---
type: "Bill"
title: "Va. Fair Housing Law; status as a victim of family abuse, etc."
description: "Landlord and tenant; victims of family abuse; evidence to mitigate low credit score; damages. Allows an applicant for a lease to recover actual damages, including all amounts paid to the landlord as an application fee, application deposit, or reimbursement for any of the landlord's out-of-pocket expenses that were charged to the applicant, along with attorney fees, if the landlord does not consider evidence of the applicant's status as a victim of family abuse to mitigate any adverse effect of the otherwise qualified applicant's low credit score."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 99"
citation: "Virginia HB 99 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Sam Rasoul"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 33
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-12-12"
last_action: "2020-03-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b1ff0b76-ce35-4fea-9d5e-6cf6f5b1b5e4"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB99"
source_hash: "d7390215219371cd03e925e7cfc63ac1f7c4cb1479a6feddf6d567c8e0c718b4"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 99 (2020) — Va. Fair Housing Law; status as a victim of family abuse, etc.

Landlord and tenant; victims of family abuse; evidence to mitigate low credit score; damages. Allows an applicant for a lease to recover actual damages, including all amounts paid to the landlord as an application fee, application deposit, or reimbursement for any of the landlord's out-of-pocket expenses that were charged to the applicant, along with attorney fees, if the landlord does not consider evidence of the applicant's status as a victim of family abuse to mitigate any adverse effect of the otherwise qualified applicant's low credit score.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0388)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0388)
2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB99ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB99ER)
3. **Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB99H2** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB99H2)
4. **HB99H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB99H1)
5. **Impact statement from DPB (HB99)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB99)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed (32-Y 0-N) — **32–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (80-Y 20-N) — **79–20** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 0-N) — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from General Laws and Technology (13-Y 0-N) — **13–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from General Laws with substitute (21-Y 1-N) — **21–1** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Sam Rasoul — primary (person)
- Alfonso H. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Clinton L. Jenkins — cosponsor (person)
- Danica A. Roem — cosponsor (person)
- Dawn M. Adams — cosponsor (person)
- Ibraheem S. Samirah — cosponsor (person)
- Jerrauld C. "Jay" Jones — cosponsor (person)
- John S. Edwards — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph D. Morrissey — cosponsor (person)
- Joshua G. Cole — cosponsor (person)
- Karrie K. Delaney — cosponsor (person)
- Kathleen Murphy — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)
- Lashrecse D. Aird — cosponsor (person)
- Lee J. Carter — cosponsor (person)
- Marcia S. "Cia" Price — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Patrick A. Hope — cosponsor (person)
- Rodney T. Willett — cosponsor (person)
- Vivian E. Watts — cosponsor (person)
- Wendy W. Gooditis — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-12-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20100448D `introduction`
- **2019-12-12** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-15** Assigned GL sub: Housing/Consumer Protection `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-27** Impact statement from DPB (HB99)
- **2020-01-30** House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-01-30** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-04** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-02-04** Committee substitute printed 20107595D-H1 `substitution`
- **2020-02-04** Reported from General Laws with substitute (21-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-05** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-06** Passed by for the day
- **2020-02-07** Passed by for the day
- **2020-02-10** Floor substitute printed 20108069D-H2 (Simon)
- **2020-02-10** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-10** Committee on General Laws substitute rejected 20107595D-H1
- **2020-02-10** Substitute by Delegate Simon agreed to 20108069D-H2
- **2020-02-10** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB99H2
- **2020-02-11** Impact statement from DPB (HB99H2)
- **2020-02-11** Read third time and passed House (80-Y 20-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-11** VOTE: Passage (80-Y 20-N)
- **2020-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2020-02-12** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-19** Reported from General Laws and Technology (13-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-21** Constitutional reading dispensed (32-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-24** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-24** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-27** Enrolled
- **2020-02-27** Impact statement from DPB (HB99ER)
- **2020-02-27** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-02-27** Signed by President
- **2020-03-06** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 6, 2020
- **2020-03-06** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
- **2020-03-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 388 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b1ff0b76-ce35-4fea-9d5e-6cf6f5b1b5e4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).