Title 55.1, Title 55.1. Property and Conveyances

A clerk may refuse any document for recording in which the name of the person under which the document is to be indexed does not legibly appear or is not otherwise furnished.

A power of attorney may be recorded in any county or city.

Except as provided in Article 4.1 (§ 17.1-258.2 et seq.) of Title 17.1 and for electronically signed or electronically notarized documents described in § 17.1-223, all writings that are to be recorded or docketed in the clerk's office of courts of record shall be an original or f…

If it is proper for any writing that has been recorded in a court of any county or city to be recorded in the court of another county or city and such writing, before being so recorded in such other court, is lost or mislaid, on affidavit of this fact, such court or the clerk of …

Whenever a mortgage or deed of trust instrument upon real or personal property located in more than one county or city is recorded in one such county or city, the party by whom it is so presented may deliver to the clerk of such court any number of executed and acknowledged copie…

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Attorney" means any person licensed as an attorney in Virginia by the Virginia State Bar. "Corrective affidavit" means an affidavit of an attorney correcting an obvious description error. "Obvious descr…

In any case when any deed was duly recorded before the formation of the state of West Virginia in any county or city now within the limits of West Virginia and such deed, after diligent search, cannot be found, upon affidavit of that fact by any party in interest, his agent, or h…

A circuit court of any county or city, or the clerk of any such court, shall record any writing as is described in § 55.1-600 as to any person whose name is signed to such writing, except that acknowledgment of contracts for the sale of real property shall require the seller or g…

A circuit court of any county or city, or the clerk of such court, shall also record any writing as is described in § 55.1-600 as to any person whose name is signed thereto upon the certificate under the official seal of any ambassador, minister plenipotentiary, minister resident…

A circuit court of any county or city, or the clerk of such court, shall also record any writing as is described in § 55.1-600 as to any person whose name is signed thereto and who at the time of such acknowledgment: 1. Was a member of any of the Armed Forces of the United States…

A circuit court of any county or city, or clerk of such court, shall also record any writing as is described in § 55.1-600 as to any person whose name is signed thereto who at the time of such acknowledgment was in active service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or as to…

A. For the purposes of this article, "notarial acts" means acts that the laws and regulations of the Commonwealth authorize notaries public of the Commonwealth to perform, including the administering of oaths and affirmations, taking proof of execution and acknowledgments of inst…

A. If the notarial act is performed by any of the persons described in subdivisions B 1 through 4 of § 55.1-616 other than a person authorized to perform notarial acts by the laws or regulations of a foreign country, the signature, rank, or title and serial number, if any, of the…

The person taking an acknowledgment shall certify that: 1. The person acknowledging appeared before him and acknowledged he executed the instrument; and 2. The person acknowledging was known to the person taking the acknowledgment or that the person taking the acknowledgment had …

The form of a certificate of acknowledgment used by a person whose authority is recognized under § 55.1-616 shall be accepted in the Commonwealth if: 1. The certificate is in a form prescribed by the laws or regulations of the Commonwealth; 2. The certificate is in a form prescri…

For the purposes of this article, "acknowledged before me" means: 1. That the person acknowledging appeared before the person taking the acknowledgment; 2. That the person acknowledging acknowledged he executed the instrument; 3. That, in the case of: a. A natural person acknowle…

The forms of acknowledgment set forth in this section may be used and are sufficient for their respective purposes under any law of the Commonwealth. The following forms shall be known as "Statutory Short Forms of Acknowledgment" and may be referred to by that name. The authoriza…

A notarial act performed prior to June 26, 1970, is not affected by this article. This article provides an additional method of proving notarial acts. Nothing in this article diminishes or invalidates the recognition accorded to notarial acts by other laws or regulations of the C…

This article shall be so interpreted as to make uniform the laws of those states that enact it.

All deeds made by corporations shall be signed in the name of the corporation by the president or acting president, or any vice-president, or by such other person as may be authorized to do so by the board of directors of such corporation, and, if such deed is to be recorded, the…

When any writing purports to have been signed on behalf or by authority of any person or corporation, or in any representative capacity whatsoever, the certificate of the acknowledgment by the person so signing the writing shall be sufficient for the purposes of this and §§ 55.1-…

Any notary or other officer duly authorized to take acknowledgments may take the acknowledgment to any deed or other writing executed by a company or to a company or for the benefit of a company, although he may be a stockholder, an officer, or both, in such company, provided tha…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings, taken and certified by notaries public and commissioners in chancery, and all depositions taken, accounts and reports made, and decrees executed by any notary public, commissioner in chancery, or commissioner of acco…

When a certificate of acknowledgment was made prior to July 1, 1995, to any instrument in writing required by this chapter to be acknowledged and the notary or other official whether of this or some other state taking such acknowledgment failed to affix his official seal to such …

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds of trust made and certified prior to March 23, 1936, by persons being trustees in such deeds shall be held and are hereby declared valid and effective in all respects if otherwise valid according to the law then in force, and each such …

Any certificate of acknowledgment of any deed of trust, taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by a person named as trustee therein who was, at the time of taking the acknowledgment, an officer authorized by law to take acknowledgments of deeds, is declared to be as valid and…

All certificates of acknowledgments to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by commissioners of deeds of states other than the Commonwealth, appointed or commissioned by the governor of such state, and by notaries public appointed or commissioned by…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by justices of the peace, mayors of cities or towns, police justices, and civil and police justices who by virtue of their offices had the powers and authority of justices of…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by commissioners of deeds of states other than the Commonwealth, appointed or commissioned by the governor of such state, and by notaries public appointed or commissioned by …

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified in the Commonwealth prior to June 18, 1920, by notaries public who served in the army, navy, or marine corps of the United States during World War I shall be held and are hereby declared valid and …

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings made and certified prior to July 1, 1995, before officials in any foreign country authorized by law to take and certify such acknowledgments, to which such officials failed to affix their official seals, shall be held…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by notaries public residing in foreign countries shall be held and are hereby declared valid and effective in all respects if otherwise valid according to the law then in for…

Any certificate of acknowledgment to a deed or other writings taken prior to July 1, 1995, by a notary public or other officer duly authorized to take acknowledgments who at the time of taking such acknowledgment was the spouse of the grantee in the deed or other instrument shall…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by a notary public appointed or commissioned by the Governor, or appointed or commissioned under the laws of any state other than the Commonwealth, who mistakenly or by error…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified by a notary public or other officer originally duly authorized to take acknowledgments in any city or county that consolidated with other political subdivisions or became a city, as the case may be…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to March 22, 1930, by notaries public appointed or commissioned by the Governor who took and certified such acknowledgments after their term of office had expired shall be held and are hereby…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by notaries public appointed or commissioned by the Governor who took and certified such acknowledgments after their term of office had expired shall be held and are hereby d…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by a person who was appointed as a notary public by the Governor but who failed to qualify as provided by law shall be held and are hereby declared valid and effective in all…

All certificates of acknowledgment to deeds and other writings taken and certified prior to July 1, 1995, by a person who was appointed a notary public for the Commonwealth at large by the Governor but who failed to include in such certificates of acknowledgment the county or cit…

Any deed of conveyance of real estate executed in the Commonwealth prior to July 1, 1995, by a corporation of the Commonwealth, when the certificate of acknowledgment of such deed fails to state the representative capacity of the party signing such deed for the corporation, shall…

Any deed of conveyance of real estate executed within or outside of the Commonwealth by a corporation of the Commonwealth or any other state to which deed the seal of the corporation was not affixed, or to which the seal was affixed but was not attested to by the secretary or by …

No acknowledgment heretofore taken to any deed or any writing executed by a company, or for the benefit of a company, shall be held to be invalid by reason of the acknowledgment having been taken by a notary or other officer duly authorized to take acknowledgments who, at the tim…

A. All deeds, orders of probate, fiduciary accounts, and all other papers and writings received prior to July 1, 1995, by any clerk of any court of the Commonwealth and transcribed, or purported to be transcribed, in the proper book in such clerk's office provided by law for the …

Any deed or other instrument or writing recorded before July 1, 1995, upon the proper deed book in the clerk's office of the circuit court of any county or any court of record of any city, when the clerk of such court failed to sign the certificate of recordation thereof and afte…

The clerk of the court of any county or city in which there is any partition of land under any order, or any recovery of land under judgment, shall transmit to the clerk of the court of each county or city in whose office deeds to such land or any part thereof are recorded a copy…

A copy of any judgment or order of any United States court affecting the title to, boundary or possession of, or any interest in and to any real estate lying wholly or partly within the Commonwealth, when duly certified by the proper officer of any such court, may be filed with t…