West Virginia Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in West Virginia
No West Virginia statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither authorizes nor prohibits city or county regulation of rent amounts, and no West Virginia locality has enacted rent control.
Verified August 12, 2026 · Full West Virginia rent-increase rules →
West Virginia Security deposits
West Virginia puts no cap on security deposits, but the landlord must return the deposit with a written itemization within 60 days after the tenancy ends — or within 45 days after a new tenant moves in, whichever comes first.
West Virginia Rent increase notice
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.
West Virginia Late fees
West Virginia sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period — no statute regulates when rent is late or what lateness may cost, so the lease governs.
West Virginia Entry notice
West Virginia has no statute requiring landlords to give any advance notice before entering a rental unit — no notice period, no list of permitted reasons, and no emergency exception exists in state law, so entry rights come entirely from the lease.
West Virginia Eviction process
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.
West Virginia mobile home park laws
West Virginia has a dedicated law for factory-built home rental communities, chapter 37, article 15 of its code, which covers a resident who owns a mobile, manufactured, modular or trailer home and rents the site beneath it.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
West Virginia Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every West Virginia metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 11, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, August 5, 2026 — Corrected the West Virginia record's verification history, which mislabeled 2025's HB 3272 as off-topic: the act amended and reenacted W. Va. Code 55-3A-1, the core eviction-petition statute, exactly as the eviction section describes. All HB 3272 claims re-verified against the enrolled act and codified section; passage (April 12, 2025) and gubernatorial approval (April 28, 2025) confirmed as distinct, correctly stated dates.
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.