## Facts

- Jared and Kathryn Newman rented a house from L & H Company (L & H) under a written residential lease.
- The lease contained an indemnity/reimbursement clause addressing damage to the tenants’ personal property.
- As described in the parties’ dispute, the clause required the Newmans to reimburse L & H for compensation the Newmans received from L & H for damage to the Newmans’ personal property.
- L & H, without the Newmans’ knowledge, placed flammable material in the home’s fireplace.
- The Newmans later built a fire in the fireplace, and the house caught fire.
- The fire damaged the Newmans’ personal property.
- The Newmans sued L & H seeking compensation for their personal-property losses.
- L & H moved for summary judgment, relying on the lease’s indemnity/reimbursement language to defeat the Newmans’ claim.

## Issues

1. Whether a residential lease provision requiring tenants to reimburse (i.e., indemnify) the landlord for amounts paid to the tenants for property damage caused by the landlord is unenforceable under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and therefore cannot support the landlord’s motion for summary judgment.

## Decision

- The court ruled that the lease’s indemnity/reimbursement clause was prohibited by the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and was unenforceable.
- Because the clause could not be enforced, it did not entitle L & H to judgment as a matter of law.
- L & H’s motion for summary judgment was denied.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a residential rental agreement may not require a tenant to exculpate or limit the landlord’s liability arising under law, or to indemnify the landlord for that liability or related costs.
- A lease term that effectively shifts the landlord’s liability back to the tenant—such as a “reimbursement” obligation triggered by the landlord compensating the tenant for the landlord’s own conduct—functions as an indemnification clause.
- A lease provision barred by the Act is unenforceable even if it appears in the signed rental agreement.
- Summary judgment cannot be granted on the basis of an unenforceable contract provision; a party may not obtain judgment as a matter of law by relying on a term the governing statute invalidates.

## Conclusion

The court denied the landlord’s summary-judgment motion because the residential lease’s reimbursement/indemnity clause improperly required the tenants to indemnify the landlord for the landlord’s own liability, a type of term the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act prohibits and makes unenforceable.


Newman v. L & H Co., 86 Va. Cir. 48 (2012)