Hanover County, VA Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Hanover County Code section 6-16(b) adopts Parts I and III of the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code to control maintenance of buildings and structures within the county's suburban service area, as depicted on the phased suburban development plan in the county comprehensive plan, and separately to control maintenance of all buildings and structures used as residential rental units anywhere in the county, whether or not they sit inside the suburban service area. That means a rental unit outside the suburban service area, in communities like Beaverdam, Montpelier or Old Church, is still covered by the maintenance code, but the ordinance itself limits how it gets enforced there: the building official may only enforce the Uniform Statewide Building Code's maintenance provisions on such a rental unit in response to a complaint made by a tenant of that unit.

Inside the suburban service area, by contrast, the maintenance code applies to rental and non-rental buildings alike without that complaint trigger. The building official, whose office is established under section 6-17, administers and enforces these maintenance standards, and the board of supervisors may promulgate additional rules for that enforcement. Hanover County has no separate rental registration or proactive rental-licensing inspection program written into its code; the maintenance-code mechanism in section 6-16(b), triggered by tenant complaints outside the suburban service area, is the county's rental housing condition enforcement tool.

A tenant who believes their rental unit fails to meet the Uniform Statewide Building Code's maintenance standards can bring that complaint to the building official's office to trigger an inspection.