GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6, of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto House Bill 802, which gives enforcement powers to localities for the first time to enforce the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (VRLTA).

This legislation contains unnecessary and duplicative provisions, already established under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC), that provide effective powers to localities to enforce violations of the USBC.

It is also important to note that the existing USBC powers provide enforcement authority to localities to enforce the USBC against both the landlord and the tenant, whereas House Bill 802 proposes only to provide localities powers to enforce the VRLTA against the landlord. Under the USBC and the VRLTA, landlords and tenants both have responsibilities to maintain safe, decent, and sanitary housing.

It is neither clear why this language is necessary to enforce already existing provisions of state law, nor what the additional language contained in the legislation seeks to accomplish beyond what is already authorized in the USBC.

Landlords should be held accountable for unsafe and hazardous living conditions in which their tenants live. The existing regulations from the USBC, specifically Section 105.6 and the implementing regulations in 13VAC5-63-485, address the policy objective of the underlying legislation.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.