Virginia sellers are told, correctly, that they do not have to disclose defects. Then they assume that means nothing at all, which is wrong in six specific ways and occasionally an expensive way to be wrong.
This is the third piece in our series on Virginia disclosure. The first two explained why the disclosure statement mostly disclaims and walked through the nineteen items buyers must check themselves. This one is the seller’s side: the narrow set of things the Residential Property Disclosure Act actually requires you to say.
The thread running through all of them
Before the list, the pattern. Almost every affirmative duty below is triggered by the seller’s actual knowledge.
That has an uncomfortable implication people rarely say out loud: a seller who investigates less has less to disclose. It also has a practical one that matters more. If you do know something and stay quiet, the actual-knowledge standard is exactly what makes you exposed, because your knowledge is the element that turns silence into a problem.
So the honest advice to sellers is not to know less. It is to disclose what you know and let the buyer’s own diligence carry the rest.
1. Military air installation noise and accident potential zones
Section 55.1-704. If your property is in a locality where a military air installation is located, you must disclose whether the parcel sits in a noise zone or an accident potential zone, or both, where the locality has designated it on the official zoning map. The disclosure goes on a form published by the Virginia Real Estate Board and must state the specific zone.
This is the strongest duty in the chapter. Section 55.1-710, which otherwise shields owners from liability for errors outside their knowledge, treats Section 55.1-704 differently: the owner escapes liability only where the error resulted from information provided by an officer or employee of the locality.
In other words, the legislature decided you cannot shrug this one off. Check the official zoning map rather than relying on memory, and get the answer from the locality in writing so that the narrow excuse is available to you if the locality is wrong.
2. Pending building code or zoning violations
Section 55.1-706, and read its first clause carefully: notwithstanding the exemptions in Section 55.1-702.
Those exemptions are what release estate sales, foreclosures, court-ordered transfers and others from the chapter. This section reaches through them. Even in an otherwise exempt sale, the duty stands.
What triggers it: actual knowledge of a pending enforcement action under the Uniform Statewide Building Code that affects the safe, decent, sanitary living conditions of the property, of which the locality notified you in writing. Or any pending local zoning violation that has not been abated or remedied within the time set in the locality’s written notice or by a court.
This is the section that catches sellers with unpermitted work, and it is worth reading alongside selling a home with an unpermitted addition. A letter from Henrico or Chesterfield code enforcement sitting in a drawer is actual knowledge in writing, which is precisely the trigger.
3. Lis pendens
Section 55.1-706.1. A pending lawsuit affecting title to the property is a required disclosure. If there is litigation touching your property, the settlement agent is going to find it anyway, and finding it late is what kills contracts in the final week.
4. Prior methamphetamine manufacture
Section 55.1-708. Required where the property was previously used to manufacture methamphetamine. Rare, and non-negotiable when it applies.
5. Privately owned stormwater management facilities
Section 55.1-708.1. An owner with actual knowledge of a privately owned stormwater management facility on the property must disclose the long-term maintenance and inspection requirements for it.
This one is quietly relevant across newer suburban subdivisions in Chesterfield and Hanover. Where a basin or bio-retention area sits on an individual lot rather than on association common area, the maintenance obligation follows the lot. Sellers frequently do not realize the depression at the back of the yard is a regulated facility with an inspection schedule attached.
What is your home actually worth right now?
Before you get into disclosure mechanics, it helps to know the number. We will run a valuation using current Richmond-area comparables, not an automated estimate.
6. Repetitive flood loss
Section 55.1-708.2. An owner with actual knowledge that the dwelling unit is a repetitive risk loss structure must disclose it, on a Real Estate Board form.
The definition is precise: two or more claims of more than $1,000 paid by the National Flood Insurance Program within any rolling 10-year period since 1978.
Note what that captures. Not two claims in your ownership, and not recent claims. Any rolling ten-year window back to 1978. A property that flooded twice under a prior owner in the 1990s can meet the definition, and the duty attaches if you know. Buyers should read this alongside whether you need flood insurance here.
The optional one
Section 55.1-707 covers a tourism activity zone, and the Code labels it a permissive disclosure. A seller may make it. Nobody has to. It is the only item in this neighborhood of the chapter that is genuinely elective, which is worth knowing so you do not treat it as a requirement.
The federal duty that is not in this chapter at all
Lead-based paint. Federal law requires sellers of most housing built before 1978 to disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, provide any available records and reports, give the buyer the standard pamphlet, and allow a ten-day period to conduct an inspection or assessment unless the buyer waives it. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes the requirements.
For this market that is the most frequently triggered affirmative disclosure of all, because so much of the city of Richmond predates 1978 by decades. It sits entirely outside the Virginia chapter, so a seller focused only on the state form will miss it.
Updating what you already said
Section 55.1-711 governs what happens when the facts move. 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.
The same section gives sellers room on the front end. If an item is unknown or unavailable when disclosures are due, you may say it is unknown, or give an approximation, provided the approximation is clearly labelled as one, is reasonable, rests on your actual knowledge, and is not being used to evade the chapter.
Use that. “Unknown” is an honest answer and a legitimate one. A confident guess is neither.
Where your agent fits
Section 55.1-712 of the same chapter is titled Duties of real estate licensees, and licensees also operate under the Real Estate Board’s regulations. Your listing agent’s obligations are not identical to yours, which is a reason to tell your agent everything even where you are unsure whether a duty attaches.
If you are getting ready to list, the sequence is in how to sell a house in Richmond, and the flood, fire and major-repair version of this question gets its own treatment in selling after a flood, fire or major repair.
Seller questions
If Virginia is a buyer beware state, does a seller have to disclose anything?
Yes, but the list is short and specific. Military air installation noise or accident potential zones, pending building code enforcement or zoning violations, a lis pendens, prior methamphetamine manufacture, a privately owned stormwater facility, and repetitive flood loss. Federal law separately requires lead-based paint disclosure on most pre-1978 housing.
What makes the military air installation disclosure different?
It is the one affirmative duty the Act’s liability shield does not protect a seller from in the same way. Under Section 55.1-710 the owner is excused only if the error came from information provided by an officer or employee of the locality.
Do the disclosure exemptions apply to violation disclosures?
No. Section 55.1-706 begins with the words notwithstanding the exemptions in Section 55.1-702, which means pending building code or zoning violation disclosure survives even in sales that are otherwise exempt, such as estate or foreclosure transfers.
What counts as a repetitive loss property?
Under Section 55.1-708.2, a structure where two or more claims of more than $1,000 were paid by the National Flood Insurance Program within any rolling 10-year period since 1978. A seller with actual knowledge of that must disclose it on a Real Estate Board form.
I have a stormwater pond on my lot. Do I have to say something?
If you have actual knowledge of a privately owned stormwater management facility on the property, Section 55.1-708.1 requires you to disclose the long-term maintenance and inspection requirements for it. This comes up in newer subdivisions where the facility sits on a lot rather than on common area.
Is the tourism activity zone disclosure required?
No. Section 55.1-707 is titled a permissive disclosure, which means a seller may make it but is not obligated to. It is the one item on this list that is optional.
What if I genuinely do not know the answer to something?
Section 55.1-711 lets an owner state that information is unknown, or use an approximation that is clearly identified as such, reasonable, and based on actual knowledge. What it does not allow is using that latitude to evade the chapter.
Do I have to update anything between contract and closing?
Yes. Section 55.1-711 requires the owner to disclose any material change in the disclosures at or before settlement. A change occurring after delivery is not itself a violation, but failing to disclose it is a separate problem.
Does disclosing more protect me or expose me?
Generally it protects you. Nearly every affirmative duty in the chapter is triggered by actual knowledge, and the disputes we see come from sellers who knew something and stayed quiet, not from sellers who over-shared.
Getting ready to list?
We will walk your property, tell you which of these six actually apply, and put the rest in writing before it becomes a negotiation. See how we work with sellers, look at what we have recently sold, or call (804) 601-4960.
