Client Receives Damages for Illegal Lockout

Self-help evictions without court process have been illegal for a long time but in 2021, the General Assembly provided statutory damages to help prevent landlords from taking the law into their own hands and provide a remedy for tenants who had been illegally excluded from their homes. Tenants can receive the greater of four months’ rent or $5000 under Virginia Code Section 55.1-1243.1.

 LASRV Attorney Mona Raza had been waiting for the perfect fact pattern to test out the statute.

 Nearly two years ago, she took an emergency intake from a client who had come home after working the night shift. She found a notice on the door of her apartment that stated the locks on the door had been changed and instructed her to go to the office.

 The apartment complex had been sold about six months prior and was being managed by an out of state property management company. The client went to the rental office and was allowed to retrieve some clothes from her apartment while a maintenance man watched but was not let back in.

The client, having nowhere to go, stayed with a friend, and contacted LASRV about ten days later.

 As soon as the client contacted the LASRV, Raza called the attorney that represented the complex in the past and was able to get the client back into her apartment.

 As the client had been excluded for 11 days, and to prevent this sort of thing from happening to other tenants, Raza filed a petition for relief from unlawful exclusion in general district court.

 At the trial the property manager argued that she thought my client had abandoned the property and that the locks had not been changed but just accident. However, the notice the tenant found on the door contradicted her statement.

 The judge ruled in favor of the LASRV client.  He awarded her actual damages for expenses she had incurred having to stay away from her home for 11 days, $5000 in statutory damages, and attorney’s fees.

 Since then, Raza has had several unlawful exclusion cases, some based on utility cutoffs.

 Attorneys at LASRV have been able to get access to their homes and awards of statutory damages for several of our clients.