York County, VA HOA Rules: CC&R Enforcement (2026)

Whenever a York County development includes common areas, meaning shared open space, private streets, drainage facilities, or recreational amenities under Sec. 24.1-496, the developer must set up a nonprofit property owners' association to hold and maintain them under Sec. 24.1-497. The declaration of covenants and restrictions that creates that association has to do more than assign maintenance duties: subsection (e) requires it to spell out a clearly defined procedure letting the county step in and secure a remedy if the association, or any successor group, ever lets the common areas fall out of the condition shown on the plans the county approved.

That remedy clause sits alongside other mandatory declaration terms: mandatory membership and assessment authority under subsection (b), one vote per lot for residential subdivisions under subsection (c), and a requirement that the association cannot be dissolved or sell off common land without first offering it to the county under subsection (d)(5). Before any of this is enforceable, an attorney licensed in Virginia must certify to the County Attorney that the declaration satisfies Sec. 24.1-497 point by point, per Sec. 24.1-498(b), and the County Attorney's office signs off on the recorded documents.

Separately, Sec. 24.1-499(a) makes clear the County of York itself is never responsible for maintaining common areas: the enforcement path always runs through the association and the remedy clause in its own declaration, not through county public works crews.