Charlottesville, VA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

" On a tenant's written request, that landlord must install, at the tenant's unit, a peephole and a dead-bolt lock meeting the USBC's new multi-family construction requirements on any exterior swinging entrance door, though a peephole is not required in a door that already has a glass panel. The same request also obligates the landlord to add manufacturer's locks plus removable metal pins or Charlie bars meeting USBC requirements on exterior sliding glass doors on the building's first two levels, and USBC-compliant locking devices on all exterior windows.

The ordinance does not make the landlord install these devices proactively in every unit; the duty is triggered only when a tenant asks in writing. Once triggered, § 5-3(b) gives the landlord a defined compliance window: ten days after receiving the tenant's written notice, or after written notice from the city's building maintenance official, counts as a "reasonable time" to finish the installation. 13:1, part of the state landlord-tenant act, which lets a locality require these security devices in multi-unit buildings; Charlottesville adopted that local option here rather than leaving it to lease negotiation.

Because § 5-3 sits in Chapter 5's general provisions rather than the unsafe-structures division, a landlord's failure to comply after the ten-day window is treated as a Chapter 5 violation rather than a separate housing-code offense.