Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 27 > Chapter 2 - Fire/EMS Departments and Fire/EMS Companies

• Additional land: means all land that a time-share developer has identified as land that may be added to a time-share project. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Alternative purchase: means anything valued in excess of $100 that is offered to a potential purchaser by the developer during the developer's sales presentation and that is purchased by such potential purchaser for more than $100, even though the purchaser did not purchase a time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Association: means the association organized under the provisions of § 55. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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: means the Common Interest Community Board. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Board of directors: means an executive and administrative entity, by whatever name denominated, designated in a time-share instrument as the governing body of the time-share estate owners' association. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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
• Common elements: means the real estate, improvements on such real estate, and the personalty situated within the time-share project that are subject to the time-share program. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Contact information: means any information that can be used to contact an owner, including the owner's name, address, telephone number, email address, or user identity on any electronic networking service. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conversion time-share project: means a real estate improvement that, prior to the disposition of any time-share, was wholly or partially occupied by persons as their permanent residence or on a transient pay-as-you-go basis other than those who have contracted for the purchase of a time-share and those who occupy with the consent of such purchasers. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Cost of ownership: means all of the owner's expenses related to a resale time-share due between the date of a resale transfer contract and the transfer of the resale time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• Deed: means the instrument by which title to a time-share estate is transferred from one person to another person. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Default: means either a failure to have made any payment in full and on time or a violation of a performance obligation required by a consumer document for a period of no less than 60 days. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Developer: means any person or group of persons acting in concert that (i) offers to dispose of a time-share or its interest in a time-share unit for which there has not been a previous disposition or (ii) applies for registration of the time-share program. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Developer control period: means a period of time during which the developer or a managing agent selected by the developer manages and controls the time-share project and the common elements and units it comprises. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Development right: means any right reserved by the developer to create additional units that may be dedicated to the time-share program. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• disposition: means a transfer of a legal or equitable interest in a time-share, other than a transfer or release of security for a debt. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• exchange company: means a person that exchanges or offers to exchange time-shares in an exchange program with other time-shares. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Exchange program: means any opportunity or procedure for the assignment or exchange of time-shares among owners in other time-share programs as evidenced by a past or present written agreement executed between an exchange company and the developer or the time-share estate association; however, an "exchange program" shall not be either an incidental benefit or an opportunity or procedure by which a time-share owner can exchange his time-share for another time-share within either the same time-share project or another time-share project owned in part by the developer. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• 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}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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
• Incidental benefit: means anything valued in excess of $100 provided by the developer that is acquired by a purchaser upon acquisition of a time-share and includes exchange rights, travel insurance, bonus weeks, upgrade entitlements, travel coupons, referral awards, and golf and tennis packages. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Inherent risks of project activity: means those dangers or conditions that are an integral part of a project activity, including certain hazards, such as surface and subsurface conditions; natural conditions of land, vegetation, and waters; the behavior of wild or domestic animals; and ordinary dangers of structures or equipment ordinarily used in association or time-share project operations. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• 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 holder: means either a person that holds an interest in an encumbrance that is not released of record as to a purchaser or such person's successor in interest that acquires title to the time-share project at foreclosure, by deed in lieu of foreclosure, or by any other instrument however denominated. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Managing agent: means a person that undertakes the duties, responsibilities, and obligations of the management of a time-share project. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Managing entity: means the managing agent or, if there is no managing agent, the time-share owners' association in a time-share estate project and the developer in a time-share use project. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Material change: means a change in any information or document disclosed in or attached to the public offering statement that renders inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading any information or document in such a way as to affect substantially a purchaser's rights or obligations, but does not include a change (i) in the real estate tax assessment or rate, utility charges or deposits, maintenance fees, association dues, assessments, special assessments, or any recurring time-share expense item, provided that such change is made known (a) immediately to the prospective purchaser by a written addendum in the public offering statement and (b) to the Board by filing with the developer's annual report copies of the updated changes occurring over the immediately preceding 12 months; (ii) that is an aspect or result of the orderly development of the time-share project in accordance with the time-share instrument; (iii) resulting from new, updated, or amended information contained in the annual report prepared and distributed pursuant to § 55. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Note: means the instrument that evidences the debt occasioned by the deferred purchase of a time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• offer: means any act that originates in the Commonwealth to sell, solicit, induce, or advertise, whether by radio, television, telephone, newspaper, magazine, or mail, during which a person is given an opportunity to acquire a time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• owner: means a person that is an owner or co-owner of a time-share other than as security for an obligation. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Participant: means any person, other than a project professional, that engages in a project activity. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Person: means one or more natural persons, corporations, partnerships, associations, trustees of a trust, limited liability companies, or other entities, or any combination thereof, capable of holding title to real property. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• Possibility of reverter: means a provision contained in a reverter deed by which the time-share estate automatically reverts or transfers back to the developer upon satisfaction of the requirements imposed by § 55. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Product: means each time-share program and all alternative purchases. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• program: means any arrangement of time-shares in one or more time-share projects by which the use, occupancy, or possession of real property has been made subject to either a time-share estate or time-share use in which such use, occupancy, or possession circulates among owners of the time-shares according to a fixed or floating time schedule on a periodic basis occurring over any period of time in excess of five years. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• project: means all of the real property subject to a time-share program created by the execution of a time-share instrument. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Project activity: includes swimming pools, spas, sporting venues, and cultural, historical, or harvest-your-own activities; other amenities and events; or natural activities and attractions for recreational, entertainment, educational, or social purposes. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• project instrument: means any document, however denominated, that creates the time-share project and program and that may contain restrictions or covenants regulating the use, occupancy, or disposition of time-shares in a project. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Project professional: means any person that is engaged in the business of providing one or more project activities, whether or not for compensation. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Public offering statement: means the statement required by § 55. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Purchaser: means any person other than a developer or lender that owns or acquires a product or that otherwise enters into a contract for the purchase of a product. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Resale purchase contract: means an agreement negotiated by a reseller by which an owner or a reseller agrees to sell, and a subsequent purchaser agrees to buy, a resale time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Resale service: means engaging, directly or indirectly, for compensation, in any of the following either in person or by any medium of communication: (i) selling or offering to sell or list for sale for the owner a resale time-share, (ii) buying or offering to buy a resale time-share for transfer to a subsequent purchaser, (iii) transferring a resale time-share acquired from an owner to a subsequent purchaser or offering to assist in such transfer, (iv) invalidating or offering to invalidate for an owner the title of a resale time-share, or (v) advertising or soliciting to advertise or promote the transfer or invalidation of a resale time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Resale time-share: means a time-share, wherever located, that has previously been sold to an owner who is a natural person for personal, family, or household use and that is transferred, or is intended to be transferred, through a resale service. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Resale transfer contract: means an agreement between a reseller and the owner by which the reseller agrees to transfer or assist in the transfer of the owner's resale time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Reseller: means any person who, directly or indirectly, engages in a resale service. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• Situs: means the place outside the Commonwealth where a developer's time-share project is located. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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
• Subsequent purchaser: means the purchaser or transferee of a resale time-share. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Time-share: means either a time-share estate or a time-share use plus its incidental benefits. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Time-share estate: means a right to occupy a time-share unit or any of several time-share units during five or more separated time periods over a period of at least five years, including renewal options, coupled with a freehold estate or an estate for years in one or more time-share units or a specified portion of such time-share units. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Time-share expense: means (i) expenditures, fees, charges, or liabilities incurred with respect to the operation, maintenance, administration, or insuring of the time-shares, units, and common elements comprising the entire time-share project, whether or not incurred for the repair, renovation, upgrade, refurbishing, or capital improvements, and (ii) any allocations of reserves. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Time-share use: means a right to occupy a time-share unit or any of several time-share units during five or more separated time periods over a period of at least five years, including renewal options, not coupled with a freehold estate or an estate for years in a time-share project or a specified portion of such time-share project. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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
• Transfer: means a voluntary conveyance of a resale time-share to a person other than the developer, association, or managing entity of the time-share program of which the resale time-share is a part or to a person taking ownership by gift, foreclosure, or deed in lieu of foreclosure. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• unit: means the real property or real property improvement in a project that is divided into time-shares and designated for separate occupancy and use. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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