Short-Term Rental Bill Heads to Study
Over the past two weeks the Short-Term Rental legislation put forward by the Realtors® has made news across the Commonwealth. With thousands of Realtors® responding to the Call for Action and opposition from numerous sources, the Realtors® and the bill patrons received multiple requests for amendments to help improve the legislation and build consensus.  With only a week left for legislation to be passed by the house of origin, time is short to give these requested amendments a thorough evaluation to ensure they do not create unintended consequences.  Consequently, Senator Lynnwood Lewis requested in committee this morning, that our Short-Term Rental bill go to the Virginia Housing Commission where we can work with all stakeholders to study the proposals and return to the 2024 General Assembly with recommendations.  Delegate Danny Marshall, the current Chairman of the Virginia Housing Commission and the patron of the House version of our bill will also do the same at his meeting Thursday morning.

“When the irrational feeding frenzy sets in, there is no room for meaningful discussion. This bill deserves a deeper dive than can be afforded here in the midst of the feeding frenzy and maelstrom of a short session,” said Senator Lewis. “I can pretty much tell you one thing, and I say this to my friends in local government,” the Senator continued, “the recommendation moving forward is not going to be the status quo.”

Virginia Realtors® have a long history of working with the Virginia Housing Commission to find resolutions to difficult issues.  We are sure that the subsequent study will find a balance between the interests of law-abiding property owners represented by our members and the overreach of certain local jurisdictions that have gone too far in regulating properties managed by our members and their clients in the short-term rental space.

Rest of Realtor® Agenda Advances
The Resale Disclosure Act takes current disclosure language out of the POA, Condo, and Cooperative Acts and consolidates it within a new chapter entitled the Resale Disclosure Act and uses one term, “Resale Certificate,” for the disclosure information required to go from a seller to a buyer when a property is sold. The House version of the legislation (HB 2235) passed unanimously from the House General Laws Housing Subcommittee and is expected to pass the full Committee this week. The Senate bill (SB 1222) has been engrossed in the Senate and is ready for final passage.  A key element of this critical bill is to create a new cover sheet for the resale certificate that will act as a table of contents, allowing for easier review of the information by home buyers and Realtors®.

Legislation to modify the enforcement power of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman over continuing violations of common interest community associations, HB 1627 and SB 1042, has passed both the House and Senate unanimously.

Our bill to add an additional 15 days to the timeframe a landlord has to provide an itemization of the damages and return a security deposit for the next year has also passed.  HB 1542 and SB 891 both passed unanimously and will soon crossover to the opposite chambers for final passage.