republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-1966.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Uniform Statewide Building Code; issuance of building permits."
description: "Requires any fees that are levied by a local governing body in order to defray the cost of Building Code enforcement and appeals, with the exception of the levy imposed for the support of training programs of the Building Code Academy, be used only to support the functions of the local building department. The bill also requires local building departments, when denying an application for the issuance of a building permit, to provide to the applicant a written explanation detailing the reasons for which the application was denied. The bill provides that the applicant may submit a revised application addressing the reasons for which the application was previously denied and that, if the applicant does so, the local building department shall be encouraged, but not required, to limit its review of the revised application to only those portions of the application that were previously deemed inadequate and that the applicant has revised."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1966"
citation: "Virginia HB 1966 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Housing"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David E. Yancey"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 22
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-01-07"
last_action: "2019-03-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ba303292-cda5-4281-b53f-9a258401b946"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1966"
source_hash: "83d7f0c58d303d77090f4218d58d5850b30b42d5299887f39c5967875a1ffaa7"
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 1966 (2019) — Uniform Statewide Building Code; issuance of building permits.

Requires any fees that are levied by a local governing body in order to defray the cost of Building Code enforcement and appeals, with the exception of the levy imposed for the support of training programs of the Building Code Academy, be used only to support the functions of the local building department. The bill also requires local building departments, when denying an application for the issuance of a building permit, to provide to the applicant a written explanation detailing the reasons for which the application was denied. The bill provides that the applicant may submit a revised application addressing the reasons for which the application was previously denied and that, if the applicant does so, the local building department shall be encouraged, but not required, to limit its review of the revised application to only those portions of the application that were previously deemed inadequate and that the applicant has revised.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0698)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0698)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB1966)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1966ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1966ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105113D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1966H1)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101136D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1966)
6. **Senate amendments engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+amd+HB1966ASE)

## Votes

- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from General Laws with substitute — **21–0** (pass) · lower
- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **96–1** (pass) · lower
- Reported from General Laws and Technology with amendments — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **6–1** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House — **94–4** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- David E. Yancey — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-07** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101136D `introduction`
- **2019-01-07** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-14** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-31** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-01** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-01** Committee substitute agreed to 19105113D-H1
- **2019-02-01** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1966H1
- **2019-02-04** Read third time and passed House (94-Y 4-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-05** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-05** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-14** Reading of amendments waived
- **2019-02-14** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2019-02-14** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2019-02-18** Placed on Calendar
- **2019-02-18** Senate amendments agreed to by House (96-Y 1-N)
- **2019-02-21** Enrolled
- **2019-02-21** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-21** Signed by President
- **2019-02-28** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 28, 2019
- **2019-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-21** Approved by Governor-Chapter 698 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ba303292-cda5-4281-b53f-9a258401b946`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).