republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-1404.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Fire alarms; maliciously activating, penalty.	Removes the condition that a building must be for public use in order for the Class 1 misdemeanor for maliciously activating a building's fire alarm to apply. The bill authorizes any locality to provide by ordinance that a person convicted of maliciously activating a fire alarm shall be liable for the reasonable expense in responding to such a fire alarm. Current law allows such an ordinance to impose liability for the reasonable expense of an emergency response to an imitation version of a weapon of terrorism, fire bomb, other explosive device, bomb threat, or incitement of a bomb threat. The bill increases the maximum amount that a locality or volunteer emergency medical services agency may recover under such an ordinance from $1,000 to $2,500. This bill is identical to	us/states/va	Virginia General Assembly	2017	HB 1404	Virginia HB 1404 (2017)	bill	Counties Cities and Towns Crimes and Offenses Generally	enacted	Mark L. Cole	4	20	7	2016-09-08	2017-02-20	openstates	ocd-bill/59a6b83c-beab-434d-aed7-1b2fe20e63b0	http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1404	bc6a86bbb5bd5d038855badf5592e9710dd13158edc7952d023b03b667fbf08e	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-va

Virginia HB 1404 (2017) — Fire alarms; maliciously activating, penalty.

Removes the condition that a building must be for public use in order for the Class 1 misdemeanor for maliciously activating a building's fire alarm to apply. The bill authorizes any locality to provide by ordinance that a person convicted of maliciously activating a fire alarm shall be liable for the reasonable expense in responding to such a fire alarm. Current law allows such an ordinance to impose liability for the reasonable expense of an emergency response to an imitation version of a weapon of terrorism, fire bomb, other explosive device, bomb threat, or incitement of a bomb threat. The bill increases the maximum amount that a locality or volunteer emergency medical services agency may recover under such an ordinance from $1,000 to $2,500. This bill is identical to

Version chain

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

1. Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0098) (committee substitute) — source
2. House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1404ER) (committee substitute) — source
3. House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100210D (committee substitute) — source
4. Senate: Committee substitute printed 17105240D-S1 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — 15–0 (pass) · legislature
• Reported from Courts of Justice — 20–0 (pass) · legislature
• Constitutional reading dispensed — 40–0 (pass) · legislature
• Passed Senate with substitute — 38–1 (pass) · legislature
• Subcommittee recommends reporting — 11–0 (pass) · legislature
• Senate substitute agreed to by House 17105240D-S1 — 93–2 (pass) · legislature
• Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — 99–0 (pass) · legislature

Sponsors

• Mark L. Cole — primary (person)
• C. Matthew Fariss — cosponsor (person)
• James E. Edmunds, II — cosponsor (person)
• Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2016-09-08 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100210D introduction
• 2016-09-08 Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice referral-committee
• 2017-01-13 Assigned Courts sub: Criminal Law referral-committee
• 2017-01-24 Read first time reading-1
• 2017-01-25 Read second time and engrossed reading-2
• 2017-01-26 Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) passage, reading-3
• 2017-01-27 Constitutional reading dispensed
• 2017-01-27 Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice referral-committee
• 2017-02-08 Read third time reading-3
• 2017-02-08 Reading of substitute waived
• 2017-02-08 Committee substitute agreed to 17105240D-S1
• 2017-02-08 Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute HB1404S1
• 2017-02-10 Placed on Calendar
• 2017-02-10 Senate substitute agreed to by House 17105240D-S1 (93-Y 2-N)
• 2017-02-13 Enrolled
• 2017-02-13 Signed by Speaker
• 2017-02-13 Signed by President
• 2017-02-14 Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/14/17
• 2017-02-14 Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 21, 2017
• 2017-02-20 Approved by Governor-Chapter 98 (effective 7/1/17) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/59a6b83c-beab-434d-aed7-1b2fe20e63b0. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).