                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

AGREEMENTS TO LOCATE REPORTED PROPERTY; PENALTY (§ 55.1-2542)

A. It is unlawful for any person to seek or receive from another person or
contract with another person for a fee or compensation for locating property
that he knows has been reported or paid or delivered to the administrator
pursuant to this chapter prior to 36 months after the date of delivery of the
property by the holder to the administrator as required by this chapter.

B. No agreement entered into after 36 months from the required date of delivery
of the property by the holder to the administrator is valid if a person thereby
undertakes to locate property included in a report for a fee or other
compensation exceeding 10 percent of the value of the recoverable property.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent an owner from asserting at
any time that an agreement to locate property is based upon an excessive or
unjust consideration.

C. State warrants that may be issued in payment and redemption of previously
abandoned property or the liquidation proceeds of previously abandoned property
may be issued in the discretion of the administrator directly to the person
entitled to the money as the owner, heir, or legatee, or as fiduciary of the
estate of the deceased owner, heir, or legatee, and not to a named
attorney-in-fact, agent, or assignee or any other person regardless of a written
instruction to the contrary. The administrator need not recognize nor is the
administrator bound by any terms of a purported power of attorney or assignment
that may be presented as having been executed by a person as the purported
owner, heir, legatee, or fiduciary of the estate of a deceased owner of such
abandoned property.

D. A person who violates subsection A or B is guilty of a misdemeanor,
punishable by a fine not to exceed $1,000.

HISTORY: 1981, c. 47, § 55-210.27:1; 1988, c. 378; 2019, c. 712.