The city sent a violation notice. You can still sell.

Yes. We buy houses in Virginia Beach and across Hampton Roads with open citations, correction orders and unpermitted work, as-is. Fines or city charges recorded against the house are usually paid from the sale at closing, and you see that figure before you sign.

Not to sell to us. We take the house with the list still open. A buyer using a mortgage is a different story, because their lender, appraiser or inspector may want safety items fixed before closing.

Call the inspector named on the notice before the date passes and ask what they need from you. If the violations stay open, the city can take you to court. A Building Code violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $2,500 for a first conviction. If the work is still undone by then, the judge orders it finished, generally within six months, and each day it stays undone after that counts as a separate offense (Va. Code § 36-106). Cities with an ordinance under § 15.2-906 can also do the repairs themselves and bill you. Selling before the date is the other way out: once we buy the house, the repairs are ours to make.

They can, so clear them at closing. Under Va. Code § 15.2-906, an unpaid charge for work the city did becomes a lien on the property ranking with unpaid real estate taxes, and it also stays a personal obligation of whoever owned the house when it was imposed. When you sell to us, the title search turns up those charges and they are paid from the sale, so the lien is cleared and the repair list becomes ours.

Expect the city to follow through. Under Va. Code § 36-105, a city or county may inspect and enforce the building code on existing homes, occupied or not, and when a tenant’s complaint leads the building department to find a possible unsafe-structure violation, the department must enforce those rules. If you would rather skip the repairs, we buy rentals as-is, tenants and violations included.

Usually, yes. If the city has notified you in writing of a pending Building Code enforcement action affecting safe, decent and sanitary living conditions, or of a zoning violation you have not fixed in the time the notice or a court allowed, Va. Code § 55.1-706 requires a written disclosure to the buyer on a Real Estate Board form. That holds even for sales the Disclosure Act otherwise exempts, and the disclosure must reach the buyer before the contract is ratified (§ 55.1-709). It applies when you sell to us as well: hand us the notice and the form, and we price the list in.

It can raise the stakes. If the violations lead to the house being condemned, called a nuisance or derelict, or declared blighted, Va. Code § 58.1-3965(A) lets a tax sale come a year sooner than usual, after the first anniversary of the taxes’ due date. A sale to us settles the back taxes from the proceeds and takes the repair list off your hands at the same closing.

Yes. Garage conversions, finished basements, decks and DIY wiring done without permits are all fine. Angel looks at what was actually built and prices any fixes with a contractor’s eye.