Q: [VA] Landlord renewed lease, despite me indicating I would not be staying months prior to the end of the lease
I recently moved out of a place I was renting, the lease ending on 7/31/19. My former housemate is staying at the place. On 3/21/19 I responded to a text from her asking if I was planning on staying indicating that I would not be. There is an auto-renewal clause in the lease, stating that it would renew if no written notice is given by 60 days from the end of the lease. She informed me recently that my lease was renewed, and that it is my responsibility to find someone to replace me on the lease. Is this legal? From my research it seems like text messages counting as "written" is debatable, but our primary means of communication has been texting, and she directly asked me if I was staying via text. I responded asking her why my lease was renewed when I had informed her I would not be staying well beyond the 60 day requirement in the lease, but have yet to receive a response.
A: Under the laws of Virginia, automatic renewal clauses in residential leases are legal as a contractual term and condition of the lease agreement. It sounds like there is a question of fact regarding whether the 60 day non-renewal notice was properly given as you and the landlord are disputing this issue. The matter would need to go to court and a judge would need to decide the issue if the parties cannot reach an agreement on the issue.
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