How much notice is required to raise the rent in West Virginia?

Verified July 11, 2026 All West Virginia topics →

West Virginia has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase — the working rule for month-to-month tenancies is derived from W. Va.

Code 37-6-5, under which either party may end a periodic tenancy by written notice given one full period before the end of any period, so a landlord proposing higher rent is offering new terms the tenant can refuse by leaving. In practice that means a rent increase on a month-to-month tenancy needs written notice spanning at least one complete rental month, measured to the end of a rent period — a mid-month '30-day notice' that straddles two partial periods is not valid under the termination statute, and a year-to-year tenancy takes three months' notice before year-end. The statute yields to any special agreement fixing different notice. There is no limit on the size or frequency of increases, no rent control anywhere in the state, and no express statute either allowing or preempting local rent control — no West Virginia city or county has ever adopted it.

West Virginia rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	No rent-increase statute — notice derives from tenancy-termination rules (see summary)
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent is fixed for the lease term as a matter of contract; no West Virginia statute addresses mid-term or renewal increases. §37-6-5 itself does not apply where the term ends at a certain time (no notice needed) or where a special agreement fixes different notice.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No rent control exists anywhere in West Virginia — no statewide scheme and no local ordinance. There is also no express statute preempting local rent control: full-text sweeps of ch. 37 arts. 6, 6A, and 15 found none, and no such section exists despite some websites claiming one (see notes). West Virginia's strict Dillon's Rule tradition (municipalities exercise only granted powers) is the practical backdrop, but it is not an express preemption statute.
Local rent control preempted	Not addressed by statute
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

notice_days_month_to_month is null per the dataset's derivation convention (TX/SC/NE/MO precedent): 37-6-5 addresses only termination, never rent increases, and its measure is 'one full period before the end of any period' — a period-end-anchored month, not a flat 30 days (Legal Aid WV reads it the same way and warns that a standard 30-day notice 'rarely aligns' with full rental periods; notice must be written). Week-to-week: one full week by the same clause. Year-to-year: at least three months before the end of any year. The section is expressly alterable or waivable 'by special agreement.' PREEMPTION: null per the NV precedent — no express preemption statute exists. DEBUNK (fabricated citation circulating online): evictionriskmap.com asserts WV rent-control preemption 'codified at W. Va. Code § 37-6,' 'enacted in 2016,' and 'upheld by West Virginia appellate courts' — no such provision exists in art. 6's 31 sections (all read in full 2026-07-11), no 2016 act matches, and no appellate case exists; do not import. TRAP on 37-6-5 itself: the code page's 'Bill History' lists HB 4570 (2026) (service of eviction summons by posting), which passed the House 2026-02-06 but died in Senate Judiciary at sine die 2026-03-14 — the section is textually unchanged (verified verbatim across two official URLs); its 2025 twin HB 2537 also died in committee. Other dead 2025-2026 bills that would have touched this space: HB 2648 (2025) and HB 4432 (2026) ('tenant protections and landlord notice requirements'), both died in House Judiciary — watch for reintroduction in 2027.

Statute citations

W. Va. Code § 37-6-5 Official source
W. Va. Code ch. 37, art. 6 (full-article text — swept; contains no rent-increase, rent-control, or preemption provision) Official source
W. Va. Code § 37-15-7 (factory-built home communities — bars retaliatory selective rent increases only) (a) 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 fetched twice — once via rendered fetch, once via raw curl — plus the official whole-article 'email view' pages /email/37-6A/ and /email/37-6/), with all load-bearing 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) and HB3272 (eviction hearing scheduling, Ch. 1, eff. 2025-07-11) confirmed off-topic. 2026 regular session adjourned sine die 2026-03-14 with no on-topic bill passing. Legal Aid WV pages used as corroboration only.