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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>73584</law_id><section_number>43-68</section_number><catch_line>Releases made by court</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="43">Mechanics' and Certain Other Liens</unit><unit label="chapter" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="9">Release of Liens</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>Any person who owns or has any interest in real estate or personal property on which such <span class="dictionary">lien</span> exists may, after twenty days&#x2019; notice thereof to the person entitled to such <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, apply to the <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> or corporation <span class="dictionary">court</span> of the county or corporation in whose clerk&#x2019;s office such encumbrance is recorded, or to the <span class="dictionary">Circuit</span> <span class="dictionary">Court</span> of the City of Richmond, if it be in the clerk&#x2019;s office of such <span class="dictionary">court</span>, to have the same released or discharged; and upon proof that it has been paid or discharged, or upon its appearing to the <span class="dictionary">court</span> that more than twenty years have elapsed since the maturity of the <span class="dictionary">lien</span>, raising a <span class="dictionary">presumption</span> of payment, and which is not rebutted at the <span class="dictionary">hearing</span>, or upon proof that no suit, as defined by &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Limitation on suit to enforce lien" href="/43-17/">43-17</a>, has been brought to enforce the same within the time prescribed by such section; such <span class="dictionary">court</span> shall <span class="dictionary">order</span> the same to be recorded by the clerk. Such release shall reference the book and page where the original <span class="dictionary">lien</span> securing such interest in real estate or personal property is recorded.
		All releases made prior to June 24, 1944, by any <span class="dictionary">court</span> under this section upon such <span class="dictionary">presumption</span> of payment so arising and not rebutted, shall be validated.</p></section></text><history>Code 1919, &#xA7; 6456; 1926, p. 81; 1930, p. 70; 1932, p. 121; 1944, p. 199; 2014, c. 330.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
