As is
As is is wording in a real estate purchase contract saying the buyer takes the property in its present condition. No Virginia statute defines the phrase. In a house sale it sits beside the disclosures the law requires rather than replacing them, and its effect in a particular contract is a question for a Virginia real estate attorney.
The phrase lives in the purchase contract, not on the disclosure form
As is shows up in the purchase contract, the document the buyer and seller negotiate and sign. It is a term of that bargain. No Virginia statute gives it a definition, so what a particular as-is clause does is read from that contract's own wording.
The confusion starts because most Virginia house sales already carry a second document that sounds a lot like it. On a transfer of residential property of one to four dwelling units that Va. Code 55.1-702 does not exclude, the owner owes the purchaser the Real Estate Board's residential property disclosure statement under Va. Code 55.1-703, and that statement opens with its own no-representations wording about the property's condition. How that form works, and why it reads as a buyer-beware list rather than a defect list, is laid out under seller disclosure.
So the two say similar things from different places. The statement is a statutory form the owner furnishes whether or not anyone writes as is into the deal. The as-is clause is wording the parties chose. One does not stand in for the other. Radon zones are among the matters that statement makes no representation about, a subject taken up in radon in Southwest Virginia.
Duties that come from a statute, not from the bargain
An as-is clause is a term the buyer and seller agree to. The duties below are set by a statute or a federal rule instead, which is the practical difference between them and the clause.
Va. Code 55.1-713 says nothing in the Act prevents a purchaser from pursuing remedies otherwise available against an owner for an "intentional or willful misrepresentation of the condition of the subject property." The written disclosure duty that Va. Code 54.1-2131 puts on a seller's licensee is set by statute in the same way.
Housing built before 1978, with the federal regulation's listed exceptions, also carries the lead-based paint steps, whose only sale exception is a sale at foreclosure; they are set out in lead paint disclosure on older homes. The written disclosures that reach even transfers the Act otherwise excludes, and what the clause does change, belong to what selling as is means in Virginia.
Nor does the clause answer what the local building department holds for the house, such as whether a certificate of occupancy is on file. That is the department's record, not the contract's.
On a vacant tract the clause stands with fewer documents around it
The Residential Property Disclosure Act applies to residential property of one to four dwelling units. A sale of land with no dwelling on it falls outside that reach, so there is no disclosure statement for an as-is clause to sit beside.
The licensee's written duty above still applies, because the licensing statute counts the land and any improvements on it as the property's physical condition. How a land buyer reads as is with no statement in hand belongs to what as is means when you buy land.
Weighing an as-is clause in a purchase contract?
Tell Lowell about the property and share the as-is wording. He will lay it next to the disclosure paperwork the sale already carries. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions about this term
Does writing as is into the contract take a house sale out of the Disclosure Act?
No. The Act turns on the property and the kind of transfer, not on contract wording. It applies to transfers of residential property of one to four dwelling units, and Va. Code 55.1-702 excludes a listed set of transfers, such as transfers under a court order or by foreclosure. An as-is clause is not on that list. Whether a particular transfer is one of the excluded kinds is a question for a Virginia real estate attorney.
Can a buyer sue over an undisclosed homicide or suicide in a house sold as is?
Virginia's Code rules that claim out, and the clause plays no part in why. Va. Code 55.1-713 says no cause of action arises against an owner or a real estate licensee for failing to disclose that the property was the site of a homicide, felony or suicide, or of an act or occurrence that had no effect on the physical structure, its physical environment or the improvements. The rule reads the same with or without as is in the contract.
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 55.1-703, Required disclosures for buyer to beware Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-701, Applicability Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-702, Exemptions Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-713, Actions under this chapter Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2131, Licensees engaged by sellers Code of Virginia
- 40 CFR 745.101, Scope and applicability (lead-based paint disclosure) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- 40 CFR 745.103, Definitions (target housing) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency