Virginia Code 55.1-713: Actions under this chapter
A. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or any other statute or regulation, no cause of action shall arise against an owner or a real estate licensee for failure to disclose that the real property was the site of:
Terms Used In Virginia Code 55.1-713
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
- real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
1. An act or occurrence that had no effect on the physical structure of the real property, its physical environment, or the improvements located thereon; or
2. A homicide, felony, or suicide.
B. The purchaser’s remedies for failure of an owner to comply with the provisions of this chapter are as follows:
1. If the owner fails to provide any of the applicable disclosures required by this chapter, the contract may be terminated subject to the provisions of subsection B of § 55.1-709.
2. In the event that the owner fails to provide any of the applicable disclosures required by this chapter, or the owner misrepresents, willfully or otherwise, the information required in such disclosure, except as result of information provided by an officer or employee of the locality in which the property is located, the purchaser may maintain an action to recover his actual damages suffered as the result of such violation. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subdivision, no purchaser of residential real property located in a noise zone designated on the official zoning map of the locality as having a day-night average sound level of less than 65 decibels shall have a right to maintain an action for damages pursuant to this section.
C. Any action brought under this section shall be commenced within one year of the date the purchaser received the applicable disclosures required by this chapter. If the disclosures required by this chapter were not delivered to the purchaser, an action shall be commenced within one year of the date of settlement, if by sale, or occupancy, if by lease with an option to purchase.
Nothing contained in this chapter shall prevent a purchaser from pursuing any remedies at law or equity otherwise available against an owner in the event of an owner’s intentional or willful misrepresentation of the condition of the subject property.
1992, c. 717, § 55-524; 1993, c. 847; 2005, c. 510; 2007, c. 265; 2017, c. 386; 2019, c. 712.