CHAPTER 627
An Act to provide for the creation and regulation of horizontal property
regimes.
[H 602]
Approved April 3, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. §1. This act shall be known as the “Horizontal Property Act”.

§ 2. As used in this act unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) “Apartment” means an enclosed room occupying all or part of a
floor in a building of one or more floors or stories regardless of whether
it be destined for residence, for office, for the operation of any industry
or business or for any other type of independent use, provided it has a
direct exit to a thoroughfare or to a given common space leading to a
thoroughfare;

(b) “Commission” means the Virginia Real Estate Commission;

(c) “Condominium” means the ownership of single units in a mul-
tiple unit structure with common elements;

(d) “Condominium Project” means a real estate condominium proj-
ect; a plan or project whereby four or more apartments, rooms, office
spaces, or other units in existing or proposed building(s) or structure(s)
are offered or proposed to be offered for sale;

(e) “Co-owner” means a person, firm, corporation, partnership, asso-
ciation, trust or other legal entity, or any combination thereof who owns
an apartment within the building;

(f) “Council of co-owners” means all the co-owners as defined in sub-
section (e) of this section;

(g) “Developer”? means a person who undertakes to develop a real
estate condominium project;

(h) “General common elements” means and includes:

av The land whether leased or in fee simple, on which the building
stanas;

(2) The foundations, main walls, roofs, halls, lobbies, stairways, and
entrances and exits or communication ways;

(3) The basements, flat roofs, yards, and gardens, except as other-
wise provided or stipulated;

(4) The premises for the lodging of janitors or persons in charge
of the building, except as otherwise provided or stipulated

(5) The compartments or installations of central services such as
power, light, gas, cold and hot water, refrigeration, reservoirs, water tanks
and pumps, and the like;

(6) The elevators, garbage incinerators and, in general all devices or
installations existing for common use; and

(7) All other elements of the building rationally of common use or
necessary to its existence, upkeep and safety;

(i) “Limited common elements” means and includes those common
elements which are agreed upon by all of the co-owners to be reserved for
the use of a certain number of apartments to the exclusion of the other
apartments, such as special corridors, stairways and elevators, sanitary
services common to the apartments of a particular floor, and the like;

(j) “Majority of co-owners” means fifty-one per cent of the co-
owners;
(k) “Master deed” or ‘‘Master lease”? means the deed or lease record-
ing the property of the horizontal property regime;

(1) “Person” means an individual, firm, corporation, partnership,
association, trust or other legal entity or any combination thereto;

(m) “Property”? means and includes the land whether leasehold or
in fee simple and the building, all improvements and structures thereon
and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto;

(n) “To record” means to record pursuant to the laws of this State
relating to the recordation of deeds.

§ 8. Whenever a developer, the sole owner or the co-owners of a
building expressly declare, through the recordation of a master deed or
lease, which shall set forth the particulars enumerated by § 7, their desire
to submit their property to the regime established by this act, there shall
be thereby established a horizontal property regime.

§ 4. Once the property is submitted to the horizontal property
regime, an apartment in the building may be individually conveyed and
encumbered and may be the subject of ownership, possession or sale and
of all types of juridic acts inter vivos or mortis causa, as if it were sole
and entirely independent of the other apartments in the building of which
they form a part, and the corresponding individual titles and interests
shall be recordable.

§ 5. Any apartment may be jointly or commonly owned by more
than one person.

§ 6. An apartment owner shall have an exclusive right to his apart-
ment and shall have a common right to a share, with other co-owners, in
the common elements of the property.

§ 7. A master deed or lease shall be recorded in the same manner
and subject to the same provisions of law as are deeds; provided, that no
State or local recordation tax upon the value of the property transferred
shall apply to any such deed or portion thereof recorded solely for the
purpose of complying with the provisions of § 3 of this act.

Provisions shall be made for the recordation of the individual apart-
ments on subsequent resales, mortgages and other encumbrances, as is
done with all other real estate recordation. The master deed or lease to
which § 8 refers shall express the following particulars:

(a) The description of the land, whether leased or in fee simple, and
the building, expressing their respective areas;

(b) The general description and the number of each apartment,
expressing its area, location and any other data necessary for its identifi-
cation; and

(c) The description of the general common elements of the building.

§ 8. The deed of each individual apartment shall express the par-
ticulars prescribed under letters (a) and (b) of § 7 relative to the apart-
ments concerned and shall also express all encumbrances thereon.

§ 9. All of the co-owners or the sole owner of a building constituted
into a horizontal property regime may by deed waive this regime and re-
group or merge the records of the filial estates with the principal property,
provided, that the filial estates are unencumbered, or if encumbered, that
the creditors in whose behalf the encumbrances are recorded accept as
security the undivided portions of the property owned by the debtors.

§ 10. The merger provided for in the preceding section shall in no
way bar the subsequent constitution of the property into another horizontal
property regime whenever so desired and upon observance of the provisions
of this Act.

§ 11. The administration of every building constituted into a hori-
zontal property regime shall be governed by by-laws approved and adopted
by the council of co-owners. The by-laws may be amended from time to
time by the council.

§ 12. The administrator, or board of administration, or the person
appointed by the by-laws of the regime, shall keep a book with a detailed
account of the receipts and expenditures affecting the building and its
administration and specifying the maintenance and repair expenses of the
common elements and any other expenses incurred by or in behalf of the
regime. Both the book and vouchers accrediting the entries made thereon
shall be available for examination by all the co-owners at convenient hours
on working days that shall be set and announced for general knowledge.
All books and records shall be kept in accordance with good accounting
procedures and be audited at least once a year by an auditor outside of
the organization.

§ 13. All co-owners are bound to contribute pro-rata toward the
expenses of administration and of maintenance and repairs of the general
common elements, and, in the proper case, of the limited common elements
of the building, and toward any other expenses lawfully agreed upon by
the council of co-owners.

No co-owner shall be exempt from contributing toward such expenses
by waiver or non-use of the use or enjoyment of the common elements,
both general limited, or by abandonment of the apartment belonging to him.

§ 14. The laws relating to exemptions as set out in Title 34 of the
Code of Virginia shall be applicable to the individual apartments which
shall have the benefit of said exemption in those cases the same as in
ownership of any other property. Property taxes assessed by the State
or by any municipality shall be assessed on and collected on the individual
apartments and not on the building as a whole.

§ 15. Upon the sale or conveyance of an apartment, all unpaid
assessments against a co-owner for his pro-rata share in the expenses to
which § 13 refers shall first be paid out of the sale price or by the purchaser
in preference over any other assessments or charges of whatever nature
except the following:

(a) Assessments, liens, and charges in favor of the State or any
municipality for taxes past due and unpaid on the apartment; and

(b) Payments due under mortgages duly recorded.

§ 16. Prior to the time when a condominium project is to be offered
for sale in this State, the developer shall notify the commission in writing
of his intention to sell such offerings.

§ 17. The notice of intention shall be accompanied by a fee of $50
and by a verified copy of a questionnaire properly filled in. The question-
naire will be in such form and content as will require full disclosure of all
material facts reasonably available.

§ 18. After appropriate notification has been made pursuant to
§§ 16 and 17, an inspection of the condominium project may be made by the
commission.

§ 19. When an inspection is to be made of projects, the notice of
intention shall be accompanied by the filing fee, together with an amount
estimated by the commission to be necessary to cover the actual expenses
of such inspection, not to exceed seventy-five dollars a day for each day
consumed in the examination of the project plus reasonable first-class
transportation expenses, which shall be paid as a fee to the commissioner
inspecting such project from the special fund established in § 31 hereof.

§ 20. The commission may waive initial inspection when in its
opinion, a preliminary or final public report can be substantially drafted
and issued from the contents of the questionnaire and other or subsequent
inquiries. Failure of the commission to notify the developer of its intent
to inspect his project within ten days after notification of intention 1s
properly filed pursuant to §§ 16 and 17 will be construed a waiver of such
inspection.

§ 21. When the commission makes an examination of any project,
it shall make a public report of its findings, which shall contain all material
facts reasonably available. A public report shall neither be construed to be
an approval nor disapproval of a project. No unit in a condominium project
shall be offered for sale until the commission shall have issued a final or
substitute public report thereon, nor shall reservations to purchase be
taken until the commission has issued a preliminary, final or substitute
public report. —

§ 22. A preliminary public report may be issued by the commission
upon receipt of a notice of intention filing which is complete except for
some particular requirement, or requirements, which is, or are, at the
time not fulfilled, but which may reasonably be expected to be completed.

§ 23. The developer shall not enter into a binding contract or agree-
ment for the sale of any unit in a condominium project until

(a) A true copy of the commission’s final or substitute public report
thereon with all supplementary public reports, if any has been issued, has
been given to the prospective purchaser,

(b) The latter has been given an opportunity to read same, and,

(c) His receipt taken therefor.

Receipts taken for any public report shall be kept on file in possession
of the developer subject to inspection at a reasonable time by the com-
mission or its deputies, for a period of three years from the date the
receipt was taken.

§ 24. If, after a final or substitute public report has been issued, the
commission shall deem it necessary to conduct further inquiries or in-
vestigations in order to protect the general public in its real estate trans-
actions, the commission may issue a supplementary public report de-
scribing the findings thereof. Upon the issuance of a supplementary public
report, it shall be the duty of the developer to issue a true copy thereof
to all purchasers.

§ 25. The true copies of the commission’s public report shall be an
exact reproduction of those prepared by the commission.

§ 26. It is unlawful for the developer of the project, after it is
submitted to the commission, to materially change the set-up or value or
use of such offering without first notifying the commission in writing of
such intended change and substantially notifying all purchasers and pros-
pective purchasers of such change.

§ 27. When a final, preliminary or substitute public report is not
issued within a reasonable time after notice of intention is properly filed
pursuant to §§ 16 and 17, or if the developer is materially grieved by the
form or content of a public report, the developer may, in writing, request
and shall be given a hearing by the commission within a reasonable time
after receipt of request.

§ 28. Every officer, agent or employe of any company, and every
other person who knowingly authorizes, directs or aids in the publication,
advertisement, distribution or circularization of any false statement or
representation concerning any project offered for sale or lease, and every
person who, with knowledge that any advertisement, pamphlet, prospectus
or letter concerning any said project contains any written statement that
is false or fraudulent, issues, circulates, publishes or distributes the same,
or shall cause the same to be issued, circulated, published or distributed, or
who, in any other respect, violates or fails to comply with any of the
provisions set forth in §§ 16 to 29, or who in any other respect violates or
fails, omits, or neglects to obey, observe or comply with any order, decision,
demand or requirement of the commission under §§ 16 to 29, shall be
punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or by imprisonment for a term
not exceeding one year or by both such fine and imprisonment.

§ 29. If the commission has reason to believe that a developer is
violating any provision set forth in §§ 16 to 29, or the rules and regulations
of the commission made pursuant thereto, the commission may investigate
the developer’s project and examine the books, accounts, records and files
used in the project of the developer. For the purposes of examination, the
developer is required to keep and maintain records of all sales transactions
and of the funds received by him pursuant thereto, and to make them
accessible to the commission upon reasonable notice and demand.

§ 30. Whenever the commission believes from satisfactory evidence
that any person has violated any of the provisions of §§ 16 to 29, or the
rules and regulations of the commission made pursuant thereto, it may
conduct an investigation on such matter, and bring an action in the name
of the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia in any court of competent
jurisdiction against such person to enjoin such person from continuing such
vocation or engaging therein or doing any act or acts in furtherance

ereof.

§ 31. All fees collected under this act shall be remitted by the
Commission to the Treasurer of this State, and shall be placed to the
credit of the special fund of the Virginia Real Estate Commission, which
is hereby established and shall be expended solely for compliance with the
provisions of this act.

§ 32. The provisions of this act shall be in addition and supplemental
to all other provisions of law, provided that wherever the application of
the provisions of this act conflict with the application of such other
provisions, this act shall prevail.

§ 3 Whenever they deem it proper, the planning and zoning com-
mission of any county or municipality may adopt supplemental rules and
regulations not inconsistent with general law governing a horizontal prop-
erty regime established under this act in order to implement this program.

§ 34. If any provision of this act, or any section, sentence, clause,
phrase or word, or the application thereof in any circumstance is held
invalid, the validity of the remainder of the act and of the application of
any such provision, section, sentence, clause, phrase or word in other
circumstances shall not be affected thereby.