Chesterfield family battles bats, seeks a way out of lease

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT) - A Chesterfield family says their landlord’s solution to getting rid of bats ended up leaving dead bats and a horrible stench all over the house.

Leticia Smith wanted her new home to be filled with love and new memories, but instead, she says, “I’m packing all my stuff.”

Smith moved into the home in February and has been living in fear for weeks. It was supposed to be a home that was a place of peace after her son Jeffrey was shot in 2021.

She says every night when she and her daughters come home, they’re forced to duck and dodge swarms of bats circling from above. She says the bats eventually squeeze into an opening in the roof of her laundry room, right next to her kitchen.

“It’s like a horror movie,” Smith said.

She says when she told her landlord about the issue, his solution was to close the opening.

“When he sealed it, they went crazy,” Smith said.

Sealing the entrance caused the bats left inside to die. The landlord told her he didn’t remove the bats that were already inside first because it’s illegal to move them during mating season.

While the Virginia Department of Wildlife says it’s “best to leave bats undisturbed,” bats can be removed legally by a wildlife removal company at any time.

Smith says she fears the smell, along with the bat bodies, could impact her and her children’s health.

The landlord initially refused to answer most of 12 On Your Side’s questions over email. However, over the phone, the landlord said he’s letting Smith out of her lease with no penalty. He also put this in writing in an email.

That changed, though, when her landlord found out she didn’t pay rent in July because Smith had filed a “tenant’s assertion,” which is a legal process that lets renters pay their rent to the court if the landlord doesn’t make repairs.

Smith says he’s once again refusing to release her from the lease.

She’s now fighting back in court, hoping a judge will terminate the lease and force her landlord to refund her some of the rent she’s paid in the past.

The Legal Aid Society says Smith did everything correctly, and provided these tips to anyone in a similar situation:

• Always put everything in writing with landlord, that’s the best policy.
• Leases can be terminated early without penalty three ways – by provision of law (i.e. in instances of domestic violence, tenants can terminate their lease if they give 30 day notice and have obtained a protective order); by agreement of all the parties to the lease in writing, or by a Judge in court (typically though a Tenant’s Assertion).
• Tenant Assertions are protective to tenants in more ways than one – rather than having an arduous legal battle to get your money back from your landlord down the road, by paying your rent into escrow, there is already a pot of money available for the court to award the tenant, and the tenant gets actual, tangible relief more quickly. This is opposed to having to get a judgment against the landlord and most likely having to collect on that judgment (which can be a lengthy process).
• When in doubt, file a Tenant’s Assertion so your money is not going to a bad actor. To do so, tenant must be current on rent and have given landlord written notice of the defective conditions.