, which involves no entry at all. 55-3A-3(f)'s direction that 'the sheriff shall forthwith remove the tenant' assumes officer execution but does not in terms forbid the landlord acting alone. The only express statutory self-help path for a landlord is narrow: 37-6-6(a) provides that where a tenant in arrears has abandoned the leased property, the landlord posts a conspicuous written notice requiring payment within one month, and if it is not paid 'the landlord shall be entitled to possession of the property, and may enter thereon, and the right of the tenant to the leased property shall end.' Distress for rent -- a seizure remedy against goods, not possession -- also survives at 37-6-9 through 37-6-18. Tenant remedies for a lockout are therefore the 55-3-1 possession-and-damages action and general tort law, not a statutory penalty.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, West Virginia Eviction Process Laws (verified August 5, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/eviction-process/west-virginia/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the West Virginia statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

No pre-suit notice — and an empty answer does not mean zero — Both notice fields are empty because West Virginia statutorily requires no pre-filing notice for either nonpayment or breach — not because data is missing, and not because the period is zero. 55-3A-1(a) sets out the contents of the petition and imposes no notice; 37-6-19 makes service of process 'in lieu of a demand and reentry.'
The absence is proved by statute, not by silence — 55-3A-1(a) enumerates exhaustively what the verified petition must set forth — that the petitioner is owner or agent with a right to recover possession, a brief description of the property, that the tenant is in default 'and describing the arrearage, breach, or act or omission,' and a prayer for possession — and no notice, demand or cure period appears anywhere in that list. 37-6-19 then says so affirmatively: service 'shall be in lieu of a demand and reentry.'
The only pre-filing wait is one the lease creates — The single period that can precede filing is one the lease itself fixes, under the final sentence of 37-6-19. Nothing supplies one by default.
West Virginia never adopted the URLTA — The state is not a Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act jurisdiction.
Filing to hearing is measured in judicial days — The five-to-10-day window in 55-3A-1(b) runs in judicial days, not calendar days.
'Judicial day' is nowhere defined — The phrase appears in 55-3A-1(b) and 55-3B-4(b); eight sections of the Code use it and none defines it, and neither Magistrate Court Rule 20 nor Rule of Civil Procedure 6 defines it. Read it descriptively as days the court is open, not as a synonym for business days.
The five-day answer window is counted differently by court — In magistrate court, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays are excluded (Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 20(a)(3), which excludes them from any period 'less than 7 days' set by rule, magistrate or statute); in circuit court every day counts (W. Va. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)(A)). 55-3A-1(a) allows the case to be filed in either.
The other periods shown here are calendar days — 37-6-5's periods are months and full rental periods; the 20 days in 50-5-12(a) and the 20 days in 50-6-1(a) are ordinary calendar days under 2-2-1(d).
No eviction-specific appeal window, so the field is left empty — West Virginia has two windows on two tracks and neither is eviction-specific: 50-5-12(a) gives 20 days to appeal any magistrate-court civil judgment to circuit court (mirrored by Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 18(a), with a 90-day good-cause extension), while a case filed originally in circuit court under 55-3A-1(a) goes to the Intermediate Court of Appeals under 51-11-4(b)(1) on a 30-day notice of appeal (W. Va. R. App. P. 5(b)). A real number that is right for one track is wrong for the other, so neither is used as the figure here.
Lockouts and utility shutoffs: the statutes say nothing — The self-help answer is left empty rather than recorded as barred, and recording it as not barred would be wrong too: no statute addresses a peaceable lockout or a utility shutoff for a conventional residential tenancy, so the question is genuinely unanswered by statute.
No confirmed case law on the point — No West Virginia decision establishing a self-help bar could be identified from an official source, so a controlling opinion is neither confirmed nor excluded here.
A remedy, not a prohibition — 55-3-1 reaches a 'forcible or unlawful' entry and gives the party turned out a possession action 'no matter what right or title he had thereto' — arguably a shade stronger than Arkansas or Idaho — but it is a remedy rather than a ban, and it does not reach a utility shutoff.
The legislature knows how to write the ban — It did so at 37-15-6(d), only for factory-built home sites.
The 37-6-1 miscitation — Secondary sources uniformly assert that self-help eviction is illegal in West Virginia and several cite W. Va. Code 37-6-1 for it. 37-6-1 is 'Rights of parties on transfer of land or reversion' and says nothing of the kind; nothing from those sources is used here.
An unresolved question about the 20-day enforcement bar — Whether 50-6-1(a)'s bar on enforcement process issuing for twenty days after judgment applies to a 55-3A-3(f) possession order is unresolved — 55-3A-3(f) directs the sheriff in the order itself rather than by separate process, so the two provisions may not intersect. It is not built into the derived timeline.
Two parallel actions — the ground picks the vehicle — 55-3A-1(a)(3) lists only arrears, breach of a warranty or leasehold covenant, and damage. A pure holdover — a fixed term expired, or a periodic tenancy ended by a 37-6-5 notice — is not on that list and is pursued as unlawful entry or detainer under 55-3-1; 50-2-1 confers magistrate jurisdiction over both actions separately.
Service and answer differ between the two actions — 55-3-3's requirement that the summons be 'served at least ten days before the return day' governs the circuit-court unlawful-detainer summons. In magistrate court, 50-2-1 applies chapter 55, article 3 only so far as it does not conflict with chapter 50, and Mag. Ct. Civ. R. 4(b)(4) fixes a five-day answer in both unlawful-detainer and wrongful-occupation cases.
Concurrent jurisdiction is real, not nominal — 55-3A-1(a) offers the choice of magistrate or circuit court, and 50-4-8 lets any party remove a wrongful-occupation or unlawful-detainer case involving $2,500 or more to circuit court on payment of the circuit filing fee. 50-2-1 excludes magistrate jurisdiction where title to the real estate is in issue.
What HB 3272 changed on July 11, 2025 — Chapter 1, Acts, Regular Session 2025 — approved by the Governor on April 28, 2025 — rewrote 55-3A-1 so the petition is filed first and the court then schedules the hearing five to 10 judicial days later, and added the tenant's five-day written-defense right.
Anything written before July 2025 describes the old sequence — The pre-2025 order — request a hearing date, serve notice, then file — still appears verbatim at 55-3B-4(b), so any description of West Virginia written before July 2025 describes a procedure article 3A no longer uses.
No retaliation statute for conventional rentals — 37-15-7's retaliation ban is confined to factory-built home sites. 55-3A-3(g) nevertheless preserves 'retaliatory eviction' as an issue that can restore a tenant to possession on appeal, alongside title and breach of warranty, without defining it.
Out of scope: factory-built home sites and park lots — Chapter 55, article 3B and chapter 37, article 15 are an entirely separate scheme, with a three-month written termination notice (55-3B-3(a); 37-15-6(c)), a minimum tenancy of 12 months for single-section and 5 years for multi-section homes absent good cause (37-15-6(a)), an express self-help ban (37-15-6(d)) and a retaliation ban (37-15-7). None of its figures belong in the residential fields.
Out of scope: squatters — Chapter 55, article 3C (the Stop Squatters Act, HB 4940 of 2024 as amended by HB 2434 of 2025, Chapter 219, effective July 10, 2025) and 37-6-31 take squatters outside the eviction process entirely and allow law-enforcement removal on a verified complaint.
The squatter route cannot be used against a tenant — 55-3C-2(a) excludes from 'squatter' 'a tenant who holds over in a periodic tenancy as described in 37-6-5,' and 55-3C-3(a)(6) requires that the occupant 'is not current or former owners or current or former lawful tenants.'
Out of scope: public housing — 37-6-6(b) sets a distinct one-month abandonment-response procedure for housing authorities where rent is not a condition of the lease.
No local list, because there is no registry — There is no rent-control or just-cause statute and no official registry of local ordinances, so no list of localities is published here.
One express preemption of municipal rental regulation — 8-1-5a(k) provides that 'Municipalities may not prohibit or effectively limit the rental of a property, in whole or in part, or regulate the duration, frequency, or location of such rental, in whole or in part,' while preserving uniform-application regulation of activities arising from rental use.
Read 8-1-5a(k) as context, not as an eviction preemption — It sits in the Municipal Home Rule Program section and reads on its face as a general municipal preemption — unlike subsections (i) and (j), which are expressly limited to participating municipalities — but it is aimed at short-term-rental bans and is not an eviction-procedure preemption, so it is reported here as context rather than as a bar on local eviction-notice ordinances.
The official code site carries no edition statement — code.wvlegislature.gov states only that sections 'are updated regularly as new legislation takes effect.' Currency is therefore established section by section: the codified 55-3A-1 matches the enrolled HB 3272 word for word; 50-2-1 reflects HB 2761 (2025, effective July 7, 2025, magistrate jurisdiction now $20,000); 2-2-1 reflects SB 793 (2026, effective June 11, 2026, 'day of local significance'); and 55-3C-3 through 55-3C-6 reflect HB 2434 (2025).
Nothing on this topic passed in 2026 — The full 2026 completed-legislation list — 306 bills, session adjourned March 14, 2026 — contains no landlord-tenant or eviction enactment, and no enacted-but-not-yet-effective amendment affects any section the figures here rest on.
Two 2026 service bills died — SB 799 would have required the return of service or return receipt to be filed with the court (last action 'To House Judiciary 02/23/26'), and HB 4570 would have made posting a summons conspicuously on the rental property good service (last action 'S To Judiciary 02/09/26'). SB 579 (2025, home rule reform) also died.
A bad citation in the Legislature's own metadata — The bill-status 'Code Affected' entry for HB 2434 (2025) lists 55-3D-1, 55-3D-2 and 55-3D-3, which do not exist; the enrolled act's text says it added 55-3C-3 through 55-3C-6, and the codified article agrees. The code site returns a normal-looking page for section paths that do not exist, so a broken citation does not announce itself — trust the enrolled text and the codified section over the bill-status metadata.
The enrolled act and the codified section agree — The enrolled HB 3272 and the codified W. Va. Code 55-3A-1 carry identical text: the act amends and reenacts 55-3A-1 exactly as described here, it passed on April 12, 2025, and the Governor approved it on April 28, 2025. The official code site likewise carries 55-3A-1(b)'s five-to-10-judicial-day filing-to-hearing window and its concurrent-jurisdiction language in the terms stated here, alongside 37-6-19, the second section behind the no-notice conclusion.

Common questions: West Virginia eviction process

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in West Virginia?: No fixed statutory period — the summary above explains what, if anything, must precede filing. West Virginia requires no pay-or-quit notice before an eviction filing. The landlord may petition the moment rent is in arrears, and the only period that can come first is one the lease itself fixes.
How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in West Virginia?: No statutory period — see the notes on this page. West Virginia has no statutory cure-or-quit period for a lease violation. The landlord may petition immediately once the tenant has breached a warranty or leasehold covenant or damaged the property, and any waiting period comes from the lease alone.
How long does an eviction take in West Virginia?: One to two weeks from filing to a possession order in an uncontested case, with the sheriff removing the tenant on whatever date the order specifies.
How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in West Virginia?: No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes).
Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in West Virginia?: No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address. No West Virginia statute bars a landlord from locking a residential tenant out or shutting off utilities — and none permits it either, so the question is genuinely unanswered by statute rather than answered either way.

Statute citations

W. Va. Code 55-3A-1 (a)-(c) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3A-2 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3A-3 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3-1 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3-3 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-5 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-6 (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-19 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-20 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-30 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6-31 (a)-(c) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-6A-5 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 50-2-1 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 50-4-5 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 50-4-8 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 50-5-12 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 50-6-1 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 38-4-4 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 2-2-1 (d), (f) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 2-2-2 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 51-11-4 (b)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 61-13-4 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 8-1-5a (k) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3B-3 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3B-4 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3C-2 (a), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 55-3C-3 (a)(6) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-15-6 (d) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Code 37-15-7 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. R. Civ. P. 4 Rule 4 (summons and service); Rule 6(a)(1)(A) (computing time) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. R. Civ. P. Mag. Ct. 3, 4, 6A, 12, 18, 18A, 20 Rule 4(b)(4) (5-day answer); Rule 6A(a)-(b) (jury election); Rule 12(a) (motion deadlines inapplicable to summary wrongful-occupation proceedings); Rule 18(a) (20-day appeal); Rule 18A (stay); Rule 20(a)(3) (periods under 7 days exclude weekends and holidays) (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. R. App. P. 5 Rule 5(b) (notice of appeal within thirty days) (verified 2026) Official source
2025 W. Va. Acts ch. 1 (Enrolled H.B. 3272) amending and reenacting W. Va. Code 55-3A-1; passed April 12, 2025; approved by the Governor April 28, 2025; effective July 11, 2025 (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Sup. Ct. form MLTPTWR, Petition for Summary Relief: Wrongful Occupation of Residential Rental Property official magistrate court form; contains no pre-suit notice field (verified 2026) Official source
W. Va. Sup. Ct. form MLTSMWO, Civil Summons: Wrongful Occupation of Residential Rental Property or Factory-Built Home Site revised 01/12/2026; five-day answer language (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official WV Legislature code site (code.wvlegislature.gov): sections 37-6A-1, 37-6A-2, 37-6A-5, and 37-6-5 each read at least three times across two distinct official presentations (individual section pages read twice independently, plus the official whole-article 'email view' pages /email/37-6A/ and /email/37-6/), with all key figures matching verbatim (60-day/45-day whichever-shorter return window, 15-day contractor-itemization extension, 1.5x annoyance/inconvenience damages, one-full-period month-to-month termination notice, 6-month hold and 72-hour delivery rules). All of article 6A additionally reconciled character-for-character against the enrolled Committee Substitute for HB 3202 (2011) on wvlegislature.gov — approved by the Governor 2011-04-01, Chapter 149, Acts 2011, effective 2011-06-10 — proving the 1.5x penalty is original 2011 text with no later amendment. Verified negatives (no deposit cap, no interest, no separate account, no late-fee or grace-period statute, no entry-notice statute, no rent-increase-notice statute, no rent-control or preemption statute) run against the full official texts of ch. 37 arts. 6 (all 31 sections), 6A, and 15. Bill outcomes verified on official Bill_Status action tables: dead bills SB590 (2022), SB147 (2023, House-rejected Roll No. 638), SB165 (2024), HB4695 (2006), HB4570/HB4432/HB5155/HB5334 (2026), HB2537/HB2648/HB2828/HB2903 (2025). Enacted 2025 acts: HB2434 (Stop Squatters Act, Ch. 219, eff. 2025-07-10) confirmed off-topic for these deposit, rent, fee, and entry topics (it added the ch. 55 art. 3C squatter-removal scheme, treated as out of scope in the eviction topic's notes); HB3272 (Ch. 1, Acts 2025 — passed 2025-04-12, approved by the Governor 2025-04-28, eff. 2025-07-11) is on-topic, not off: it amended and reenacted W. Va. Code 55-3A-1, the core residential-eviction petition statute (filing-first hearing scheduling plus the tenant's five-day written-defense window), and its changes are carried in the eviction_process topic. The eviction topic is verified on its own track (see its topic_verified date and notes): its build pass reconciled the codified 55-3A-1 against the enrolled HB3272 word for word and ran currency checks on adjacent sections (50-2-1 reflecting HB2761 (2025), 2-2-1 reflecting SB793 (2026), 55-3C reflecting HB2434 (2025)); 55-3A-1 and 37-6-19 were independently re-read 2026-07-25; and on 2026-08-05 the enrolled HB3272 text and the codified 55-3A-1 were each read twice more and matched character-for-character, with the passage (2025-04-12) and gubernatorial-approval (2025-04-28) dates confirmed as distinct events from the official Bill_Status action table. 2026 regular session adjourned sine die 2026-03-14 with no on-topic bill passing. Legal Aid WV pages used as corroboration only.