Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 13.1 > Chapter 10 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Articles of incorporation: means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the charter of a corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board of directors: means the group of persons vested with the management of the business of the corporation irrespective of the name by which such group is designated, and "director" means a member of the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• City: means any city or town in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conspicuous: means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against whom the writing is to operate should have noticed it. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• 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.
• County: means any county in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Development: means a tract of land developed or to be developed as a unit under single ownership or unified control which is to be used for any business or industrial purpose or is to contain three or more residential dwelling units. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Development rights: includes "transferable development rights. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Disinterested director: means a director who, at the time action is to be taken under § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Document: means (i) any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument, or (ii) an electronic record. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• domestic corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, irrespective of the nature of the business to be transacted, organized under this chapter or existing pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth on January 1, 1986, or that, by virtue of articles of incorporation, amendment, or merger, has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth, even though also being a corporation organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth or that has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth pursuant to Article 11. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Domestic partnership: means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit formed under § 50-73. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• domestic unincorporated entity: means a domestic partnership, limited liability company, limited partnership, or business trust. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Economically mixed project: means residential housing or housing development, which may consist of one or more buildings located on contiguous or noncontiguous parcels that the HDA determines to finance as a single economically mixed project, to be occupied by persons and families of low and moderate income and by other persons and families as the HDA shall determine. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Electronic record: means information that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in paper form through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with subsection J of § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• electronically transmitted: means any form or process of communication, not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or other tangible medium, that (i) is suitable for the retention, retrieval, and reproduction of information by the recipient, and (ii) is retrievable in paper form by the recipient through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with subsection J of § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Eligible entity: means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign stock corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Employee: includes , unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, an officer but not a director. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entity: includes any domestic or foreign corporation; any domestic or foreign stock corporation; any domestic or foreign unincorporated entity; any estate or trust; and any state, the United States, and any foreign government. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entity conversion: means conversion. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Federal government: means the United States of America or any agency or instrumentality, corporate or otherwise, of the United States of America. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Federally insured mortgage: means a mortgage loan for land development for residential housing or residential housing insured or guaranteed by the United States or an instrumentality thereof, or a commitment by the United States or an instrumentality thereof to insure such a mortgage. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• 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}
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Foreign partnership: means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit formed under the laws of any state or jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth, and includes, for all purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, a foreign registered limited liability partnership. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Foreign unincorporated entity: means a foreign partnership, foreign limited liability company, foreign limited partnership, or foreign business trust. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• HDA: means the Virginia Housing Development Authority created and established pursuant to § 36-55. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Historic area: means an area containing one or more buildings or places in which historic events occurred or having special public value because of notable architectural, archaeological or other features relating to the cultural or artistic heritage of the community, of such significance as to warrant conservation and preservation. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Housing development costs: means the sum total of all costs incurred in the development of a housing development, which are approved by the HDA as reasonable and necessary, which costs shall include, but are not necessarily limited to: fair value of land owned by the sponsor, or cost of land acquisition and any buildings thereon, including payments for options, deposits, or contracts to purchase properties on the proposed housing site or payments for the purchase of such properties; cost of site preparation, demolition and development; architecture, engineering, legal, accounting, HDA, and other fees paid or payable in connection with the planning, execution and financing of the housing development; cost of necessary studies, surveys, plans and permits; insurance, interest; financing, tax and assessment costs and other operating and carrying costs during construction; cost of construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction, fixtures, furnishings, equipment, machinery and apparatus related to the real property; cost of land improvements, including without limitation, landscaping and off-site improvements, whether or not such costs have been paid in cash or in a form other than cash; necessary expenses in connection with initial occupancy of the housing development; a reasonable profit and risk fee in addition to job overhead to the general contractor and, if applicable, a limited profit housing sponsor; an allowance established by HDA for working capital and contingency reserves, and reserves for any anticipated operating deficits during the first two years of occupancy; in the case of an economically mixed project within a revitalization area designated in or pursuant to § 36-55. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Housing lender: means any bank or trust company, mortgage banker approved by the Federal National Mortgage Association, savings bank, national banking association, savings and loan association or building and loan association, mortgage broker, mortgage company, mortgage lender, life insurance company, credit union, agency or authority of the Commonwealth or any other state, or locality authorized to finance housing loans on properties located in or outside of the Commonwealth to persons and families of any income. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Housing sponsor: means individuals, joint ventures, partnerships, limited partnerships, public bodies, trusts, firms, associations, or other legal entities or any combination thereof, corporations, cooperatives and condominiums, approved by HDA as qualified either to own, construct, acquire, rehabilitate, operate, manage or maintain a housing development whether nonprofit or organized for limited profit subject to the regulatory powers of HDA and other terms and conditions set forth in this chapter. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Individual: means a natural person. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest: means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of a foreign or domestic unincorporated entity:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-803

• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Land development: means the process of acquiring land for residential housing construction, and of making, installing, or constructing nonresidential housing improvements, including, without limitation, waterlines and water supply installations, sewer lines and sewage disposal and treatment installations, steam, gas and electric lines and installations, roads, streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, storm drainage facilities, other related pollution control facilities, and other installations or works, whether on or off the site, which HDA deems necessary or desirable to prepare such land primarily for residential housing construction within the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loan servicer: means any person who, on behalf of a housing lender, collects or receives payments, including payments of principal, interest, escrow amounts, and other amounts due, on obligations due and owing to the housing lender pursuant to a residential mortgage loan or who, when the borrower is in default or in foreseeable likelihood of default, works on behalf of the housing lender with the borrower to modify or refinance, either temporarily or permanently, the obligations in order to avoid foreclosure or otherwise to finalize collection through the foreclosure process. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Local planning commission: means a municipal planning commission or a county planning commission. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Member: means one having a membership interest in a corporation in accordance with the provisions of its articles of incorporation or bylaws. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Membership interest: means the interest of a member in a domestic or foreign corporation, including voting and all other rights associated with membership. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Mortgage: means a mortgage deed, deed of trust, or other security instrument which shall constitute a lien in the Commonwealth on improvements and real property in fee simple, on a leasehold under a lease having a remaining term, which at the time such mortgage is acquired does not expire for at least that number of years beyond the maturity date of the interest-bearing obligation secured by such mortgage as is equal to the number of years remaining until the maturity date of such obligation or on personal property, contract rights or other assets. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage lender: means any bank or trust company, mortgage banker approved by the Federal National Mortgage Association, savings bank, national banking association, savings and loan association, or building and loan association, life insurance company, the federal government or other financial institutions or government agencies which are authorized to and customarily provide service or otherwise aid in the financing of mortgages on residential housing located in the Commonwealth for persons and families of low or moderate income. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Mortgage loan: means an interest-bearing obligation secured by a mortgage. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. ^{Source: OCC}
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Multifamily residential housing: means residential housing other than single-family residential housing, as hereinafter defined. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Municipality: means any city, town, county, or other political subdivision of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Organic document: means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Organic law: means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes an individual and an entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Persons and families of low and moderate income: means persons and families, irrespective of race, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, determined by the HDA to require such assistance as is made available by this chapter on account of insufficient personal or family income taking into consideration, without limitation, such factors as follows: (i) the amount of the total income of such persons and families available for housing needs, (ii) the size of the family, (iii) the cost and condition of housing facilities available, (iv) the ability of such persons and families to compete successfully in the normal private housing market and to pay the amounts at which private enterprise is providing sanitary, decent and safe housing, and (v) if appropriate, standards established for various federal programs determining eligibility based on income of such persons and families. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Preliminary subdivision plat: means the proposed schematic representation of development or subdivision that establishes how the provisions of §§ 15. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Principal office: means the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located, or, if there are no such offices, the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, so designated by the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative and investigatory action conducted by a governmental agency. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: means all lands, including improvements and fixtures thereon, and property of any nature appurtenant thereto, or used in connection therewith, and every estate, interest and right, legal or equitable, therein, including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise and the indebtedness secured by such liens. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Receiving area: means one or more areas identified by an ordinance and designated by the comprehensive plan as an area authorized to receive development rights transferred from a sending area. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Receiving property: means a lot or parcel within a receiving area and within which development rights are increased pursuant to a transfer of development rights affixed to the property. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Record date: means the date established under Article 7 (§ 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Resident curator: means a person, firm, or corporation that leases or otherwise contracts to manage, preserve, maintain, operate, or reside in a historic property in accordance with the provisions of § 15. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Residential housing: means a specific work or improvement within the Commonwealth, whether multifamily residential housing or single-family residential housing undertaken primarily to provide dwelling accommodations, including the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, preservation or improvement of land, buildings and improvements thereto, for residential housing, and such other nonhousing facilities as may be incidental, related, or appurtenant thereto. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Sending area: means one or more areas identified by an ordinance and designated by the comprehensive plan as an area from which development rights are authorized to be severed and transferred to a receiving area. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Sending property: means a lot or parcel within a sending area from which development rights are authorized to be severed. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• 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.
• signature: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document: (i) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol to a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature; or (ii) to attach to or logically associate with an electronic transmission an electronic sound, symbol, or process, and includes an electronic signature in an electronic transmission. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Single-family residential housing: means residential housing consisting of four or fewer dwelling units, the person or family owning or intending to acquire such dwelling units, upon completion of the construction, rehabilitation, or improvement thereof, also occupying or intending to occupy one of such dwelling units. See Virginia Code 36-55.26
• Site plan: means the proposal for a development or a subdivision including all covenants, grants or easements and other conditions relating to use, location and bulk of buildings, density of development, common open space, public facilities and such other information as required by the subdivision ordinance to which the proposed development or subdivision is subject. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Special exception: means a special use that is a use not permitted in a particular district except by a special use permit granted under the provisions of this chapter and any zoning ordinances adopted herewith. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Street: means highway, street, avenue, boulevard, road, lane, alley, or any public way. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Transact business: includes the conduct of affairs by any corporation that is not organized for profit. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Transfer of development rights: means the process by which development rights from a sending property are affixed to one or more receiving properties. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Transferable development rights: means all or that portion of development rights that are transferred or are transferable. See Virginia Code 15.2-2316.1
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes 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 1-255
• United States: includes any district, authority, bureau, commission, department, or any other agency of the United States. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• Variance: means , in the application of a zoning ordinance, a reasonable deviation from those provisions regulating the shape, size, or area of a lot or parcel of land or the size, height, area, bulk, or location of a building or structure when the strict application of the ordinance would unreasonably restrict the utilization of the property, and such need for a variance would not be shared generally by other properties, and provided such variance is not contrary to the purpose of the ordinance. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Voting group: means all members of one or more classes that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of members. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Working waterfront: means an area or structure on, over, or adjacent to navigable waters that provides access to the water and is used for water-dependent commercial, industrial, or governmental activities, including commercial and recreational fishing; tourism; aquaculture; boat and ship building, repair, and services; seafood processing and sales; transportation; shipping; marine construction; and military activities. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Working waterfront development area: means an area containing one or more working waterfronts having economic, cultural, or historic public value of such significance as to warrant development and reparation. See Virginia Code 15.2-2201
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• written: means any information in the form of a document. See Virginia Code 13.1-803