Who orders the perc test, buyer or seller?
Either one can. The soil evaluation, and any percolation test the health department calls for, goes in with a Virginia Department of Health application signed by the owner or an agent, which the private well regulations define as a legally authorized representative of the owner. A buyer ordering the work under contract needs the seller's authorization, and who pays is a contract term, not a state rule.
Two ways the same soil work gets ordered
Picture the two paths side by side. On one, the owner hires a licensed evaluator before the land is ever listed. On the other, a buyer with a signed contract hires one during the contract period. The field work is the same and so is the office that reviews it, and both paths run through a single signature: the owner's, or the owner's agent's, on the health department application.
The seller orders it before listing
The owner signs the application directly, and can put the suitability question to the Virginia Department of Health as a certification letter request before any buyer appears.The buyer orders it under contract
The buyer is not yet the owner, so the application still needs the owner's signature or the signature of someone the owner has legally authorized. What an unfavorable answer does to the deal is covered under whether a buyer can back out if the perc test fails.For a seller, ordering the work first puts the soil answer in front of buyers instead of leaving it for their due diligence. How that fits the rest of a sale, from pricing to closing, is on selling your land in Southwest Virginia.
For a buyer, ordering it under contract means the answer arrives while there is still a contract to act on. The cost of that is time and coordination: the buyer is working on land someone else owns, under a signature someone else controls.
The application asks for the owner, or someone the owner authorized
The signature line decides who can file, and it does not change with who is paying for the work.
Every request for a sewage disposal construction permit is directed first to the district or local health department, which implements and enforces the regulations, although the permit itself is issued by the State Health Commissioner. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) septic and well application form closes with a signature line for the owner or agent. The private well regulations put the same pairing into words, requiring a well application signed by the owner or the owner's agent, and they define the second of those.
“Agent” means a legally authorized representative of the owner.
12VAC5-630-10, Private Well Regulations, definitions
The definition turns on the owner's authorization, not on having a contract to buy. That is why, on the buyer's path, the seller either signs the application or authorizes someone who can. How that authorization is put on paper, and whether the health department will accept a particular form of it, are questions for a Virginia real estate attorney and the local health department.
Hiring the evaluator is a different act from signing the application
Whoever places the order, the soil work itself is private work that a public office reviews.
Beginning August 11, 2019, Virginia has required licensed private sector work with septic and well applications, apart from a petition route to VDH's own services and the Mount Rogers Health District's direct design in Wythe and Smyth Counties, both set out under where to get a perc test in Carroll County. So in the ordinary case a licensed professional performs the soil evaluation and submits it, and the health department reviews it on the way to a permit or a letter.
Which professional's certified work the health department accepts for which kind of filing, and when a percolation test is added, are laid out in the full sequence on how perc tests work.
Who pays is written into the deal
Who pays for the soil work is a term the purchase contract sets, and the same contract decides what the answer does to the deal through its contingency language.
One feature of the paperwork makes that choice more than a line item. A certification letter is written about the land: under Va. Code 32.1-164 the letter may be recorded in the land records, it transfers with the title when the land is sold, and a permit is issued on the basis of the letter unless there has been a substantial, intervening change in the soil or site conditions. The section says nothing about who paid for the evaluation behind the letter. What a buyer who pays for the work and then does not close is left holding, and how any soil contingency is worded, is the drafting attorney's call.
Timing belongs in the same conversation, because a contract period has an end date and the review deadlines do not bend to it. The fixed Virginia review times, and the parts of the schedule only the evaluator controls, are laid out under how long a perc test takes.
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Questions this raises
Can the soil evaluator sign the health department application for the owner?
Not on the evaluator's own authority. The septic and well application form has one signature line for the owner or agent, and the private well regulations define an agent as a legally authorized representative of the owner. Whether a particular evaluator holds that authority, and what document shows it, is a question for the owner's attorney and the local health department.
If a buyer pays for the soil work and the sale does not close, who keeps the certification letter?
The statute does not answer that by who paid. Under Va. Code 32.1-164 a certification letter may be recorded in the land records, transfers with the title when the land is sold, and supports a permit unless the soil or site conditions have substantially changed since it was issued. How a failed sale divides the cost and the paperwork is a term of the purchase contract, and a Virginia real estate attorney reads it.
Does a buyer need the owner's signature for a well permit application too?
The same rule runs through the private well regulations. Under 12VAC5-630-230 a well construction permit request is a written application signed by the owner or the owner's agent and directed to the district or local health department, and 12VAC5-630-10 defines an agent as a legally authorized representative of the owner. How that authority is documented for a buyer is a question for an attorney and the health department.
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.
- Septic and Well Application (form dated November 11, 2024): certification letter advice and the owner or agent signature Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-630-10: Private Well Regulations definitions, including agent Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-630-230: private well application signed by the owner or the owner's agent Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-610-250: construction permit requests directed first to the district or local health department Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-610-40: district and local health departments implement and enforce the chapter Virginia Department of Health
- Have you considered using the private sector? The August 11, 2019 licensed consultant requirement Virginia Department of Health
- Va. Code 32.1-163.4: private evaluations accepted only from licensed onsite soil evaluators Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 32.1-163.5: private site evaluations and designs, and the section's exceptions Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 32.1-164: certification letters, recording and transfer with title Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 32.1-164.1: inspection at installation by the certifying professional Virginia General Assembly
- 12VAC5-610-450: soil evaluations, and when a percolation test may be required Virginia Department of Health
- Septic system and private well service providers: no endorsement, and the DPOR license search Virginia Department of Health