republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-553.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Partition of property; in partition actions the court shall order an appraisal of property."
description: "Partition of property. Incorporates major provisions of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. The bill provides that in partition actions the court shall order an appraisal to determine fair market value of the property, unless the parties have agreed to the value of the property or to another valuation method. The bill also provides factors to be considered by the court when making an allotment of the property when there is a dispute among the parties. The bill further provides that if the court orders a sale of property in a partition action, the sale shall be conducted on the open market, unless the court finds that a sale by sealed bids or at auction would be more economically advantageous to the parties as a group. The bill outlines the procedure for such open-market sale. This bill is identical to HB 1605."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 553"
citation: "Virginia SB 553 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Frank M. Ruff, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 24
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2020-01-07"
last_action: "2020-03-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6c4988dd-6807-4315-86a3-5b567e017bd7"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB553"
source_hash: "ca43654756e3b2bc370b4ee461688e5bef12fe0e309b50f6c697b6c7870a01a7"
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 SB 553 (2020) — Partition of property; in partition actions the court shall order an appraisal of property.

Partition of property. Incorporates major provisions of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. The bill provides that in partition actions the court shall order an appraisal to determine fair market value of the property, unless the parties have agreed to the value of the property or to another valuation method. The bill also provides factors to be considered by the court when making an allotment of the property when there is a dispute among the parties. The bill further provides that if the court orders a sale of property in a partition action, the sale shall be conducted on the open market, unless the court finds that a sale by sealed bids or at auction would be more economically advantageous to the parties as a group. The bill outlines the procedure for such open-market sale. This bill is identical to HB 1605.

## Version chain

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

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0193)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0193)
2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB553ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB553ER)
3. **Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB553S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB553S1)
4. **Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB553S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB553)

## Votes

- Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary with substitute (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Frank M. Ruff, Jr. — primary (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-01-07** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20103964D `introduction`
- **2020-01-07** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-29** Reported from Judiciary with substitute (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-29** Committee substitute printed 20106043D-S1 `substitution`
- **2020-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-03** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-03** Reading of substitute waived
- **2020-02-03** Committee substitute agreed to 20106043D-S1
- **2020-02-03** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB553S1
- **2020-02-04** Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-12** Placed on Calendar
- **2020-02-12** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-12** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-14** Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-18** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-19** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-19** VOTE: (100-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-24** Enrolled
- **2020-02-24** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-02-25** Signed by President
- **2020-02-28** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 28, 2020
- **2020-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 6, 2020
- **2020-03-06** Approved by Governor-Chapter 193 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6c4988dd-6807-4315-86a3-5b567e017bd7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).