The Virginia records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: Virginia is a buyer-beware state: under Va. Code 55.1-703 the owner must furnish the Real Estate Board's disclosure statement, which states the owner makes no representations on condition, flood hazard area and most other listed matters and advises the buyer to do due diligence.
Virginia sellers must hand you a Residential Property Disclosure Statement, but it is a buyer-beware notice, not a condition report — on 19 listed matters including condition and whether the property is in a special flood hazard area, the owner 'makes no representations.' Narrow exceptions do require real disclosure, such as a known repetitive-risk-loss (flood claims) structure under 55.1-708.2 and pending building/zoning violations. Your protection is inspections, a survey, a flood determination and direct questions — not the form.
Sources: law.lis.virginia.gov · dpor.am.virginia.gov · law.lis.virginia.gov · vsp.virginia.gov
Your bill follows the locality's reassessment cycle, not your purchase price — there is no automatic reset to the sale price in Virginia. Between reassessments the seller's value usually carries over; at the next general reassessment the value can move to full market at once.
File any homestead or owner-occupant exemption the county offers as soon as you close — exemptions rarely apply themselves, and a missed filing is a full year of overpaid tax.
Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry is run by Virginia State Police. Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
The statutory statement lists matters the owner makes no representation about, including condition, lot lines, adjacent zoning, flood hazard areas, marine clays, radon and defective drywall (Va. Code 55.1-703) — order a home inspection, survey and flood certification before settlement.
The Real Estate Board must make a Flood Risk Information Form available, but 55.1-703 says the owner makes no representation whether the property is in a special flood hazard area; only a seller with actual knowledge of a repetitive-risk-loss structure must disclose that fact under 55.1-708.2.
What the Virginia disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official Virginia registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview