2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25103174D

HOUSE BILL NO. 1709

Offered January 8, 2025

Prefiled January 4, 2025

A BILL to amend and reenact § 55.1-1222 of the Code of Virginia, relating to Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; landlord obligations; access of tenant to broadband services.

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Patron—Gardner

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Committee Referral Pending

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 55.1-1222 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 55.1-1222. Access of tenant to cable, satellite, broadband, and other facilities.

For the purposes of this section, "service provider" means a provider of cable television service, cable modem service, satellite master antenna television service, direct broadcast satellite television service, subscription television service, broadband service, or any other related television or Internet service.

No landlord of a multifamily dwelling unit shall demand or accept payment of any fee, charge, or other thing of value from any service provider of cable television service, cable modem service, satellite master antenna television service, direct broadcast satellite television service, subscription television service, or service of any other television programming system in exchange for granting a television any such service provider mere access to the landlord's tenants or giving the tenants of such landlord mere access to such service. A landlord may enter into a service agreement with a television service provider to provide marketing and other services to the television service provider designed to facilitate the television service provider's delivery of its services. Under such a service agreement, the television service provider may compensate the landlord for the reasonable value of the services provided and for the reasonable value of the landlord's property used by the television service provider.

No landlord shall demand or accept any such payment from any tenants in exchange for such service unless the landlord is itself the service provider of the service, nor shall any landlord discriminate in rental charges between tenants who receive any such service and those who do not. Nothing contained in this section shall prohibit a landlord from (i) requiring that the service provider of such service and the tenant bear the entire cost of the installation, operation, or removal of the facilities incident to such service or (ii) demanding or accepting reasonable indemnity or security for any damages caused by such installation, operation, or removal.