§ 8.01-130.01.Unlawful detainer; expungement.

Section 8.01-130.01 clears an unlawful detainer case off the record once it is truly over and the tenant was never ordered out. If the action was dismissed and thirty days have passed since, or a voluntary nonsuit was taken and six months have passed since, and no order of possession was ever entered, the court enters an expungement order on its own, without any petition or hearing being necessary.

That automatic process does not extend to a case where judgment was entered in the defendant’s favor after a contested hearing — those records are not expunged automatically. A defendant who won that kind of judgment can still get the records cleared, but has to file a petition; once filed, the court expunges the records without a hearing, following the same procedural path set out for older cases.

That older-case path covers unlawful detainer actions filed before July 1, 2024, for which the court still keeps records. A defendant may file a petition, on a Supreme Court form, in the general district court where the case was filed, asking for expungement. The petition has to state the date the dismissal, judgment for the defendant, or nonsuit was entered, the address of the property involved, and the plaintiff’s name. Once the court finds the dismissal-plus-thirty-days or nonsuit-plus-six-months condition met, and confirms no order of possession was entered, it enters the expungement order without holding a hearing.