Pleasants County, West Virginia Eviction Risk: Low

Pleasants County, West Virginia eviction laws earns an average eviction-risk score of 2.1/10 (Low) across its 3 cities, placing it at rank 55 of 55 West Virginia counties. That rank tells a clear story: 54 counties in the state carry more risk, and none carry less, making Pleasants County the single most landlord-friendly market in West Virginia eviction laws by this measure. For landlords and investors, that translates to a rental environment where tenant turnover disputes are infrequent, rent burden is modest, and the legal overhead of operating a portfolio is relatively contained.

The intra-county range runs from 1.6/10 to 3/10, a meaningful spread for a county of only 3,280 residents split across three small communities. Average rent sits at $683, and renters carry an average rent burden of 28.2% of income, both figures that signal tenants are not being stretched to a breaking point. The renter share of households is 22%, a thin pool that keeps vacancy pressure low but also limits the scale of any single acquisition opportunity.

The cities inside Pleasants County

St. Marys is the county seat and its largest community at 2,174 residents, and it is also the lowest-risk market in Pleasants County with a score of 1.6/10. For landlords looking to anchor a buy-and-hold strategy in the county, St. Marys offers the most stable operating environment of the three incorporated places.

Belmont and Friendly each score 3/10, the highest in the county, though even that figure sits comfortably in the Low tier statewide. Belmont has a population of 983, while Friendly is a much smaller community of 123 residents. The risk gap between St. Marys and these two towns is nearly two full score points, a reminder that eviction risk is hyper-local: two landlords operating three miles apart can face meaningfully different tenant-pool dynamics even within the same low-risk county.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Pleasants County operates under West Virginia eviction laws state law, specifically W. Va. Code § 37-6 (Landlord and Tenant). For non-payment of rent, the state requires no advance notice before filing; a lease-violation cure notice is 14 days; and a no-cause end-of-term notice is 30 days. Understanding the West Virginia eviction laws eviction process matters because uncontested cases can still take 21 to 45 days from filing to removal, and contested cases can stretch 45 to 100 days. West Virginia eviction costs compound quickly: court filing fees run $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees add $30 to $125, and attorney fees typically range from $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity.

On the regulatory side, West Virginia eviction laws does not require just cause for termination and preempts any local rent-control ordinances, so no municipality in the county can impose rent caps or additional eviction restrictions beyond state law. That statewide preemption is a meaningful structural advantage for landlords operating anywhere in West Virginia, including Pleasants County.

With a poverty rate of 8.7% and a renter share of 22% of households, Pleasants County's fundamentals support stable long-term tenancies; consult the city grid above to compare St. Marys, Belmont, and Friendly at the neighborhood level before committing to a specific submarket.