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Legal Information: Vermont

Housing Laws

Laws current as of July 11, 2024

Can I ask my landlord to change the locks?

You can ask your landlord to change the locks of your home within 48 hours based on:

  1. your fear of immediate (imminent) harm due to abuse, sexual assault, or stalking; or
  2. the fact that you were a victim of sexual assault that occurred on the premises within six months before the request.1

If the abuser is also a tenant in your home, you must have a court order, such as a relief from abuse order, that requires the abuser to leave the home. You’d have to give the landlord a copy of that order with your lock change request.2

If the landlord changes the locks as requested, the landlord should provide you and any other tenants, except for the abuser, with keys to the new locks.3

1 VT ST 9 § 4473(1)
2 VT ST 9 § 4473(2)
3 VT ST 9 § 4473(3)

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