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Today at 5pm, the Housing subcommittee of the House General Laws committee will hear Senate Bill 427.  We need calls of support from you!  This is a very simple bill that provides for a very simple measure to help protect vulnerable Virginians. It adds a subsection to the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act that would allow a tenant to designate a third party to receive duplicate copies of eviction notices and other written notices from the landlord.  For example, an elderly woman could designate her grown son to receive notices, or a mentally handicapped adult could designate a relative or case manageer. 

The bill would require landlords to send copies of notices to a designated third party at the same time the landlord sends the notices to the tenant.  The only administrative burden on the landlord is the effort of duplicating the notice, and the only financial burden is the cost of a stamp.  In return, landlords have an additional interested party available to correct problems, and vulnerable Virginians, such as the elderly, mentally disabled, or those for whom English is a second language, are protected. 

Surprisingly, this bill has attracted a lot of attention from landlord lobbyists who want to ensure that landlords have as little legal responsibility as possible to the tenant.  Advocates for the bill have already compromised on the bill language to specify that the failure of the landlord to give notice to a third party will not affect the validity of any judgement against the tenant.  The bill with this language passed the Senate 40-0.  Despite this, lobbyists against the bill are planning to introduce an amendment that would add that the failure of a landlord to give notice to a third party would not be grounds for a continuance of a case.  This means that when a landlord-tenant case goes to court, the judge would not be able to rule for a continuance of the case to allow time for the tenant to correct the problems based on failure to file notice to a third party.  We oppose this amendment because, together with the compromise language that already exists in the bill, it strips any legal incentive for landlords to comply with the law. 

We urge you to call or email immediately (but calls are better at this point) the Delegates of this subcommittee.  Tell them to support the bill as it came out of the Senate, and to oppose any additional amendments. 

The Delegates are:

Del. Terrie Suit (Chiar): 804-698-1081; tsuit@cox.net

Del. Melanie Rapp: 804-698-1096; DelMRapp@house.state.va.us

Del. Chris Saxman: 804-698-1020; DelCSaxman@house.state.va.us

Del. Glenn Oder: 804-698-1094; DelGOder@house.state.va.us

Del. Bob Hull: 804-698-1038; DelBHull@house.state.va.us

Del. David Bulova: 804-698-1037; 37thdelegate@cox.net

Del. Rosalyn Dance: 804-698-1063; delegatedance@aol.com