This is the 2025 edition of the code. This is the current edition. Browse all editions.

§ 8.9A-108 Sufficiency of description

a. Sufficiency of description. Except as otherwise provided in subsections (c), (d), and (e), a description of personal or real property is sufficient, whether or not it is specific, if it reasonably identifies what is described.

b. Examples of reasonable identification. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (d), a description of collateral reasonably identifies the collateral if it identifies the collateral by:

1. specific listing;

2. category;

3. except as otherwise provided in subsection (e), a type of collateral defined in the Uniform Commercial Code;

4. quantity;

5. computational or allocational formula or procedure; or

6. except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), any other method, if the identity of the collateral is objectively determinable.

c. Supergeneric description not sufficient. A description of collateral as “all the debtor’s assets” or “all the debtor’s personal property” or using words of similar import does not reasonably identify the collateral.

d. Investment property. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (e), a description of a security entitlement, securities account, or commodity account is sufficient if it describes:

1. the collateral by those terms or as investment property; or

2. the underlying financial asset or commodity contract.

e. When description by type insufficient. A description only by type of collateral defined in the Uniform Commercial Code is an insufficient description of:

1. a commercial tort claim; or

2. in a consumer transaction, consumer goods, a security entitlement, a securities account, or a commodity account.

History

This law was first created in 1964. The record of its establishment is cataloged in chapter 219 of that year’s edition of “Acts of Assembly,” the annual state publication listing all changes made to the Code of Virginia in that year. Unfortunately, the 1964 “Acts” aren’t available online. It has been modified 2 times. Those modifications are cataloged by “The Acts of Assembly,” a state publication, by year and chapter. Those modifications that can be read on the General Assembly’s website will be linked accordingly. Those modifications are as follows: in 1996, chapter 216; in 2000, chapter 1007.

1964, c. 219, § 8.9-110; 1996, c. 216, § 8.9-115; 2000, c. 1007.

Download