Check out the 2021 Virginia Realtors® Legislative Agenda. These are the items that your Association will be fighting for in the General Assembly this year.
- Flood awareness: Creating a flood risk report, compiled by data already available through the Department of Conservation and Recreation, to provide accurate and easy-to-understand information to potential home buyers and require disclosure when a property is designated as a repetitive loss structure by FEMA.
- Protecting tenants in a foreclosure: Conforming Virginia law to the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) of 2018. The PTFA requires that a purchaser at foreclosure allow a tenant to continue to occupy the rental dwelling unit for up to 90 days if the purchaser is buying the house as their home and up to the balance of the term of the existing lease if the purchaser is buying the house for investment.
- Guaranteeing virtual access to POA/COA meetings: Allowing property owner and condo unit owners associations to conduct regular and annual meetings through electronic means. The Attorney General has already opined that these meetings can be held electronically but stakeholders believe it would be prudent to add this to the Virginia Code.
- Providing Affordable Healthcare Insurance: We are considering introducing a narrowly tailored version of last year’s Association Health Plan legislation to allow only real estate licensee members of the Virginia REALTORS® to pool together as a large group in the pursuit of more affordable, quality healthcare coverage. Association Health Plans are already allowed under Virginia law, but because of the self-employed nature of our members, thousands of Virginia REALTORS® are prohibited from accessing affordable coverage through AHPs. Because of this, we estimate that nearly 7,000 Virginia REALTORS® go without health insurance because they are stuck in the gap between qualifying for subsidies and being able to afford the out-of-pocket costs for insurance.