---
type: "Bill"
title: "Property Owners' Association Act; amendment of declaration adopted prior to July 1, 2017."
description: "Provides that except as otherwise provided in the declaration of a property owners' association, a declaration may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the owners. The bill is in response to the Virginia Supreme Court decision in February 2016 in"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1554"
citation: "Virginia HB 1554 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Property and Conveyances"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David L. Bulova"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 26
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2016-12-29"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b184d1fc-9797-42fd-aca0-40704b6425c8"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1554"
source_hash: "37a2ae408723589ba65a27b27f33dcad80f01a5266eb8df1baf8eb68d07bbbe7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1554 (2017) — Property Owners' Association Act; amendment of declaration adopted prior to July 1, 2017.

Provides that except as otherwise provided in the declaration of a property owners' association, a declaration may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the owners. The bill is in response to the Virginia Supreme Court decision in February 2016 in

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0374)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0374)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1554ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1554ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102025D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1554)
4. **House: Printed as engrossed 17102025D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1554E)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws with amendment — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate with amendment — **23–17** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **14–1** (pass) · legislature
- Senate amendment agreed to by House — **94–1** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- David L. Bulova — primary (person)
- Christopher K. Peace — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-12-29** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102025D `introduction`
- **2016-12-29** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-16** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-23** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-24** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-24** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2017-01-24** Engrossed by House as amended HB1554E
- **2017-01-24** Printed as engrossed 17102025D-E
- **2017-01-25** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-26** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-26** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-16** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-16** Passed by for the day
- **2017-02-17** Passed by for the day
- **2017-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Reading of amendment waived
- **2017-02-20** Amendment by Senator Surovell agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2017-02-20** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2017-02-21** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-21** Senate amendment agreed to by House (94-Y 1-N)
- **2017-02-24** Enrolled
- **2017-02-24** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-24** Signed by President
- **2017-02-28** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/28/17
- **2017-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 374 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b184d1fc-9797-42fd-aca0-40704b6425c8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).