The worst version of this happens after closing. A buyer settles on a house backing a golf course, and a bill arrives from an entity they never dealt with. Nobody lied to them. The obligation was disclosed, in one line of a document they skimmed during an inspection window.
That line has a number: item 6 of the Virginia resale certificate, the most under-read sentence available to anyone buying in a golf or club community.
Before anything else. This is general information about a Virginia disclosure statute, not legal advice. We are real estate agents, not lawyers. If a resale certificate raises a question about what you are bound to pay, retain a Virginia real estate attorney to read it against your contract.
Item 6 is the whole reason to read the certificate
Virginia’s Resale Disclosure Act requires an association to deliver a completed resale certificate on a form the Common Interest Community Board writes, carrying thirty categories of disclosure in a fixed order. Code of Virginia § 55.1-2310 is that list; its history line runs 2023, 2024 and 2025, with no repeal. Item 6 reads:
“A statement of any other entity or facility to which the owner of the unit being sold may be liable for assessments, fees, or other charges due to the ownership of the unit.”
Code of Virginia § 55.1-2310(A)(6)
Read the words. Not the association. Any other entity or facility. Not what the seller pays, but what the owner may be liable for because they own that property. That is the hook that catches a golf, club or recreation charge travelling with the deed rather than with a voluntary sign-up.
It is also why we publish no dues figures for specific communities: the certificate issued for your address is better evidence than what a neighbor pays. Item 6 is the authoritative answer for the property you are buying, in Wyndham exactly as anywhere else in Virginia.
It has not been a “disclosure packet” since 2023
The vocabulary changed and the industry has not caught up. Virginia’s old Property Owners’ Association Act disclosure sections, §§ 55.1-1808 through 55.1-1814, were repealed effective July 1, 2023 by Acts 2023, chapters 387 and 388. The governing law is now the Resale Disclosure Act, Title 55.1, Chapter 23.1, and the document is a resale certificate.
That matters twice over. Older guides describe deadlines under sections that no longer exist. And if someone says the “packet” is coming, ask which document they mean, because the current form is standardised and the old one is not being issued. Our earlier explainer on what Richmond buyers get in a Virginia HOA disclosure, and the right to cancel covers this in the language buyers still search for.
Under Code of Virginia § 54.1-2350, the Common Interest Community Board develops the standardised form, in the order listed in § 55.1-2310, and that section also says the purchaser remains responsible for his own examination of the certificate and its attachments. Nobody reads it for you.
How it reaches you, and the 14-day clock
Code of Virginia § 55.1-2309 sets the delivery mechanics, and they run through the seller rather than around them.
- The seller or the seller’s agent must obtain it and provide it to you or your agent, and the statute says that requirement cannot be waived or changed by agreement.
- The association has 14 days. Unless a narrow exemption in the same chapter applies, the association, its managing agent or a third-party preparer must deliver within 14 days of a written request by the seller or the seller’s agent. If nothing arrives, the certificate is deemed unavailable by operation of the statute.
- Your name is not needed to start the work. The association may not require the purchaser’s name before preparing the certificate, and § 55.1-2310(B) separately bars requiring it on the completed certificate.
- It carries an as-of date. The information must be current as of a date specified on the certificate.
The sequencing point buyers miss: the 14 days runs from the seller’s written request, not from your ratification. A seller who orders it the week they list takes a fortnight of risk out of your timeline; one who orders it after ratification puts your cancellation right and your inspection period on a collision course.
Free: the Richmond closing-timeline checklist
The certificate request is one of a dozen items with a clock attached, most of them somebody else’s. Our checklist sets out the ordering, the deadlines and who owns each task. Ask us for the closing-timeline checklist.
Which of the thirty items to read first
These twelve decide whether you can afford the house. Read items 6 and 19 first, then the money items in this order.
| Item | What it must disclose |
|---|---|
| 6 | Any other entity or facility the owner may be liable to for assessments, fees or charges |
| 19 | Remaining term of any leasehold on a common area or element, and renewal provisions |
| 4 | Assessment amounts and payment schedules, plus unpaid assessments currently due |
| 5 | Any other fees due and payable by an owner |
| 7 | Approved additional or special assessments, and any unpaid ones |
| 8 | Capital expenditures approved for the current and succeeding fiscal years |
| 9 | Capital reserves, and amounts designated for specified projects |
| 12 | The current reserve study, or a summary of it |
| 13 | Unsatisfied judgments, and pending actions with a material impact |
| 14 | Association insurance, insurance owners must or should carry, and owner responsibility for a deductible |
| 26 | Any restriction on an owner’s ability to rent the unit |
| 30 | Certification of the annual report filed with the Common Interest Community Board, with filing number and expiration date |
Mandatory obligation or optional membership
This distinction costs people money, and the certificate plus its attachments usually settles it in twenty minutes.
- Start at item 6, then find the source. If an entity is named, ownership may create liability; go to the attached governing documents and find the clause that creates it. A mandatory obligation lives in a recorded instrument, not a brochure.
- Look for language that binds land. Covenants running with the land, a lien right for nonpayment, a mandatory membership class, or an obligation stated as a condition of ownership all mean the charge follows the deed. Applications, waiting lists and resignation terms point to something voluntary.
- Cross-check items 4, 5 and 13. A club charge collected through the association often shows up in the assessment schedule or the other-fees statement; if a number appears there and item 6 is empty, ask which entity the money reaches. Whether dues are mandatory does get litigated, and pending actions with a material impact belong in item 13.
How dues and club membership sit alongside each other is the subject of Wyndham association dues versus club membership, so we stay on the document here.
When item 6 is blank, vague or just a name
A blank item 6 is a statement, not the absence of one: it asserts that no other entity may become owed money because of ownership, certified on a Common Interest Community Board form. Worth testing if you can see a clubhouse from the driveway. Three questions to put in writing to the association:
- Is membership in, or payment to, another entity a condition of ownership at this address, and if so where is it recorded?
- Does the association collect or remit anything on behalf of a club, recreation or facility entity?
- Has the association received notice of any claim about mandatory membership or amenity charges?
Get the answers in writing before your cancellation window closes; a reassurance by phone is an unanswered question. What you are buying, in Twin Hickory or anywhere in Henrico County, is a set of recorded obligations, and those can be produced on request.
Item 19 and the course on leased land
Item 19 is the disclosure almost nobody asks about. If a course, clubhouse, pool or parking area sits on leased ground, the remaining term is the horizon on that amenity, and the renewal provisions decide who pays to extend it. A short term with no renewal mechanism is a material fact about your view, your dues and your resale. Read item 19 with items 8, 9 and 12 to see whether the association has planned for the lease. If frontage is the reason you are buying, our post on what golf course frontage costs and how it resells handles the pricing side.
Your cancellation right, and who proves notice
Code of Virginia § 55.1-2312 is the remedy that makes the disclosure mean something. Three situations, three clocks:
- Delivered before ratification. Cancel within the period all parties agreed in the ratified contract; if it specifies none, three days from ratification.
- Delivered after ratification. The agreed period again, and if the contract is silent, three days from receipt of the certificate or of notice that it is unavailable.
- Never delivered. You or your agent may cancel at any time prior to settlement.
Cancellation is without penalty and the seller must cause deposits or escrowed funds to be returned promptly. Then the detail that ends arguments: written notice of cancellation goes to the seller under the terms of the contract, and the purchaser bears the burden of demonstrating delivery of that notice.
So do not cancel by voicemail. Send it the way the contract requires, keep the transmission record, confirm receipt. An obligation large enough to matter justifies an hour with a Virginia real estate attorney rather than a decision made at 11pm on day three. Licensing and disciplinary records for the brokers involved are published by the Virginia Real Estate Board at DPOR.
Where this fits
This is the document post in our Wyndham (Henrico) cluster, alongside frontage pricing and resale and dues versus club membership. For association reading generally, start with what to read before you sign in a Richmond HOA, or the best golf course neighborhoods around Richmond in 2026. Current inventory is in our Richmond golf course homes search.
[CLUSTER HUB NEEDED: Wyndham] – three posts now, with the community page standing in as hub and no dedicated cluster landing page.
Buying where there is a club, a course or a shared amenity?
We order the certificate early, read items 6 and 19 with you, and get the association’s answers in writing before your window closes. See how we work with buyers, or meet the people who would do it on our team page.
Frequently asked questions
Who pays for the resale certificate?
The obligation to obtain and provide it sits with the seller or the seller’s agent under § 55.1-2309(A), and cannot be waived or changed by agreement. Who bears the cost is a matter of your contract and of the fee provisions elsewhere in Chapter 23.1, so read the contract rather than assuming a local custom.
The certificate arrived incomplete. Do I still have a cancellation right?
Yes. Section 55.1-2312 addresses delivery of the certificate “whether or not complete pursuant to § 55.1-2310,” so an incomplete certificate can still start your clock. Read it the day it arrives and raise the gaps in writing immediately.
My house is in two associations. Which delivery date counts?
The later one. Section 55.1-2312(E) provides that where a unit is governed by more than one association, the cancellation timeframe runs from delivery of the last resale certificate. Master plus sub-association structures are common in amenity communities, so confirm how many you are in.
Can I get an updated certificate if closing is months away?
Yes. Section 55.1-2309(D) requires the information to be current as of a date specified on the certificate and allows either party to request an update. On a long escrow, request one, especially if item 7 or item 8 showed approved special assessments or capital spending.
Is this the same as the seller’s property disclosure statement?
No, and you should expect both. The resale certificate comes from the association and describes the community’s finances, rules and obligations. The seller’s residential property disclosure statement is a separate document about the house itself, and Virginia’s version says far less than buyers assume, which we covered in the Virginia buyer beware disclosure statement explained.
Does the certificate tell me whether the club is financially healthy?
Not directly, and that is its real limit. Items 10, 11, 12 and 13 cover the association’s balance sheet, budget, reserve study and litigation. A separate club is a different organisation, and item 6 discloses that you may be liable to it rather than reporting on its finances. If a mandatory obligation exists, ask that entity for its own disclosures.
Does any of this apply to a condominium?
Chapter 23.1 governs resale certificates for common interest communities, and item 19 refers to common areas and common elements as defined in the property owners’ association, condominium and cooperative acts, so the regime reaches condominium resales too. The specific governing act still matters for other rights, which is one reason to have an attorney look at an unusual structure.
