Virginia · Construction-defect rights
Here is what you have, and here is how to keep it.
Virginia gives you five years from when the construction work was performed (Va. Code § 8.01-250). If a defect surfaces in year six you almost certainly have no claim against the builder, however serious it is.
What you have
If the builder or developer still controls the property, the deadline isn’t theirs to raise.
The exception most homeowners would never think to ask about: not assertable by a person in actual possession/control (Va. Code § 8.01-250) It matters most where a builder still controls part of a project — a phased subdivision, an unfinished condo association.
Virginia's window is short - five years from when the construction services were furnished (Va. Code s.8.01-250), among the shortest anywhere, so acting promptly matters most here. The deadline does not shield the manufacturer or supplier of equipment installed in your home, nor a party still in possession and control of the property.
The deadline
5 years to bring a construction-defect claim
Va. Code § 8.01-250
5 years from the PERFORMANCE OR FURNISHING of the design/surveying/supervision/construction services (Va. Code § 8.01-250) — one of the shortest construction reposes in the country. Two exceptions, neither about fraud: (1) it does NOT protect the MANUFACTURER OR SUPPLIER of equipment, machinery or other articles installed in the structure (they remain subject to the ordinary limitations of §§ 8.01-243 and 8.01-246); and (2) it does NOT protect a person in actual possession and control of the improvement (as owner, tenant or otherwise) at the time the defective/unsafe condition proximately causes the injury. Design/construction professionals themselves get the 5-year shield. No fraud/concealment carve-out in the statute.
“No action to recover for any injury to property, real or personal, or for bodily injury or wrongful death, arising out of the defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property ... shall be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning, surveying, supervision of construction, or construction of such improvement to real property more than five years after the performance or furnishing of such services and construction.”
Before you sue: Virginia has no general pre-suit notice law, but before suing on the implied warranty on a new home, the buyer must first send the seller written notice of the claim by certified mail, overnight delivery or hand delivery with a receipt. The seller then has up to six months to fix it. (Va. Code § 55.1-357)
What to do now
Write it down the day you notice it. Photograph it with something for scale. Note the date, the room, and what you saw. If it gets worse, photograph it again - a sequence is far stronger than one picture. Keep every message with the builder. You are not starting a fight; you are keeping the option open. Virginia has no general pre-suit notice rule for a defect lawsuit; see "Before you sue" on this page for any notice that does apply. A record made at the time is still what most people are missing later.
The same defect, a different answer next door
The construction-defect deadline is a state-by-state accident of geography. The identical crack in the identical house can be dead in one state and live in another.