If you are buying a condominium in Richmond, a document arrives partway through your contract, runs to a few hundred pages, and carries a right to walk away without penalty. Most buyers skim it. It is your best chance to learn what you are joining.
First, a correction that matters, because a lot of Richmond real estate writing, including older posts on this site, still describes the old law.
The law changed on 1 July 2023. Virginia no longer has a separate “condominium resale certificate” under the Condominium Act and a separate “association disclosure packet” under the POA Act. Both were repealed and replaced by one instrument.
Section 55.1-1990 of the Condominium Act, which used to set out the contents of a condominium resale certificate, now reads “Repealed by Acts 2023, cc. 387, 388, cl. 2, effective July 1, 2023.” The POA Act’s packet sections are gone from Chapter 18 the same way.
What governs now is the Resale Disclosure Act, Title 55.1, Chapter 23.1, sections 55.1-2307 through 55.1-2317: one statute, one document called a resale certificate, covering condominiums, cooperatives, horizontal property regimes and property owners’ associations alike.
That resolves a confusion Richmond buyers hear constantly. A condo in Manchester and an attached townhome in a Midlothian property owners’ association used to come with two different documents on two different timelines with two different cancellation rights. Since July 2023 they do not. Which kind of association you are joining still matters enormously for cost and resale. It no longer changes the paperwork.
What this covers: who the Act applies to, the 30 required contents, who prepares it and what they may charge, the delivery and cancellation clocks, what happens if it never arrives, the six line items to read first, and when no certificate is required.
One document, four kinds of association
Section 55.1-2307 defines “association” to include associations created under the POA Act, the Condominium Act and the Real Estate Cooperative Act, plus a council of co-owners under the Horizontal Property Act. “Unit” means a condominium unit, a cooperative unit, or a lot in a community governed by an association.
That sweeps in nearly everything attached and a good deal that is not: the conversion in Shockoe Slip, the new-build stack in Scott’s Addition, and a detached house on a covenanted lot all produce the same instrument.
Here is where Richmond buyers trip. Many attached-home communities marketed as “condos” are legally property owners’ associations holding fee-simple lots, not condominium regimes. The paperwork looks identical. What differs is what you own, who insures what, and how a special assessment reaches you. Have your agent read the declaration and tell you which you are buying.
What the resale certificate must contain
Section 55.1-2310 requires the association to deliver a completed resale certificate on the form developed by the Common Interest Community Board, with supporting documentation in a specified order. There are 30 enumerated items. Grouped by what they actually tell you:
| Group | Items covered |
|---|---|
| Who is answering | Preparer and managing agent contact details, plus certification that the association has filed its annual report with the Common Interest Community Board, with the filing number and expiration date. |
| The rules | Governing documents and rules; restraints on alienability; occupancy limits; flag display; solar devices; signs; parking; home-based businesses; rental restrictions. |
| What you will owe | Assessment amounts, schedules and arrears; other owner fees; any other entity or facility the owner may owe; approved or unpaid special assessments; approved capital expenditures for this and next fiscal year. |
| Finances | Reserves and any portion designated for specific projects; most recent balance sheet and income and expense statement; current operating budget; current reserve study or a summary. |
| Risk | Unsatisfied judgments and material pending actions; insurance provided for owners including fidelity coverage, coverage owners must carry, and notice that owners may owe part of the deductible. |
| This unit | Written notice of any violation affecting the unit or its limited elements, and any uncured environmental, health or building code violation notice from a government agency. |
| Paper trail | Board minutes for the last six months; minutes of the most recent association meeting; remaining term of any common-area leasehold; pending sale or encumbrance of common elements; known secondary mortgage market project approvals. |
That last one is easy to miss and decides whether your buyer, three years from now, can use an FHA or VA loan. Read it alongside how FHA and VA condo approval works in Richmond.
Who prepares it and what they may charge
Section 55.1-2309 puts the obligation on the seller or seller’s agent to obtain the certificate and provide it to the buyer, and states flatly that this “shall not be waived or changed by agreement.” The document is produced by the association, its managing agent, or a third-party preparer.
Section 55.1-2316 allows charges for preparation, delivery, expedited delivery, unit inspection and a post-closing fee. The seller pays to prepare and deliver the original, inspection included. The maximums are not set by the association: the Common Interest Community Board at Virginia’s DPOR sets them, they must be commercially reasonable, and they are adjusted at least every five years by CPI-U.
A post-closing fee may be imposed on the buyer, to establish you as the owner in the association’s records. Budget for it. Our mortgage calculator handles the loan side, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s guide to closing on your new home is the plainest federal explanation of what else lands on the settlement statement.
The delivery clock and the cancellation clock
Two different clocks, and confusing them is how people lose the right to walk away.
Delivery. Under section 55.1-2309, once the seller or seller’s agent makes a written request, the association, its managing agent or the preparer has 14 days to deliver. If nothing arrives within 14 days, the certificate is deemed unavailable. The information must be current as of a date stated on the certificate.
Refreshing it. If the certificate was issued more than 30 days but less than 12 months before settlement, the seller or the buyer, on proof of being the contract purchaser, may request an updated certificate under section 55.1-2311. It is due within 10 days and must give current information for anything that changed or state that nothing did.
Cancellation. Section 55.1-2312 gives the buyer a right to cancel, and the counting depends on when the certificate lands relative to ratification.
| When the certificate (or a notice that it is unavailable) is delivered | How long you have to cancel |
|---|---|
| Before the contract is ratified | The period agreed in the ratified contract. If the contract specifies none, three days from ratification. |
| After the contract is ratified | The period agreed in the contract. If none is specified, three days from receipt of the certificate or of the notice that it is unavailable. |
| Never delivered at all | Any time before settlement. |
| Unit governed by more than one association | The clock runs from delivery of the last resale certificate. |
Three things people get wrong. The right attaches even if the certificate is incomplete, since the statute says “whether or not complete.” Notice of cancellation must be in writing, delivered as the contract requires, and the buyer carries the burden of proving delivery, so send it in a way that produces a receipt. And cancellation is without penalty: the seller must cause any deposit or escrowed funds to be returned promptly.
The hard stop: under section 55.1-2308 the contract itself must disclose that the right to receive the certificate and the right to cancel “are waived conclusively if not exercised before settlement.” Sit down at closing and the window is gone.
The free download that goes with this section: our Richmond closing-timeline checklist.
It lays the 14-day delivery request, the 10-day update, the three-business-day financial update and the three-day cancellation window onto a Richmond closing calendar alongside inspection, appraisal, loan commitment and walk-through dates, so you can see which deadlines overlap and which is genuinely the last exit.
Request the Richmond closing-timeline checklist, or see how we work with buyers.
What happens if it never arrives
Section 55.1-2314 is the buyer-protective one. If the association, its managing agent or the preparer fails to comply, the buyer need not pay delinquent assessments or remedy violations existing as of the certificate date. A previous owner’s violation is enforceable against you only if it was properly noted in the certificate, or if the seller failed to provide one at all. You still have to follow the rules going forward. The preparer is liable to the seller for actual damages up to $1,000, and the Common Interest Community Board can assess penalties against an association or manager and issue a cease and desist order.
The six line items a Richmond buyer should read first
You will not read 400 pages. Read these six, in this order.
1. Reserves and the reserve study
Items 9 and 12. The balance says what has been saved; the study says what the roof, elevator, envelope and deck will cost and when. A healthy balance against a stale or missing study is not reassurance, and this pair is the strongest predictor of a coming special assessment.
2. Pending litigation and unsatisfied judgments
Item 13, limited to matters with material impact. Construction defect litigation in a converted or newly built Richmond building is the case that most often reappears as an assessment, and the one most likely to make a lender balk.
3. Rental caps
Item 26, any restriction on an owner’s ability to rent. If you might ever lease rather than sell, a cap already at its limit is a material fact about your exit.
4. The insurance deductible allocation
Item 14 requires the certificate to flag that the governing documents may make an owner responsible for all or part of the deductible on an association claim. Read the allocation language in the declaration, then price the HO-6 policy that sits behind it.
5. Approved special assessments and capital expenditures
Items 7 and 8. “Approved” is the word that matters: something already voted is a cost you inherit, not a risk you take. If it is approved and not yet billed, find out when it bills.
6. Secondary mortgage market project approvals
Item 29. Current project approvals affect your financing today and your buyer’s financing later.
What this document is not. The resale certificate discloses the association. It does not inspect your unit, appraise it, or tell you whether the price is right. Those are separate exercises you also should not skip.
When no certificate is required at all
Section 55.1-2317 exempts an initial disposition to a buyer not acquiring the unit as a residence unless they ask; gifts; court-ordered dispositions where the court so directs; foreclosure or deed in lieu; auctions where the certificate was in the auction package; and communities with no residential units.
Market data: Richmond City, July 2026
Central Virginia Regional MLS, via the Richmond Association of REALTORS. Single-family, current as of 10 August 2026. August 2026 was not yet published at the time of writing.
| Measure | Richmond City, July 2026 | vs July 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Closed sales | 218 | +6.9% |
| Median sales price | $450,000 | -3.4% |
| Days on market | 17 | -5.6% |
| Months of supply | 1.5 | -16.7% |
| Median price per square foot | [DATA NEEDED: median price per square foot, July 2026, by area] | |
City-wide single-family figures, not condominium or townhouse figures. The attached segment is covered separately in our Richmond condo and townhouse market report for July 2026.
Still deciding whether attached ownership suits you? What changes day to day moving from a house to a condo is the better starting point; our listing search shows what is for sale now, and the City of Richmond community pages and communities directory cover it neighborhood by neighborhood.
Questions Richmond condo buyers ask after the packet lands
Are the three cancellation days business days or calendar days?
Calendar days. Section 55.1-2307 defines “days” for the whole Act as calendar days. A certificate received Friday afternoon, with no longer period written into your contract, gives you until Monday.
My unit is in a condominium association and a master property owners’ association. Do I get two certificates?
Yes. Section 55.1-2315 requires each association to provide its own certificate and lets each charge its own fees. Under section 55.1-2312(E) your cancellation period runs from delivery of the last one, not the first.
Does the association have to be told my name before it will prepare the certificate?
No, and it may not insist. Section 55.1-2309(B) bars an association from requiring the buyer’s name before preparing the certificate, and section 55.1-2310(B) says the buyer’s name shall not appear on the completed form.
Can an association charge for the certificate if it has not filed its paperwork with the state?
No. Section 55.1-2316(F) bars collecting these fees unless the association is registered with the Common Interest Community Board, current on its annual report and fee and on any Board assessment, and offers electronic delivery.
Who pays for an updated resale certificate?
The requesting party. Section 55.1-2316(A) puts the original, including any inspection fee, on the seller, and the update on whoever asks. The seller also covers the financial update, though a settlement agent may advance the fee and seek reimbursement.
What is a “financial update” and how quickly must it arrive?
A refresh of the money figures only, the assessment and fee information in subdivisions A 4 and A 5 of section 55.1-2310. A settlement agent or other authorised party may request one, and the association must provide it within three business days of the written request.
If the association understates what is owed, am I stuck with the difference?
Generally no. Section 55.1-2313(B) says a buyer is not liable for any unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount stated in the certificate, update or financial update, and binds the association to those figures unless the buyer had actual knowledge they were wrong. The seller is likewise protected from liability for the association’s errors.
Does any of this apply to a Richmond condo bought at foreclosure or auction?
Usually not. Section 55.1-2317 exempts foreclosure or deed in lieu, gifts, court-ordered dispositions where the court so directs, and auctions where the certificate was in the auction package beforehand. You are still bound by the declaration, bylaws and rules from day one.
How does this differ from the older Virginia HOA disclosure packet article I have read?
Anything describing a separate POA “disclosure packet” and a separate condominium “resale certificate” on different timelines is describing pre-July 2023 law. Our earlier pieces on HOA disclosure packets and the right to cancel and resale certificates and club obligation disclosure straddle the change. The Resale Disclosure Act text linked above is the current authority.
Same offer, restated: the Richmond closing-timeline checklist puts the 14-day delivery request, the 10-day update, the three-business-day financial update and the three-day cancellation window on one page with the rest of your closing calendar.
This is not legal advice. It is a plain-language summary of Virginia statutes as they read in September 2026, written by real estate agents, not lawyers. Statutes are amended and declarations vary. Before relying on a cancellation right, a fee limit or a rental restriction, have a Virginia real estate attorney review your contract and the association’s governing documents.
