A. In addition to the provisions of § 59.1-200, the following fraudulent acts or practices committed by a supplier, as defined in § 59.1-198, in a consumer transaction involving residential real property owned and occupied as the primary dwelling unit of the owner, are prohibited:

Terms Used In Virginia Code 59.1-200.1

  • Consumer transaction: means :

    1. See Virginia Code 59.1-198

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Services: includes but shall not be limited to (i) work performed in the business or occupation of the supplier, (ii) work performed for the supplier by an agent whose charges or costs for such work are transferred by the supplier to the consumer or purchaser as an element of the consumer transaction, or (iii) the subject of an "access contract" as defined in § 59. See Virginia Code 59.1-198
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • Supplier: means a seller, lessor, licensor, or professional who advertises, solicits, or engages in consumer transactions, or a manufacturer, distributor, or licensor who advertises and sells, leases, or licenses goods or services to be resold, leased, or sublicensed by other persons in consumer transactions. See Virginia Code 59.1-198

1. The supplier of service to avoid or prevent foreclosure charges or receives a fee (i) prior to the full and complete performance of the services it has agreed to perform, if the transaction does not involve the sale or transfer of residential real property, or (ii) prior to the settlement on the sale or transfer of residential real property, if the transaction involves the sale or transfer of such residential real property;

2. The supplier of such services (i) fails to make payments under the mortgage or deed of trust that is a lien on such residential real property as the payments become due, where the supplier has agreed to do so, regardless of whether the purchaser is obligated on the loan, and (ii) applies rents received from such dwellings for his own use;

3. The supplier of such services represents to the seller of such residential real property that the seller has an option to repurchase such residential real property, after the supplier of such services takes legal or equitable title to such residential real property, unless there is a written contract providing such option to repurchase on terms and at a price stated in such contract; or

4. The supplier advertises or offers such services as are prohibited by this section.

B. This section shall not apply to any mortgage lender or servicer regularly engaged in making or servicing mortgage loans that is subject to the supervisory authority of the State Corporation Commission, a comparable regulatory authority of another state, or a federal banking agency.

C. In connection with any consumer transaction covered by subsection A, any provision in an agreement between the supplier of such services and the owner of such residential real property that requires the owner to submit to mandatory arbitration shall be null and void, and notwithstanding any such provisions, the owner of such residential real property shall have the rights and remedies under this chapter.

2008, c. 485; 2009, cc. 203, 272.