Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 8.4A > Part 5 > Sections

• 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
• Affiliate: means a person that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the person specified. 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
• 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.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appraisal: means a written statement independently and impartially prepared by a qualified appraiser setting forth an opinion of defined value of an adequately described property as of a specific date, supported by the presentation and analysis of relevant market information. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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
• Business: means any lawful activity, except a farm operation, conducted primarily:

  1. See Virginia Code 25.1-400

• 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
• Comparable replacement dwelling: means any dwelling that is (i) decent, safe and sanitary; (ii) adequate in size to accommodate the occupants; (iii) within the financial means of the displaced person; (iv) functionally equivalent; (v) in an area not subject to unreasonable adverse environmental conditions; and (vi) in a location generally not less desirable than the location of the displaced person's dwelling with respect to public utilities, facilities, services and the displaced person's place of employment. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• Date of valuation: means the time of the lawful taking by the petitioner, or the date of the filing of the petition pursuant to § 25. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• 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
• Displaced person: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 25.1-400

• 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
• Dwelling: means the place of permanent or customary and usual residence of a person, according to local custom or law, including a single-family house, a single family unit in a two-family, multi-family, or multi-purpose property; a unit of a condominium or cooperative housing project; a nonhousekeeping unit; a mobile home; or any other residential unit. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• Farm operation: means any activity conducted solely or primarily for the production of one or more agricultural products or commodities, including timber, for sale or home use, and customarily producing such products or commodities in sufficient quantity to be capable of contributing materially to the operator's support. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• 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}
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• 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
• 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
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• 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: means real estate and all rights and appurtenances thereto, together with the structures and other improvements thereon, and any right, title, interest, estate or claim in or to real estate. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• Lead dealer: means a person that sells or otherwise provides to any other person contact information concerning five or more owners to be used for a resale service. See Virginia Code 55.1-2200
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Nonprofit organization: means an organization that is exempt from paying federal income taxes under § 501 of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• 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 any person who owns property, provided that the person's ownership of the property is of record in the land records of the clerk's office of the circuit court of the county or city where the property is located. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• 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
• 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: means the beneficiary of the trust rather than the trust or the trustee. See Virginia Code 55.1-2100
• Person: means any (i) individual or (ii) partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or other business entity. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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}
• 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
• Property: means land and personal property, and any right, title, interest, estate or claim in or to such property. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public corporation: means the Commonwealth of Virginia or any political subdivision thereof or any incorporated municipality therein or any public agency of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof or of any municipality therein. See Virginia Code 1-219.1
• 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
• 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
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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 agency: means any (i) department, agency or instrumentality of the Commonwealth; (ii) public authority, municipal corporation, local governmental unit or political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any department, agency or instrumentality thereof; (iii) person who has the authority to acquire property by eminent domain under state law; or (iv) two or more of the aforementioned that carry out projects that cause persons to be displaced. See Virginia Code 25.1-100
• 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.
• Uneconomic remnant: means a parcel of real property in which the owner is left with an interest after the partial acquisition of the owner's property and which the state agency has determined has little or no value or utility to the owner. See Virginia Code 25.1-400
• 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