§ 8.01-74.Leases on behalf of persons under disability; new leases.

This section covers two related situations, each triggered by an application to the circuit court. Subsection A handles renewals: when a person under a disability holds a right or obligation to renew a lease, a fiduciary acting on that person’s behalf, or any other interested person, may apply by motion — after giving reasonable notice to parties with a present interest in the property — for court authority to surrender an old lease, accept a surrender, or negotiate a new lease of the same premises on terms the court directs. Whatever reasonable sums it takes to renew the lease are paid, with interest, from the leasehold’s profits and remain a charge on those profits until paid.

Subsection B covers new leases where none existed before. When the circuit court finds that a disabled person’s interests would be served by executing a new lease, a fiduciary or other interested person may apply the same way — by motion, with reasonable notice to those holding a present interest in the property — and the court weighs the probable length of the disability against the proposed lease term before ordering it executed. A lease entered under subsection B can later be renewed or surrendered the same way a subsection A lease can.