BILL WOULD FORCE SELLERS OF PROPERTY TO REPORT CONDITION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 25, 1992                   TAG: 9201250271
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLYNE H. McWILLIAMS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BILL WOULD FORCE SELLERS OF PROPERTY TO REPORT CONDITION
The Virginia real estate industry is pushing for a law that would place the obligation for disclosing the condition of property clearly on the shoulders of the seller.
The General Assembly's House General Laws Committee currently is reviewing legislation that would make written disclosure a mandatory part of any real estate transaction. Rep. Leslie Byrne, D-Falls Church, the bill's sponsor, is attempting to move the bill to the House Courts of Justice Committee, on the theory that it deals with state law's buyer-beware clause.
The proposal would require sellers to put in writing all of a property's conditions of which they are aware. Currently, licensed real estate agents and brokers are required to disclose any information they have about the property. The bill proposes that sellers give the information and be held accountable for its accuracy.
"It's equally beneficial for purchasers and real estate licensees, who can only know what the seller tells him," said Teresa Thomson, chief lobbyist of the Virginia Association of Realtors.
Thomson explained that if there was proof agents or brokers knew about but withheld information, they could be held accountable or sued.
VAR president Stephen Hoover of Roanoke said the document is already popular in the real estate industry.
"Realtors are comfortable with it because it seems to create a situation where people go into transactions with questions answered," he said.
Byrne said she thinks the bill has the support it needs to pass this year.
But apparently it won't come from the Virginia Bar Association's real estate section.
That committee's chairman, Charles Menges of Richmond, said his panel has opposed the legislation in its present form because it would not correct the problem.
"It's like taking an sledgehammer and killing a gnat," he said, explaining that the law would create more problems - for instance, determining be what information would be included on the disclosure form.
A bar association committee will consider some alternatives to the bill next week. One possibility could including having a buyer-disclosure form which would state that the buyer has the option of having any investigations he feels necessary performed on the property.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB