Timber rights
Timber rights are ownership of standing timber, or of the right to cut and remove it, held apart from ownership of the land beneath. The Virginia Code names an owner of timber rights separately from a landowner, and it assesses standing timber owned apart from the surface as its own interest.
Two owners the Seed Tree Law names separately
No Virginia statute located for this glossary defines the phrase timber rights. The Code does use it, in the Seed Tree Law's list of who counts as a person.
"Person" means any landowner, owner of timber, owner of timber rights, sawmill operator, sawmill owner, veneer wood operator, pulpwood contractor, or any person engaged in the business of severing timber from the stump.
Va. Code 10.1-1162, the Seed Tree Law's definitions
That list is a definition, not a rule about timber rights. But it names a landowner, an owner of timber and an owner of timber rights as separate entries, which only works if those interests can be held by different people. A tract can have one owner for the surface and another for the trees standing on it, or for the right to go in and cut them.
Virginia's assessment statute states the split outright. When the surface of the land is owned by one person and the standing timber trees by another, the relative value of each is determined and each owner is assessed with the value of that interest. The silvicultural water quality law reaches both sides too: its definition of owner covers anyone who owns or leases the land where silvicultural activity occurs, and anyone who owns timber on that land.
What a timber right can cover, and what recording does for it
A timber right can be as wide as the standing trees across a whole tract of timberland, as narrow as the trees in one hardwood stand, or limited to the right to enter and cut within a stated time.
How far the right runs, how it is worded and how long it lasts are answered by the recorded instrument, and drafting or reading that instrument is an attorney's work. How timber comes to be excepted or conveyed apart from a tract, and where that shows in the deeds, is laid out in mineral and timber rights. A timber right is also a different interest from a mineral right: the trees above rather than the minerals below.
Recording is what carries a written timber deed or contract beyond the people who signed it. How recording works for any deed, and what it does for a later buyer of the land, has its own entry.
Timber cut without that right, and what a value on the timber is called
Two practical questions follow a timber right onto a tract: what the law provides when someone cuts without right, and what a valuation of the timber may be called.
What Virginia's timber article provides when someone cuts timber without legal right or permission, and the bona fide claim of right exception that sits beside it, is set out with the rest of a timber sale in how timber is valued. What Va. Code 54.1-2010 says a consulting forester's valuation of standing timber may not be called is covered in do I need a timber cruise before selling, and the value of standing trees has its own name, taken up under stumpage.
Are timber rights being reserved or sold on your tract?
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Questions about this term
Does Virginia law define timber rights?
No Virginia statute located for this glossary defines the phrase. The Code uses it in the Seed Tree Law's definition of a person, which lists an owner of timber rights separately from a landowner and an owner of timber, and Va. Code 58.1-3284 assesses standing timber owned apart from the surface as a separate interest. What a particular timber right includes, and how long it lasts, is read from its recorded instrument by an attorney.
Does an unrecorded timber deed bind a later buyer of the land?
Not a buyer for value who had no notice of it. Under Va. Code 55.1-407, a written contract or a deed conveying any estate or term is void as to purchasers for valuable consideration without notice, and as to lien creditors, until it is recorded in the county or city where the land lies, and the mere possession of real estate is not, by itself, notice to a purchaser. A buyer who did have notice is a different case, and an attorney's question.
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 10.1-1162: definitions for the Seed Tree Law Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 58.1-3284: surface and standing timber owned apart, each assessed on its own interest Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 10.1-1181.1: definitions for Virginia's silvicultural water quality law Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-407: recording, and notice to purchasers for value Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2010: the appraiser-licensing exemptions for a broker's valuation and a consulting forester's valuation of standing timber Code of Virginia