Virginia Foreclosure Law

Expected Timeline: About two months
Security Instrument: Mortgage or Deed of Trust. Deed of trust most commonly used.
Type of Process: Judicial or nonjudicial. Nonjudicial foreclosure most commonly used.
Protections for Servicemembers: Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-15.2
Time to Respond: Notice of sale must be served by mail or publication. Borrowers have 14 days to respond to service by mail. Notice by publication must be done for four consecutive weeks. Auction date may be eight to thirty days after last publication.
Reinstatement Period: None.
Protections for High-Cost Mortgages: None.
Redemption Period: None.
Eviction Process: Former owners do not need to be given notice before evcition lawsuit is filed.
Deficiency Judgments: Allowed if brought in a separate lawsuit after sheriff sale.
Limits on Deficiency Judgments: Deficiency judgments are allowed.
Cash Exempted in Bankruptcy: $5,000 for single person, $10,000 for married couple.
State Statutes: Va. Code Ann. § 55-59 to 55-66.6
 

Virginia foreclosure law allows lenders to use either Non-Judicial or Judicial Foreclosure procedures when foreclosing on property. If no power of sale clause is present in the original loan documents, the lender must pursue Judicial Foreclosure. By this process, the lender must sue the borrower in court and obtain an order of foreclosure. The property is then ordered to be sold by the court.

The Non-Judicial Foreclosure process may be used if a power of sale clause is present in the original loan documents. This clause authorizes the lender to sell the home in the event the borrower defaults. If the clause specifies the time, place, and terms of the sale, then those procedures must be followed.

Once a notice of sale is issued, it must be published for at least three days, no matter if the original deed of trust contains other instructions regarding the advertisement of the sale. If the documents do not contain other provisions for advertisement, the notice must be published for four (4) consecutive weeks. Five (5) consecutive daily publications may be used if the property is in or near a city. The notice must be given no less than fourteen (14) days before the scheduled sale date.

The sale must be held no less than eight (8) days after the first publication and no more than thirty (30) days after the last publication. At the sale, the trustee may accept written bids, as long as they are announced at the sale and as long as any other bidder may inspect such bids. The high bidder must deposit at least ten percent (10%) of the purchase price with the lender's trustee.

The trustee may postpone the sale, but the postponement must be advertised in the same manner as the original notice of sale was advertised.

Borrowers in Virginia have a two-hundred and forty (240) day redemption period after the date of the sale in which to redeem the property. The redemption amount is equal to the high bid at the auction, plus interest accrued at six percent (6%).