Three bills meant to address an eviction crisis earned unanimous approval in a General Assembly sub-committee vote today. That includes a bill that would allow tenants to clear their record if they manage to settle a late payment and avoid eviction.
Currently, even if you work something out with your landlord and aren’t evicted, that eviction notice still stays on your record. Chip Dicks with the Virginia Association of Realtors says this bill would wipe out eviction records that aren’t executed within 30 days. “If you’re the tenant, and you take care of it before the eviction, then we thought that was worthwhile recognizing.”
Dicks is part of a work group of industry and tenant advocates that formed after an April that profiled Virginia’s high rates of evictions. The group’s proposed six bills.
Advocates expect most of these will have bipartisan support except for an eviction diversion program that may come with high price tag.
