---
type: "Bill"
title: "Businesses; central filing of assumed or fictitious name, etc."
description: "Postpones, from May 1, 2019, to January 1, 2020, the effective date of the measure enacted in 2017 that requires a person conducting or transacting business under an assumed or fictitious name to file a certificate of assumed or fictitious name in the office of the clerk of the State Corporation Commission."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 170"
citation: "Virginia HB 170 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Trade and Commerce"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Gregory D. Habeeb"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 14
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2017-12-22"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/629328b5-7829-49df-97aa-44b1d7daa03e"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB170"
source_hash: "95403c67acf966e56ef24ddf279731bb4ad2fff7808710ef7ceb537efa2e00c3"
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 170 (2018) — Businesses; central filing of assumed or fictitious name, etc.

Postpones, from May 1, 2019, to January 1, 2020, the effective date of the measure enacted in 2017 that requires a person conducting or transacting business under an assumed or fictitious name to file a certificate of assumed or fictitious name in the office of the clerk of the State Corporation Commission.

## Version chain

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

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB170ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB170ER)
2. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18101901D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB170)

## Votes

- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **13–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Gregory D. Habeeb — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-12-22** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18101901D `introduction`
- **2017-12-22** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-18** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-01-19** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2018-01-22** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-01-23** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-01-23** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 251 (effective 1/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/629328b5-7829-49df-97aa-44b1d7daa03e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).