Translation of Documents – Delegate Bulova (HB 439)/Senator Mason (SB 528)
Effective July 2018

This legislation allows real estate licensee to assist the client in obtaining a translator or may refer a client to an electronic translation service. The licensee will not charge a fee for this assistance or referral. In doing so, the licensee cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies in the translation.


Condo and Property Owner Associations – Delegate Bulova (HB 923)

Effective July 2018

This legislation would require all Common Interest Communities (Condo and Property Owner Associations) to provide a short summary of important information contained in the resale certificate or disclosure packet, delivered at the same time as the Resale Certificate or Disclosure Packet. Much like the Residential Real Property Disclosure Statement, this summary will provide buyers with a summary of items that could affect their decision to purchase a home in a Common Interest Community including:

  • Annual dues
  • Special assessments
  • Rental restrictions
  • Parking or vehicular restrictions
  • Pet restrictions
  • Architectural restrictions


Acceptance of Rent with Reservation – Delegate Peace (HB 855)/Senator Locke (SB 197)

Effective July 2018

The current statute requires a landlord to give a notice of acceptance of rent with reservation in order to accept rental payments and still move forward with eviction. The current language of the statute is being interpreted different ways by different judges, so that landlords and tenants, property managers and lawyers don’t know exactly how to handle these notices. The purpose of this legislation is to simply clarify the existing law removing the requirement for second notice for the time period between entry of an order of possession and prior to eviction, thus eliminating the confusion with the existing statutory language.


Lexington Short Term Rental Ordinance – Delegate Knight (HB 824)

Effective July 2018

Earlier this year, the City of Lexington passed an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals that violates state law in a number of different ways. Among other items, the ordinance prohibits individuals from owning more than one rental property, requires BPOL taxes, requires a business license, etc. The purpose of this legislation is to require the City of Lexington to amend its ordinance to come into compliance with various provisions of state law. Every other locality in the Commonwealth that has adopted a short-term rental ordinance has complied with state law and the City of Lexington should be required to do the same thing.


Clarification of Supreme Court Case – Delegate Simon (HB 311)

Effective July 2018

A real property owner who buys a house at foreclosure sale, if the occupant does not move out, would file an unlawful detainer in the general district court. In the Parrish case, the occupant challenged the legal title of the successor owner and the Supreme Court ruled that such owner would have to try “sufficiency of legal title” in the circuit court since a general district court does not have jurisdiction to try legal title to real property. The Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court (OES) prepared a narrative in the general district court judge’s manual to try to head off the potential of every unlawful detainer case getting derailed by assertion by a tenant or other occupant of insufficiency of legal title to real property. The purpose of this legislation is to put into statutory language the substance of the OES judge’s manual narrative.

 

Earnest Money Deposits – Delegate Ingram (HB 864)/Senator Suetterlein (SB 514)
Effective July 2018

This legislation would establish in statute a right for the real estate broker to give written notice to the parties and disburse an earnest money deposit in accordance with the clear terms of a real estate purchase contract. The legislation also gives a broker an option to give written notice of intended disbursement, with a 15-day “protest period” for one of the parties to object in writing.