Virginia Locality Weed-Cutting Duty And Lien Law

Va. Code § 15.2-901(A)(3) is the enabling statute behind nearly every local grass-and-weeds ordinance in the Commonwealth. It lets a locality require owners of occupied or vacant, developed or undeveloped property to cut grass, weeds, and other foreign growth, including running bamboo as defined in § 15.2-901.1, on whatever schedule the governing body sets. If the owner doesn't comply, the locality's own agents or employees can cut it after "reasonable notice," and the statute defines that for grass and weeds as one written notice per growing season to the owner of record. The same duty and notice rule extend to owners of land used for burial grounds under subsection (A)(4), though family- or church-owned cemeteries are exempt.

Cost recovery runs through subsection (B): any unpaid charge becomes a lien against the property ranking on a parity with unpaid local real estate taxes, enforceable the same way under Title 58.1, Chapter 39, Articles 3 and 4. A locality can waive the lien to help a sale go through, but only for a buyer with no blood, marriage, or business tie to the owner, and the debt stays a personal obligation of the owner who incurred it. Localities that adopt a civil-penalty ordinance under subsection (C) can charge up to $50 for a first violation and up to $200 for each later violation within 12 months, with every business day of continued violation counting as a separate offense, capped at $3,000 per year on residential land and $6,000 on industrial or commercial land. After three civil penalties against the same owner within 24 months, subsection (D) lets the locality reclassify the offense as a Class 3 misdemeanor instead.

The cutting duty in § 15.2-901 has real limits: no county ordinance reaches inside an incorporated town, sparsely populated counties (under 500 people per square mile) can only apply it in platted subdivisions or zoned business/commercial/industrial areas, and land in active farming operation is exempt everywhere.

A separate, truly statewide layer covers actual noxious-weed species rather than routine mowing. Under Title 3.2, Chapter 8, the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services designates which plants count as noxious weeds by regulation after a public hearing and a scientific risk assessment (§ 3.2-802), the Commissioner surveys the Commonwealth for infestations and can ask the Board to add a species (§ 3.2-801), and the Board can impose a statewide quarantine restricting the sale or movement of a listed weed. That chapter governs commerce in the plants themselves, not a homeowner's mowing schedule, the day-to-day cutting duty comes from the locality's own ordinance under § 15.2-901.

Unpaid cutting charges become a lien on parity with unpaid local real estate taxes, enforceable under Title 58.1, Chapter 39, Articles 3-4, staying a personal debt of the owner (§ 15.2-901(B)). A civil-penalty ordinance can charge up to $50 for a first violation and $200 for repeats within 12 months, capped at $3,000 a year on residential land or $6,000 on industrial/commercial land, each violating day counted separately (§ 15.2-901(C)). After three civil penalties against the same owner within 24 months, the locality may prosecute instead as a Class 3 misdemeanor (§ 15.2-901(D)).