February
- Swetha Madiraju
- May 23, 2022
- 2 min read
For this week’s post, I will be focusing on the events of the Legislative Session that occurred in February of 2022.
Two particular bills were proposed by the Virginia House of Representatives and Senate during the month of February that had the strongest impact on the economy of the Commonwealth as a whole.
HB 1364, introduced on February 9th, addressed the topic of real estate settlements. It stated that any and all sellers are able to have an attorney present at any time during the process of the real estate agreement if they choose to do so. This bill is declarative of existing law, but because it was noted that “an emergency exists”, this act was put into place to enforce the right of the seller. According to the law, they shall be allowed to choose any settlement agent they want at any time during the process, including getting assistance from an attorney for deed preparation, fee negotiation, review of documents, and any other legal matters related to the settlement or closing process. The bill was later amended to include that not only do sellers have this right, but also purchasers. This is also declarative of existing law, but was noted as an “emergency” as well. This proposal is a companion to SB 775, covering the same topic, which was introduced two days after this piece of legislation on February 11th. The bill was passed by both the House and Senate, and was signed by the Governor into legislation on April 11th, 2022.
SB 776, introduced on February 24th, covered the topic of surplus property. It stated that any surplus property from the Pocohantas building would be put up for auction or sale in order to raise funds for the restoration and preservation of Capitol Square. This was a part of the General Assembly replacement project. According to current legislation, only 50% of all proceeds from the sale of surplus property would be distributed to the Conservation Resources Fund. However, with the proposal of this bill, the money would, instead, deposit the money in the Capitol Square Preservation Council, who would then distribute it to the Virginia Capitol Foundation. This is still pending, depending on what agreement is reached between the Council and the Foundation. The Virginia Capitol Foundation is a private, non-governmental, non-profit organization, meaning that this currently breaks no laws nor is it unconstitutional. This bill was passed by both the House and Senate, and then signed by the Governor into legislation on April 27th, 2022.
I chose to cover these specific bills because I believed these were the most important proposals introduced during the month of February. Hundreds of other bills were proposed and even passed during the Virginia 2022 Legislative Session in February. For more information on which issues were discussed, visit https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+lst+INT.
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