Albemarle County, VA Code Violation Reporting: Common Violations (2026)

1 lists the violations that trigger enforcement under Albemarle County's Zoning Ordinance (chapter 18). It reaches any use of a structure, improvement, or land established, conducted, operated, or maintained in violation of the chapter, an approved application plan, site plan, code of development, or zoning clearance, or any condition attached to a county approval, or conducted without a required permit, certificate, or approval. It separately reaches structures or improvements maintained in violation of the same category of approvals, including development within the flood hazard overlay district.

Two categories turn on paperwork rather than the use itself: any structure requiring a building permit that is started, constructed, reconstructed, enlarged, or altered without one, and any use of a structure or site requiring a certificate of occupancy that is conducted, operated, or maintained without one. A catch-all subsection reaches the failure to comply with any other requirement or standard of the chapter. 2, which authorizes investigation of complaints, inspection and search warrants, and subpoenas duces tecum against a person withholding records relevant to an occupancy-limit violation.

3: $200 for an initial summons and $500 for each additional summons from the same set of facts, capped at $5,000 total, with each day of a continuing violation treated as a separate offense (though not chargeable more than once in a ten-day period). 4, punishable by a fine of $10 to $1,000, rising to $10 to $1,500 per ten-day period for failure to abate after conviction.