Tenant Protections for Domestic Violence Survivors

If you live in federally assisted housing, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) bars your landlord or housing agency from denying, evicting, or ending your assistance because you are a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. It also lets the landlord remove the abuser from the lease and lets you ask for an emergency transfer to a safer unit. In a private rental with no federal assistance, state law decides: California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington are among the states that let survivors end a lease early with written notice and proof such as a protective order or police report, and California, Connecticut, and Illinois also set short deadlines for changing the locks.

What VAWA protects in federally assisted housing

VAWA covers housing in federal programs, including public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, project-based Section 8, HOME-funded units, USDA rural rental housing, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties. In HUD programs, providers must give you HUD's Notice of Occupancy Rights under VAWA at admission, at denial, and with any eviction or termination notice.

In covered housing:

• You cannot be denied admission, denied assistance, terminated from the program, or evicted because you are or have been a victim, if you otherwise qualify.
• An incident of actual or threatened violence against you cannot be treated as a serious or repeated lease violation or as good cause to end your tenancy.
• Criminal activity directly related to the abuse, committed by a household member or guest against you or a family member, cannot be the sole basis for evicting you.

The landlord can still evict you for a lease violation unrelated to the abuse if it holds you to the same standard as other tenants. It can also evict for an actual and imminent threat to other tenants or staff, though HUD's rule says to do so only when nothing else, such as a transfer or barring the abuser, would reduce the threat.

Removing the abuser and asking for a transfer

A landlord or housing agency can split the lease, called lease bifurcation, to evict or remove the abuser while you stay. It must use your state's eviction procedures. If the person removed was the one who qualified for assistance, you get 90 calendar days to qualify for that or another program or to find other housing, extendable by up to 60 days, though not past the end of the lease unless the program allows it.

Every covered provider must have an emergency transfer plan. You qualify for a transfer if you expressly ask for one and either:

• You reasonably believe you are threatened with imminent harm from further violence if you stay in your unit, or
• You are a victim of sexual assault that happened on the premises within the 90 calendar days before your request.

When a safe unit in your current housing is immediately available, the plan must let you move without reapplying; moving to another provider's housing means applying there, with the help the plan describes. The plan must also keep your new address confidential from the abuser.

What proof VAWA allows

A covered provider does not have to ask for documentation, but if it does, it must ask in writing and give you at least 14 business days to respond. You choose which one to submit:

1. A certification form from the program's agency, such as HUD, stating that you are a victim and naming the abuser if it is known and safe to do so.
2. A statement signed by you and by a victim service provider, attorney, or medical or mental health professional who helped you, saying under penalty of perjury that they believe the abuse occurred.
3. A police, court, or administrative agency record.
4. Your own statement or other evidence, if the provider agrees to accept it.

The provider can demand third-party proof, with 30 calendar days to provide it, only when it receives conflicting information, such as two household members naming each other. Everything you submit must be kept confidential, with narrow exceptions such as your written consent or an eviction hearing.

State laws that let you end any lease early

Some details change the answer:

• Who qualifies varies. Connecticut requires a reasonable belief that you must leave because of fear of imminent harm to you or a dependent, and New York a reasonable fear of further violence if you stay. California also covers abuse of an immediate family member and several violent crimes. Texas covers certain sex offenses within the past 6 months, but stalking only if it happened on the premises in that time. Washington also covers unlawful harassment.
• Cotenants may stay bound. In Connecticut and Washington, ending your lease does not release your cotenants (in Washington, unless they are also victims), and in New York the landlord cannot end their lease without their consent.
• Your lease cannot take these rights away. Texas, New York, and Illinois void lease terms that waive them.
• The landlord cannot hold it against you. New York bars a landlord from keeping your deposit because of the early termination, and Washington bars a landlord from ending, refusing to renew, or refusing a tenancy because you are a victim or used this right.

For other ways to end a lease, see breaking a lease early.

Getting the locks changed

• California: The landlord must change the locks at its own expense within 24 hours after your written request with a protective order, police report, or qualified third-party statement. If the abuser lives with you, you need a court order issued in the last 180 days that excludes that person. If the landlord misses the deadline, you can change them yourself with locks of similar or better quality, notify the landlord within 24 hours, give it a key, and get reimbursed within 21 days.
• Connecticut: If a protective or restraining order requires the abuser to stay away from you or your home and you give the landlord a copy, the landlord must tell you within 6 hours of your request whether it will change the locks or let you, and must change them within 48 hours if it agrees. It may charge the actual reasonable cost.
• Illinois: After a written request from all tenants on the lease, made because of a credible imminent threat at the home and sent with the required evidence, the landlord must change the locks or let you within 48 hours, and may charge a reasonable fee. If the abuser is on the lease, you do not need that person's signature, but you need a final order of protection or civil no contact order that gives you exclusive possession.
• Washington: With a court order giving you possession and excluding a cotenant, the landlord must re-key the unit at your expense and cannot give the excluded person a key.

If you receive an eviction notice tied to the abuse, raise VAWA or your state's protection as a defense; tenant defenses against eviction covers eviction defenses in general. For broader rules, see fair housing protections and your basic rights as a tenant.