---
type: "Bill"
title: "Relating to presumptions of abandonment and indication of ownership in property"
description: "Relating to presumptions of abandonment and indication of ownership in property"
jurisdiction: "us/states/wv"
legislature: "West Virginia Legislature"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2609"
citation: "West Virginia HB 2609 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Estates and Trusts"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nelson"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 37
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-01-23"
last_action: "2019-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1c60900c-efcf-4328-a3bd-ece9669c4160"
source_url: "http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=2609&year=2019&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill"
source_hash: "94e4841be7defe62c55de0ee015cbd6607fb397e13a993853e98a5257d3744da"
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-wv"]
---

# West Virginia HB 2609 (2019) — Relating to presumptions of abandonment and indication of ownership in property

## Version chain

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

1. **Committee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB2609%20SUB.htm&yr=2019&sesstype=RS&i=2609)
2. **Enrolled Committee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB2609%20SUB%20ENR.htm&yr=2019&sesstype=RS&i=2609)
3. **Introduced Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb2609%20intr.htm&yr=2019&sesstype=RS&i=2609)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **95–2** (pass) · lower
- Passage — **34–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Nelson — primary (person)
- Criss — cosponsor (person)
- Espinosa — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-23** Filed for introduction `filing`
- **2019-01-23** To Banking and Insurance then Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-23** Introduced in House `introduction`
- **2019-01-23** To House Banking and Insurance `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-04** Do pass with title amendment, but first to Judiciary
- **2019-02-04** To House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-08** By substitute, do pass
- **2019-02-11** On 1st reading, Special Calendar
- **2019-02-11** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-12** On 2nd reading, Special Calendar
- **2019-02-12** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-13** On 3rd reading, Special Calendar
- **2019-02-13** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-13** Passed House (Roll No. 135) `passage`
- **2019-02-13** Communicated to Senate
- **2019-02-14** House Message received
- **2019-02-14** Introduced in Senate `introduction`
- **2019-02-14** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-14** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-28** Reported do pass `committee-passage`
- **2019-03-01** On 1st reading
- **2019-03-01** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2019-03-02** On 2nd reading
- **2019-03-02** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2019-03-04** On 3rd reading
- **2019-03-04** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2019-03-04** Passed Senate (Roll No. 331) `passage`
- **2019-03-04** Communicated to House
- **2019-03-04** Completed legislative action
- **2019-03-05** House received Senate message
- **2019-03-09** To Governor 3/9/19 - Senate Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2019-03-09** To Governor 3/9/19 - House Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2019-03-09** To Governor 3/9/19 `executive-receipt`
- **2019-03-25** Approved by Governor 3/25/19 `executive-signature`
- **2019-03-09** Approved by Governor 3/25/19 - House Journal
- **2019-03-09** Approved by Governor 3/25/19 - Senate Journal
- **2019-04-11** Chapter 108, Acts, Regular Session, 2019

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1c60900c-efcf-4328-a3bd-ece9669c4160`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official West Virginia legislature records).