Do You Know That The Property Owners Association Act Has Changed? Amendments 55-511 & 55-512
By Glenda McDaniel, Resident Moneta 24121

   Yes, starting July 1, 2001 " The Property Owners Association Act" (55-509) was changed. This change effects both buyers and sellers.   Previously, if you were a seller of a property that triggered the "Property Owners Association Act", you had to provide a package from your homeowners association.  The package had to be up to date within 30 days of the request and Property Owners Associations had 14 days to provide this to the seller upon request.   Purchasers had a 3 day recision period upon receipt of this package.
   Agents found that this "3 day recision period" was sometimes being used as a way to actually get out of the contracts, even though the purchaser did not have a problem with anything in the package.  
  The "new" law gives the seller the right to request the Property Owners Package from their Property Owners Association, at the time of the LISTING with NO expiration date.  It would be the responsibility of the purchaser or their agent to write in the contract, if the purchaser wants an update to this package and the right to null and void the contract, if there is something in the "update" that is not satisfactory to the purchaser.  The purchaser still gets a "3 day recision period" from receipt of the POA package, but the "3 day recision period" would begin at the date of the contract even if the Purchaser receives the package before the contract is ratified. Because sellers and their agents can order these packages at the time of the listing and have them readily available to give to any potential purchaser at the time of the contract ratification, Sellers no longer have to wait such a long time to know if a purchaser might rescind their contract, unless the purchaser writes in the update request.  More Information on this can be found at:  Property Owners Associations who trigger this act (See-55-509) and http://leg1.state. va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe? 000+cod+TOC.
Property Owners Associations packages must contain 14 items with item 13 being new (55-512)  You can check to see if a Property Owners Association exist on-line at: http://www.dpor.state.va.us/regulantlookup/ (check by zip code).