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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>85999</law_id><section_number>15.2-2605</section_number><catch_line>Collection of rents and charges; liens on real estate; discharge and enforcement of liens</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>17.1-267</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="15.2">Counties, Cities and Towns</unit><unit label="subtitle" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="II">Powers of Local Government</unit><unit label="chapter" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="26">Public Finance Act</unit><unit label="article" level="4" order_by="1" identifier="2">Provisions Applicable to All Bonds</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>The rates, rents, fees or charges when made for the use of any revenue-producing undertaking may be collected by distress, <span class="dictionary">levy</span>, <span class="dictionary">garnishment</span>, <span class="dictionary">attachment</span> or as otherwise provided by <span class="dictionary">law</span>. Any unpaid rate, rent, fee or charge shall become a <span class="dictionary">lien</span> superior to the interest of any owner, lessee or tenant, and next in succession to taxes, on the real property on or for which the use of any such undertaking was made and for which the rate, rent, fee or charge was imposed. However, the <span class="dictionary">lien</span> shall not bind or affect a subsequent bona fide purchaser of the real estate for valuable consideration without actual notice of the <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, until amount of the rate, rent, fee or charge is entered in the <span class="dictionary">judgment</span> records kept in the clerk&#x2019;s office where deeds are recorded with respect to the real estate against which the <span class="dictionary">lien</span> is asserted. It shall be the duty of the clerk in such office to keep, preserve and hold available for public inspection the <span class="dictionary">judgment</span> records and to cause entries to be made and indexed in them from time to time upon certification by the <span class="dictionary">locality</span>.
		The <span class="dictionary">lien</span> on any real estate may be discharged by the payment to the <span class="dictionary">locality</span> of the total amount of the <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, plus interest at the <span class="dictionary">judgment</span> rate of interest provided for in &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Judgment rate of interest" href="/6.2-302/">6.2-302</a> from the date the rate, rent, fee or charge was due and payable to the date of payment. It shall be the duty of the <span class="dictionary">locality</span> to deliver a certificate of payment to the person paying the <span class="dictionary">lien</span>. Upon presentation of the certificate, the clerk having the record of the <span class="dictionary">lien</span> shall mark the <span class="dictionary">lien</span> satisfied.
		<span class="dictionary">Jurisdiction</span> to enforce any <span class="dictionary">lien</span> shall be in <span class="dictionary">equity</span>, and the <span class="dictionary">court</span> may <span class="dictionary">order</span> any real estate subject to the <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, or any part of it, sold and the proceeds applied to the payment of the <span class="dictionary">lien</span> and the interest which may accrue to the date of payment.
		Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prejudice the right of the <span class="dictionary">locality</span> to recover the amount of any <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, or of the rate, rent, fee or charge, and the interest which may accrue, by action at <span class="dictionary">law</span> or otherwise.</p></section></text><history>Code 1950, &#xA7; 15-666.18; 1958, c. 640; 1962, c. 623, &#xA7; 15.1-175; 1986, cc. 379, 468; 1991, c. 668, &#xA7; 15.1-227.7; 1994, cc. 432, 714; 1997, c. 587.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
