What conveys with a house in Virginia?
Whatever the signed purchase contract says conveys. Behind the contract sits one legal default: under Va. Code 55.1-303 a deed conveying land includes all buildings, privileges and appurtenances belonging to it unless the deed makes an exception. No Virginia statute lists which appliances or furnishings stay, and whether a particular item is a fixture is a question for an attorney.
Buildings, privileges and appurtenances go with the deed unless the deed excepts them
When nobody wrote anything down about a particular building or right, Virginia still has an answer, and it fits in a single sentence of the Code.
Every deed conveying land shall be construed to include all buildings, privileges, and appurtenances of every kind belonging to such land unless an exception is made in the deed.
Va. Code 55.1-303
Three words in that sentence do the work. Buildings is the plain one: the house, and a detached garage or a barn belonging to the land, travel with a deed that conveys the land. Privileges and appurtenances are broader words. The section does not define either one, and whether a specific right belongs to a specific parcel is a question for a Virginia real estate attorney.
The last clause matters as much as the first. The default gives way when "an exception is made in the deed." So for a seller who means to keep an outbuilding, or a right that would otherwise pass with the land, the route the statute names is an exception written into the deed itself. The statutory form of deed in Va. Code 55.1-300 has the grantor describe "the property or interest therein to be conveyed", including the county or city where it lies, and that description is where the scope of the conveyance is set.
Notice what the sentence does not say. It says nothing about a refrigerator, a washer, a window unit or a swing set, and nothing about furniture. Those questions are not answered by the deed's default at all.
Virginia defines a fixture by a test, and the test comes with no list of items
The word people reach for in these arguments is fixture. Virginia's Code does define it, though not in a way that settles any single item.
"Fixtures" means goods that have become so related to particular real property that an interest in them arises under real property law.
Va. Code 8.9A-102
The definition comes from Virginia's Uniform Commercial Code, and it describes a relationship rather than a list. A good becomes a fixture when it is so related to a particular piece of real property that an interest in it arises under real property law. The Code does not go on to name which heaters, ceiling fans, mounted brackets or stoves meet that test.
| Question | What the Code supplies | Where the answer comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Does a building on the land go with it? | Yes, under Va. Code 55.1-303, unless the deed makes an exception | The deed |
| Is a particular item a fixture? | A definition, Va. Code 8.9A-102, with no list of items | An attorney, applying the definition to the item |
| Do the appliances stay? | Nothing: no Virginia statute lists appliances or furnishings | The purchase contract |
| Do mineral rights, a hay crop or a manufactured home convey? | Each has its own rules | The pages linked below |
The signed purchase contract's included and excluded items are the answer that holds
Because the default stops at buildings and appurtenances, and the fixture definition stops at a test, the practical answer to "what conveys" is the purchase contract.
The contract is also the document Virginia requires in writing, under the rule covered in what documents you need to sell land. An item promised in conversation and never written into the signed contract sits outside that writing, which is a weak place for a buyer or a seller to leave something they care about.
- Which specific items stay. A word like "appliances" leaves room to disagree about what it covers; a list of the items themselves leaves less.
- Which items leave with the seller. The excluded side of the list is where a mounted item, a generator or an outbuilding the seller is keeping appears, and anything that is a building or a right belonging to the land is also a deed question under Va. Code 55.1-303.
- Whether the deed matches. An exception the parties agreed on appears in the deed when the default would otherwise carry the item.
- When a disagreement surfaces. A dispute about a stove found before ratification is a line in a draft; the same dispute found at settlement can hold up the closing.
For a seller getting ready to list, the conversation about what stays starts on selling your home. Equipment, crops and livestock on a working farm are taken up on selling your farm.
Minerals, a hay crop and a manufactured home each have an answer of their own
Some of the questions sellers ask under this heading are really about land, and each one has its own page because the answer does not come from the rules above.
- Mineral rights. Whether mineral rights pass with a house lot is a question of its own, covered in what mineral rights are and whether they convey.
- A growing hay crop. A crop standing in the field on closing day raises its own question, answered in what happens to a hay crop at closing.
- A manufactured home. A manufactured home on the lot raises its own questions about how it is sold, set out in selling a manufactured home with the land.
- Standing timber. Standing timber, and where it fits in a sale, is taken up on selling your land.
One more question often rides along with this one: whether a shop or a barn adds to the price. That a building conveys by default says nothing about what it is worth, and the value question is taken up in whether a shop or barn adds to a home's price.
Not sure what stays with the house when it closes?
Send the address and the items you are unsure about. Lowell can give an opinion of value on the house and ground, and your attorney can settle the contract list and the deed. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does a detached garage or barn convey with the house?
By default, yes. Va. Code 55.1-303 construes every deed conveying land to include all buildings belonging to the land unless the deed makes an exception. An outbuilding the seller intends to keep is written into the purchase contract and excepted in the deed. Whether the building adds to the price is a separate question from whether it conveys.
Where does a seller exclude an item from the sale?
In the signed purchase contract's list of excluded items, which is the document Va. Code 11-2 requires in writing. For anything the deed would otherwise carry by default, meaning buildings, privileges and appurtenances belonging to the land, Va. Code 55.1-303 lets the default give way when an exception is made in the deed. A Virginia real estate attorney can confirm the wording.
Can a seller take an item the contract never mentioned?
It depends on what the item is. A building or appurtenance belonging to the land goes with the deed unless excepted. For a good attached to the house, the question becomes whether it is a fixture, which Va. Code 8.9A-102 defines as goods so related to the real property that an interest in them arises under real property law. Applying that to a disputed item is an attorney's call.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 55.1-303, what a deed conveying land includes Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-300, statutory form of deed Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 8.9A-102, definitions, including fixtures Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 11-2, writing required for a contract for the sale of real estate Virginia General Assembly