The Monitor - January 2023

The 2023 General Assembly will begin its "short" 45-day session on Wednesday, January 11th. With all 100 members of the House of Delegate seats up for election in November, and all 40 seats in the Senate of Virginia also on the November ballot, this is sure to be a busy, focused, politically-intense Session. The intensity is likely to be driven by the November elections being the first in newly redrawn districts that have many legislators placed into the same districts, pitting them into potential primary elections in the early Summer. 

Pundits have listed several key issues as "the ones to watch" for Session, including:

• The State Budget

• Workforce Development

• Housing Opportunities

• Behavioral and Mental Health Reform

• Legalized Retail Market for Cannabis

• Vehicular Emissions

• Coastal Resiliency

Obviously, VR and VPAR will be engaged on both the housing and workforce issues, given the connections between housing and rooftops, jobs and the workforce, and economic development. And we also will be involved in the coastal resiliency efforts. 

Your Chief Advocacy Officer, Susan Gaston, will be at The Capitol each and every day to be your voice in the General Assembly and around other policy makers. 

Also, mark your calendars for February 8th, for the VPAR Annual REALTOR® Day on the Hill event! Details will be forthcoming regarding times, locations, parking, etc. But plan to come to Richmond to be part of the process, and advocate for your business, for housing and for the REALTOR® Party!

VPAR LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Security Deposit Bill

Under the VRLTA, a landlord has 45 days after the termination date of the lease, or the date a tenant vacates the property, whichever occurs later, to return the security deposit, minus any damages, to the tenant. In the event damages to the premises exceed the amount of the security deposit and require the services of a third-party contractor, the landlord must notify the tenant and has an additional 15 days to provide an itemization of the damages and cost of repair. This bill proposes to extend that additional 15 days to 30 with a sunset period of one year. Landlords are having significant difficulty meeting this deadline due to labor shortages and supply chain delays. The additional 15 days will enable landlords to provide accurate costs of repair to the tenant. 

Short Term Rental Bill

This bill would make certain categories of local ordinances that regulate short term rentals unenforceable against properties that are managed by a Virginia REALTOR®. There are 8 categories of ordinances included. For example, local ordinances that limit the number of days in a calendar year for which a property can be rented or require an owner to add additional or otherwise alter parking spaces for a short-term rental would not be enforceable against properties that are managed by a Virginia REALTOR®. The bill defines a Virginia REALTOR® as a real estate salesperson licensed by the VREB who is also a member of NAR®. Finally, the bill removes the exemption for properties managed by a real estate licensee from local registries and requires the name and phone number of the REALTOR® contracted to manage the property to be reported to the registry. The bill also includes an enactment clause requiring any locality that has a short-term rental ordinance in place as of July 1, 2023 to amend that ordinance in accordance with the bill on or before June 30, 2024. 

Resale Disclosure Act

This bill seeks to create one place within Common Interest Community law to find all information on resale disclosures that are required when a property located within a common interest community is sold. The bill takes current disclosure language out of the POA, Condo, and Cooperative Acts and consolidates it within a new chapter entitled the Resale Disclosure Act. The Act uses one term, "the resale certificate" for the packet of disclosures that are required to go from a seller to a buyer when a property located within a CIC is sold. The Act also sets forth the requirements for contract disclosures, formatting and contents of the resale certificate, applicable fees, termination rights, and liability. The purpose of this change is to consolidate information that was spread out over three different chapters in the code and often included different requirements, terms, and definitions. This change also seeks to clarify code language and update obligations to current day. Some substantive changes include the contents and format of the resale certificate, the process of calculating fees, and when the fees are paid. 

CIC Ombudsman Bill

This bill seeks to change the procedure followed by the CIC ombudsman for processing notices of final adverse decisions. At all times in the current law when the Director of Ombudsman has to contact the association with respect to a notice of final adverse decision, this new language clarifies that she needs to contact the association's governing board and community manager, if applicable. The bill also seeks to have the Ombudsman refer all notices of final adverse action that have not been remedied within 30 days, or are deemed to be a repeat violation, referred to the Common Interest Community Board for further action. This bill also adds language from the regulations giving the Director or Ombudsman the power to refer any violation of law to the CIC Board for further action. Finally, the bill adds two additional data points to be tracked by the ombudsman office: (1) how long it takes an association to come into compliance after receiving communication from the Ombudsman; and (2) the number of violations that are referred to the CIC Board.