What a Landlord Cannot Do in West Virginia
The main limits West Virginia law puts on landlords — lockouts and utility shutoffs, entering without notice, retaliation, deposits, fees and discrimination — each with the statute or official source.
In short: a West Virginia landlord cannot evict without a court order, cannot punish a tenant for asserting legal rights where state law protects them, and must follow the state's rules on entry, deposits and fees shown below.
| Landlord entry notice | No statute No section on landlord entry or advance notice appears in Art. 6 or Art. 6A. Entry terms are governed by the lease. |
|---|---|
| Landlord retaliation | No retaliation statute with protected-act list or presumption period. Retaliatory eviction is a recognized defense: the official answer form lists 'action was filed in retaliation for complaints I made about the premises', and § 55-3A-3(g) preserves possession on appeal in retaliatory-eviction cases. No statutory presumption period. |
| Security deposit limit | No statutory cap on the amount of a security deposit. Neither the definitions section nor the security-deposit section sets a maximum. A pet fee or application fee is not a security deposit (and can be nonrefundable) only if the parties expressly agree in writing that it is nonrefundable (§ 37-6A-1). Source: W. Va. Code §§ 37-6A-1, 37-6A-2 |
| Penalty for withholding | If the violation is willful or not in good faith, tenant recovers the unreturned deposit plus damages equal to 1.5 times the amount wrongfully withheld; any award is credited against rent the tenant owes. The tenant does not get an automatic credit of the deposit against unpaid rent (§ 37-6A-2(d)). Source: W. Va. Code § 37-6A-5(a) |
| Late fees | No statutory cap No late-fee section appears in the landlord-tenant articles reviewed. Source: W. Va. Code ch. 37, art. 6 |
| Rent control / increase limits | No state rent control law. No enacted statewide preemption of local rent control was found in the code. Preemption bills were introduced (2024 SB 497, 2025 SB 168 amending § 37-6-9, 2025 HB 3435), but the current § 37-6-9 text contains no rent-control prohibition. Enactment not found. |
| Cameras & privacy | No landlord-specific statute. Criminal invasion of privacy: knowingly photographing, filming or digitally recording another person without that person's knowledge while the person is fully or partially nude in a place where a reasonable person would expect privacy is a misdemeanor (up to 1 year and $5,000); a second offense is a felony. West Virginia is a one-party consent state for audio interception. § 61-8-28 was amended in 2024 (H.B. 5516). Interception statute: https://code.wvlegislature.gov/62-1D-3/. The landlord-tenant chapter has no general notice-of-entry statute; the lease governs entry. |
| Other rental fees | No general junk-fee statute. Pet fees and application fees are excluded from the security deposit only if expressly agreed in writing to be nonrefundable. Deposits may cover late charges only if specified in the rental agreement and reasonable. |
Can I sue my landlord in West Virginia? · All West Virginia tenant rights
General legal information, not legal advice. Laws change and local rules can differ; check the linked official source or talk to a lawyer about your situation.