Buyers coming to Richmond from other states usually assume the seller has to tell them what is wrong with the house. In Virginia, the document everyone calls the disclosure statement exists mainly to tell you the opposite.
This is the first of four pieces on how disclosure actually works here. It is worth reading before you write an offer, because the single most expensive misunderstanding in a Virginia purchase is thinking someone else is responsible for finding the problems.
What the statement actually says
The governing law is the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act, Chapter 7 of Title 55.1. Its central section is titled, in the Code’s own words, “Required disclosures for buyer to beware; buyer to exercise necessary due diligence.”
That title is not editorial shorthand. It is the statute describing itself.
The owner furnishes a standard statement, published by the Virginia Real Estate Board on its website. Sellers do not draft it and cannot soften it. What it contains is a series of paragraphs in which the owner makes no representations, followed by advice that you investigate the matter yourself before settlement.
The very first item sets the tone. The owner makes no representations or warranties as to the condition of the property or any improvements on it, nor about recorded covenants, restrictions or conveyances of mineral rights, and you are advised to exercise whatever due diligence you deem necessary, including a home inspection, a mold assessment following federal Environmental Protection Agency guidance, and a residential building energy analysis.
Eighteen more paragraphs follow in the same form, covering lot lines, adjacent parcels, historic districts, dams, wastewater systems, flood hazard areas, radon and more. We walk through each item and what it means in the Richmond market in the next piece in this series.
The timing rule is the part with teeth
Most of the Act limits what you can expect. One section gives you something.
Under Section 55.1-709, the owner must provide the required disclosures before the purchase contract is ratified. If they arrive afterward, your sole remedy is the right to terminate the contract, and that right closes fast: three days after delivery in person or electronically, five days after the postmark if mailed.
It also ends at the earliest of several other events, whichever comes first. Settlement. Your occupancy of the property. Your written mortgage application, where the application contains a notice that applying ends the termination right. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes plain-language guidance on the application and disclosure timeline your lender is working to. Or your signature on a written waiver, which must be in a document separate from the purchase contract.
Read that list again as a practical matter: applying for your loan can extinguish the right. Buyers routinely apply within a day or two of ratification, which means a late disclosure statement plus a prompt mortgage application can leave you with no remedy at all.
If you do need to terminate, the statute specifies how. Written notice by hand delivery, prepaid U.S. mail with proof of mailing, electronic delivery, or overnight delivery. Telling your agent does not count.
Get the Richmond closing-timeline checklist
A one-page timeline of every Virginia deadline that matters between ratification and settlement, including the disclosure and termination windows above and where they fall relative to your loan application.
Where the seller’s protection stops
Sellers are not invulnerable, and the boundary is drawn in Section 55.1-710.
An owner is not liable for an error, inaccuracy or omission in the information delivered under the chapter if two conditions hold. First, the problem was outside the owner’s actual knowledge, or came from a public agency or another person required to supply it, or the owner reasonably believed the information correct. Second, the owner was not grossly negligent in obtaining and passing on third-party information.
The phrase doing the work there is actual knowledge. A seller who knows and stays quiet is in a different position from one who never knew.
The statute also carves out the military air installation disclosure under Section 55.1-704, where the liability shield is narrower, and it treats delivery of a professional’s report differently. If an owner hands over a report or opinion from a licensed engineer, land surveyor, geologist, wood-destroying insect expert, contractor or home inspector on a matter within that professional’s expertise, that satisfies the chapter for the item covered.
Then there is Section 55.1-711. Information that becomes inaccurate after delivery is not automatically a violation, but at or before settlement the owner must disclose any material change in the disclosures. If the roof starts leaking in week three of your contract, that is a change the seller owes you.
What this means when you are actually buying here
Three habits follow from a buyer beware regime.
The first is that your inspection period is not a formality, it is the entire consumer protection scheme. Our guide to what a Richmond home inspector will not cover matters more here than it would in a disclosure state, because radon, termite, sewer scope and survey are all things the statute expressly tells you to go find out yourself.
The second is that the locality is a party to your due diligence. Zoning, setbacks, lot coverage, historic district rules and pending violations all sit with the county or city, not the seller. In the city of Richmond that means the Old and Historic District rules that govern renovation in places like Church Hill and The Fan. In Henrico and Chesterfield it means the zoning and building files, and the process in how to check what is being built nearby.
The third is that rural purchases carry more of this weight than suburban ones. Wastewater systems, wells, easements and impounding structures are all explicit no-representation items, and they show up far more often on acreage in Powhatan and Goochland. If you are looking at homes with acreage around Richmond, budget for more investigation, not less.
The sales where the Act does not apply at all
Section 55.1-702 lists the exemptions, and two of them are common in this market.
Foreclosure sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure are excluded, as are transfers to the lender that holds the deed of trust. So are court-ordered transfers, transfers by a fiduciary administering a decedent’s estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust, transfers solely between co-owners, transfers to a spouse or lineal relative, divorce-related transfers, tax-sale transfers, and transfers to or from governmental or public housing entities. The first sale of a dwelling is also listed, though the exemption does not reach every disclosure in the chapter.
If you are buying from an estate, you are getting less than the already-minimal baseline, which is why buying from an estate or heirs deserves its own approach. The same logic applies to auctions and foreclosures.
A change is already on the books
The Code currently shows two versions of Section 55.1-703: one effective until January 1, 2027, and one effective on that date. Statements delivered before then follow the current version.
Section 55.1-709 anticipates the transition and says a seller does not have to redeliver disclosures mid-transaction simply because the law was amended after ratification, so long as the correct disclosures went out under the law in effect when they were delivered. If you are under contract across the new year, that is the sentence that governs.
Common questions
Does a Virginia seller have to tell me about problems with the house?
Generally no. Under the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act the owner delivers a standard statement saying they make no representations about the condition of the property, and advising you to do your own due diligence. A short list of specific affirmative disclosures does exist, but the default is buyer beware.
When do I have to receive the disclosure statement?
Before you ratify the purchase contract. If it arrives after ratification, Section 55.1-709 gives you a right to terminate instead, and that right expires quickly.
How long is the termination window if the statement comes late?
Three days after delivery in person or electronically, or five days after the postmark if mailed. It also ends earlier at settlement, at your occupancy of the property, when you make a written mortgage application containing the required notice, or when you sign a separate written waiver.
How do I terminate if I need to?
In writing, by hand delivery, prepaid U.S. mail with proof of mailing, electronic delivery, or overnight delivery. A phone call to the agent does not do it.
Can the seller be sued for getting something wrong on the form?
Rarely, and Section 55.1-710 is why. An owner is not liable for an error or omission that was outside their actual knowledge, or that came from a public agency or another person, provided they were not grossly negligent. The military air installation disclosure under Section 55.1-704 is the carve-out.
What if something changes between contract and closing?
Section 55.1-711 requires the owner to disclose any material change in the disclosures at or before settlement. A change that happens after delivery is not itself a violation, but concealing it is a separate problem.
Are some sales exempt from the Act entirely?
Yes. Section 55.1-702 excludes foreclosure and deed-in-lieu transfers, court-ordered transfers, sales by an executor or trustee administering an estate, transfers between co-owners or close family, divorce transfers, and transfers to or from government entities, among others. Estate sales and foreclosures are the two you will meet most often in Richmond.
Does buying new construction change anything?
The first sale of a dwelling is one of the listed exemptions, though it does not sweep away every disclosure requirement. New construction is governed far more by your contract with the builder than by this chapter.
Is the law changing?
Yes. A version of Section 55.1-703 takes effect January 1, 2027. The current version governs statements delivered before then, and Section 55.1-709 says you do not have to redeliver disclosures mid-transaction just because the law changed after your contract was ratified.
Writing an offer in the next few weeks?
We will tell you which items on that nineteen-paragraph list actually apply to the specific property you are looking at, and what it costs to check each one. See how we work with buyers, talk to a lender about how the application timing interacts with your termination right, or call (804) 601-4960.
