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Ending a Lease on Orders — and the Landlord May Not Charge Liquidated Damages

A serving member with qualifying orders can end a residential lease by written notice, effective not less than 30 days after the next rent payment falls due. As the section now reads, the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages. A stop movement order counts, and so does being ordered into government quarters.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A serving member with qualifying orders can end a residential lease by written notice, effective not less than 30 days after the next rent payment falls due. As the section now reads, the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages. A stop movement order counts, and so does being ordered into government quarters.

What it's worth: The remaining rent on the lease, less roughly one more month — with no liquidated damages

  • What this is worth is whatever remains on your lease term beyond the notice period, so it ranges from nothing to most of a year of rent depending on when the orders arrive.
  • Subsection C, in its entirety, reads "The landlord may not charge any liquidated damages." No figure is carried here because the section names none.
  • The notice period is not 30 days from today. The effective date must be "not less than 30 days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due and payable after the date on which the written notice is given" — so notice given mid-month typically ends the tenancy at the end of the following month.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are serving, which is what this section is written around.
  • The right to terminate belongs to the member who holds the lease.
  • Your home is in Virginia.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: When qualifying orders are received
  1. 1Check your orders against the five limbs in subsection A: permanent change of station orders; temporary duty orders in excess of three months’ duration; discharge or release from active duty or from full-time duty or technician status with the National Guard; an order to report to government-supplied quarters resulting in forfeiture of basic allowance for quarters; or a stop movement order in response to a local, national or global emergency effective indefinitely or for not less than 30 days that prevents you occupying the unit for a residential purpose.
  2. 2Put the termination in writing and state a date in it. The section works by "serving on the landlord a written notice of termination to be effective on a date stated in such written notice".
  3. 3Count the date the way the statute counts it. Take the next rent due date after you give notice, then add 30 days — the effective date must not be earlier than that.
  4. 4Send the proof before the termination date, not with the notice. The section requires the tenant to furnish the landlord "a copy of the official notification of the orders or a signed letter, confirming the orders, from the tenant’s commanding officer" prior to the termination date. A commanding officer’s letter is an accepted alternative where the orders themselves cannot be handed over.
  5. 5Refuse a liquidated damages charge and cite subsection C by number. It says the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages.
  6. 6Do not stop meeting your other obligations. Subsection D preserves the tenant’s obligations established by §55.1-1227 — damage beyond ordinary wear and tear and unpaid rent are still yours.
  7. 7A stop movement order is worth reading twice. It has to prevent you occupying the leased dwelling unit for a residential purpose, and run indefinitely or for at least 30 days.
Form
A written notice of termination served on the landlord
File with
Your landlord — and the general district court if the landlord refuses
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionGuidance written before the recent amendments describes an early-termination charge measured against the months served under the lease. The section as it now stands says the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages. Read subsection C before you agree to pay anything.
CorrectionBeing ordered into government quarters is a qualifying event in its own right, provided it results in forfeiture of the basic allowance for quarters. Members regularly assume only a move to another installation counts.
Worth knowingA commanding officer’s signed letter confirming the orders is expressly an alternative to the orders themselves, which matters when the orders cannot be shared with a landlord.
Known gapThe section governs residential rental agreements. Manufactured home park lot rentals and self-storage agreements sit under different chapters that were not read this session.

Sources

Why only one source type: The right runs directly between tenant and landlord with no agency administering it, so there is no operating page to cross-check; the section itself is the whole of the mechanism, and it was read in full.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.