Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 33.2 > Subtitle I > Chapter 2 > Article 4 - Department of Transportation.

• Adjustment program: means any extended policy program under which a manufacturer undertakes to pay for all or any part of the cost of repairing, or to reimburse purchasers for all or any part of the cost of repairing, any condition that may substantially affect vehicle durability, reliability or performance, other than service provided under a safety or emission-related recall program. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Advertisement: means a commercial message in any medium that aids, promotes, or assists, directly or indirectly, a lease-purchase agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Agricultural equipment: shall mean any self-propelled vehicle designed primarily for and used in the occupation or business of farming. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.7
• Board: means the Commonwealth Transportation Board. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• bus stop: means that area within 150 feet of a MetroBus bus stop sign, excluding the interior of any building not owned, controlled or operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. See Virginia Code 33.2-3100
• Cash price: means the price at which the lessor would have sold the property to the consumer for cash on the date of the lease-purchase agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Collateral charges: means any sales-related or lease-related charges including but not limited to sales tax, license fees, registration fees, title fees, finance charges and interest, transportation charges, dealer preparation charges or any other charges for service contracts, undercoating, rust proofing or installed options, not recoverable from a third party. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Collision damage waiver: means any contract or contractual provision, whether separate from or a part of a motor vehicle rental agreement, whereby the lessor agrees, for a charge, to waive any and all claims against the lessee for any damages to the rental motor vehicle during the term of the rental agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.30
• Commissioner of Highways: means the individual who serves as the chief executive officer of the Department of Transportation. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Comparable motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle that is identical or reasonably equivalent to the motor vehicle to be replaced, as the motor vehicle to be replaced existed at the time of purchase or lease with an offset from this value for a reasonable allowance for its use. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means a natural person who rents personal property under a lease-purchase agreement to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Consumer: means the purchaser, other than for purposes of resale, or the lessee of a motor vehicle and shall also include any person to whom such motor vehicle is transferred and any other person entitled by the terms of adjustment program to enforce its obligations. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Consumer: means the purchaser, other than for purposes of resale, or the lessee, of a motor vehicle used in substantial part for personal, family, or household purposes, and any person to whom such motor vehicle is transferred for the same purposes during the duration of any warranty applicable to such motor vehicle, and any other person entitled by the terms of such warranty to enforce the obligations of the warranty. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Consumer: shall mean a purchaser, other than for purposes of resale, of new agricultural equipment or any subsequent purchaser, other than for purpose of resale, to whom such equipment is transferred during the duration of a manufacturer's express written warranty applicable to such equipment. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.7
• Consummation: means the time a consumer becomes contractually obligated on a lease-purchase agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: means any motor vehicle dealer as defined in § Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Transportation. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Division: means the Division of Consumer Counsel in the Department of Law. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way or place open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• highway construction: means highway, passenger and freight rail, or public transportation purposes. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Interstate System: means the same as that term is defined in Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• 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}
• Lease-purchase agreement: means an agreement for the use of personal property by a natural person primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, for an initial period of four months or less that is automatically renewable with each payment after the initial period, but does not obligate or require the consumer to continue leasing or using the property beyond the initial period, and that permits the consumer to become the owner of the property. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Lemon law rights period: means the period ending 18 months after the date of the original delivery to the consumer of a new motor vehicle. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Lessee: means any person or organization obtaining the use of a rental motor vehicle from a lessor under the terms of a rental agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.30
• Lessor: means a person who regularly provides the use of property through lease-purchase agreements and to whom lease payments are initially payable on the face of the lease-purchase agreement. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.18
• Lessor: means any person or organization in the business of providing rental motor vehicles to the public. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.30
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Lienholder: means a person, partnership, association, corporation or entity with a security interest in a motor vehicle pursuant to a lien. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Locality: has the meaning assigned to it in § 1-221. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Maintenance: means (i) ordinary maintenance; (ii) maintenance replacement; (iii) operations that include traffic signal synchronization, incident management, and other intelligent transportation system functions; and (iv) any other categories of maintenance that may be designated by the Commissioner of Highways. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Manufacturer: means a person, partnership, association, corporation or entity engaged in the business of manufacturing or assembling motor vehicles, or of distributing motor vehicles to motor vehicle dealers. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Manufacturer: means any person, whether resident or nonresident, who manufactures, assembles, or imports motor vehicles for sale or distribution in this Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Motor vehicle: shall mean every vehicle which is self-propelled or designed for self-propulsion and every vehicle drawn by or designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle and includes every device in, upon or by which any property is or can be transported or drawn upon a highway, whether or not required to be licensed by the Commonwealth, but shall not include devices moved by human or animal power or devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.2
• Motor vehicle: means only passenger cars, pickup or panel trucks, motorcycles, autocycles, self-propelled motorized chassis of motor homes and mopeds as those terms are defined in § Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Motor vehicle: means any motor vehicle as defined in § Virginia Code 59.1-207.34
• Nonconformity: means a failure to conform with a warranty, a defect or a condition, including those that do not affect the driveability of the vehicle, which significantly impairs the use, market value, or safety of a motor vehicle. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• notification: means that the manufacturer shall be deemed to have been notified under this chapter if a written complaint of the defect or defects has been mailed to it or it has responded to the consumer in writing regarding a complaint, or a factory representative has either inspected the vehicle or met with the consumer or an authorized dealer regarding the nonconformity. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall include any natural person, firm, partnership, association or corporation. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.2
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Rental agreement: means any written agreement setting forth the terms and conditions governing the use of the rental motor vehicle by the lessee. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.30
• Rental motor vehicle: means a private passenger type vehicle or commercial type vehicle which, upon execution of a rental agreement, is made available to a lessee for its use. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.30
• Roadway: means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Secondary highway: means any highway in or component of the secondary state highway system. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Secondary state highway system: consists of all public highways, causeways, bridges, landings, and wharves in the counties of the Commonwealth not included in the primary state highway system and that have been accepted by the Department of Transportation for supervision and maintenance. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Transportation. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Serious safety defect: means a life-threatening malfunction or nonconformity that impedes the consumer's ability to control or operate the new motor vehicle for ordinary use or reasonable intended purposes or creates a risk of fire or explosion. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11
• 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.
• State: includes District of Columbia;

  (f) "Transit facilities" means all real and personal property located in the Zone, necessary or useful in rendering transit service between points within the Zone, by means of rail, bus, water or air and any other mode of travel, including, without limitation, tracks, rights-of-way, bridges, tunnels, subways, rolling stock for rail, motor vehicle, marine and air transportation, stations, terminals and ports, areas for parking and all equipment, fixtures, buildings and structures and services incidental to or required in connection with the performance of transit service;

  (g) "Transit services" means the transportation of persons and their packages and baggage by means of transit facilities between points within the Zone including the transportation of newspapers, express and mail between such points, and charter service which originates within the Zone but does not include taxicab service or individual-ticket-sales sightseeing operations;

  (h) "Transit Zone" or "Zone" means the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Zone created and described in Section 3 as well as any additional area that may be added pursuant to Section 83(a) of this Compact; and

  (i) "WMATC" means Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission. See Virginia Code 33.2-3100

• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 1-206
• Systems of state highways: has the meaning assigned to it in § 1-251. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Urban highway system: consists of those public highways, or portions thereof, not included in the systems of state highways, to which the Commonwealth Transportation Board directs payments pursuant to § Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Warranty: means any implied warranty or any written warranty of the manufacturer, or any affirmations of fact or promise made by the manufacturer in connection with the sale or lease of a motor vehicle that become part of the basis of the bargain. See Virginia Code 59.1-207.11