WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU!
The Virginia General Assembly has wrapped up another busy year so it’s time to take stock of what new laws and changes to existing laws will affect community associations. All board members and association managers need to be aware of these new and revised laws in order to avoid the legal pitfalls of doings things “the way we always have” instead of the way the new laws require it to be done. All of these new or revised laws have been passed by both the Virginia House and Senate, have been signed by the Governor, and will go into effect on July 1, 2019. We will break the changes down into several categories and send you the “need to know” information in several installments over the next couple of months. In this issue we will discuss resale disclosure changes and child care businesses in HOAs.
RESALE CERTIFICATES & ASSOCIATION DISCLOSURE PACKETS
- SB1580 and HB2385 made changes to § 55-79.97 of the Virginia Condominium Act and § 55-509.4 of the Virginia Property Owners Association (POA) Act to provide that prospective buyers may cancel a contract for the purchase of a resale unit in a condominium and the purchase of a lot from a developer or a resale lot in an HOA have three (3) days from receipt of a resale certificate or association disclosure packet to cancel the contract if the packet they receive is incomplete or does not fully comply with Virginia Code requirements. In our opinion this change has no real effect on current practices since prospective buyers can currently cancel a contract for any reason within three (3) days. These revised statutes will not require changes to your formats as long as your forms are currently up-to-date.
- SB1292 requires that the Residential Property Disclosure Statement prepared by the Virginia Common Interest Community (CIC) Board that is required to be included in every HOA Association Disclosure Packet pursuant to § 55-519 of the Virginia Residential Disclosure Act be updated to require that a statement be included on the form that the seller of the lot makes no representations regarding any conveyance of mineral rights to the prospective buyer. This revised statute will not require changes to your HOA Association Discloser Packets; however, you will need to download the new Disclosure Statement for HOAs from the CIC Board website at http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/Boards/CIC-Board for all Disclosure Packages on and after July 1, 2019. This change will not affect condominiums or cooperatives.
HOME BASED CHILD CARE SERVICES
SB1537 and HB1853 added a new subsection to § 55-513.2 of the POA Act that requires HOAs to allow home-based child care: (i) UNLESS expressly prohibited or restricted by the Association’s Declaration; (ii) OR the Association’s Declaration allows the Association to restrict home-based child care in its Bylaws or rules and such restrictions are in the Bylaws or rules; (iii) AND the development is located in a locality that classifies home-based child care as an accessory or ancillary residential use under the localities’ zoning ordinance. This change does not affect condominiums or cooperatives.
ALERT!
ANNUAL LEGAL AND LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Jeanne Lauer to be a presenter
The Southeastern Virginia Chapter of Community Associations Institute will be presenting this program on May 9 at the Holiday Inn Newport News City Center. Among other speakers, Jeanne Lauer, will be presenting on the latest changes in the laws affecting community associations as a result of the actions of the Virginia General Assembly 2019 session which has recently concluded. Jeanne has been a member of the Virginia Legislative Action Committee for all Virginia CAI chapters for several years. For more information please consult the chapter web site at www.sevacai.org.
In the event you have questions about any item in this newsletter please contact Terri Richardson by phone or at terrir@inmanstrickler.com and she will direct you to the appropriate attorney.