                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COLLECTION OF RENTS AND CHARGES; LIENS ON REAL ESTATE; DISCHARGE AND ENFORCEMENT
OF LIENS (§ 15.2-2605)

The rates, rents, fees or charges when made for the use of any revenue-producing
undertaking may be collected by distress, levy, garnishment, attachment or as
otherwise provided by law. Any unpaid rate, rent, fee or charge shall become a
lien 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 lien shall not bind or affect a subsequent bona fide purchaser of
the real estate for valuable consideration without actual notice of the lien,
until amount of the rate, rent, fee or charge is entered in the judgment records
kept in the clerk&#8217;s office where deeds are recorded with respect to the
real estate against which the lien is asserted. It shall be the duty of the
clerk in such office to keep, preserve and hold available for public inspection
the judgment records and to cause entries to be made and indexed in them from
time to time upon certification by the locality.
		The lien on any real estate may be discharged by the payment to the locality
of the total amount of the lien, plus interest at the judgment rate of interest
provided for in § 6.2-302 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 locality to
deliver a certificate of payment to the person paying the lien. Upon
presentation of the certificate, the clerk having the record of the lien shall
mark the lien satisfied.
		Jurisdiction to enforce any lien shall be in equity, and the court may order
any real estate subject to the lien, or any part of it, sold and the proceeds
applied to the payment of the lien 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 locality to recover the amount of any lien, or of the rate, rent, fee or
charge, and the interest which may accrue, by action at law or otherwise.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 15-666.18; 1958, c. 640; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-175; 1986,
cc. 379, 468; 1991, c. 668, § 15.1-227.7; 1994, cc. 432, 714; 1997, c. 587.