Virginia HOA Pet Restrictions

Virginia pet restrictions at a glance

Section 1: Overview — How pet restrictions work in Virginia

Virginia has no statute regulating homeowners association pets. Pet restrictions come from the recorded declaration or CC&Rs and from rules the association board adopts within the framework of the Condominium Act or the Property Owners' Association Act, and the main legal limit on them is fair housing law's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement.¹

The rule-making framework sits in the recodified Title 55.1 statutes: the Virginia Condominium Act, Va. Code § 55.1-1900 et seq., for condominiums and the Virginia Property Owners' Association Act, § 55.1-1800 et seq., for planned communities, both moved from the former Title 55 in a recodification effective October 1, 2019.² Virginia has full statutory coverage of each community type, condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives, through separate statutes, but it has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it has no statutory right to keep an ordinary pet of the kind California grants under Civil Code § 4715, which bars governing documents from prohibiting an owner from keeping at least one pet.⁹

Overlaying all of this is fair housing law. Both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Virginia Fair Housing Law, Va. Code § 36-96.1 et seq., require associations to make reasonable accommodations for assistance animals, and Virginia has a specific provision, § 36-96.3:1, governing the documentation an association may request and barring pet fees on assistance animals.⁵ Enforcement runs through the Virginia Fair Housing Office and the Real Estate Board within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation.⁴

Virginia also has a dedicated common-interest-community regulator, the Common Interest Community Board, which administers association registration and licenses community association managers.¹⁰ What follows sets out the statutory framework, the fair housing overlay, and the operational rules that associations must follow.

Section 2: The legal framework for pet restrictions

2A. The recodified Title 55.1 statutes and the source of pet authority

Pet restrictions in Virginia carry no statutory basis. The recorded declaration or CC&Rs impose them, along with rules the board adopts under authority the governing documents and the applicable statute confer. The statute supplies the rule-making machinery; the declaration supplies the substantive pet rule.¹

Which statute applies depends on the community type. Condominiums operate under the Virginia Condominium Act, Va. Code § 55.1-1900 et seq., where the executive board's rule-making and enforcement power appears at § 55.1-1959. Planned communities operate under the Virginia Property Owners' Association Act, § 55.1-1800 et seq., where the board's power to adopt and enforce rules appears at § 55.1-1819. Cooperatives operate under the Virginia Real Estate Cooperative Act, § 55.1-2100 et seq. In each case the declaration or CC&Rs carry the operative pet terms, such as whether pets are allowed, how many, and any size or type limits.⁸

Effective October 1, 2019, Virginia recodified its real property statutes from Title 55 into a new Title 55.1. The Property Owners' Association Act moved from the former § 55-508 et seq. to § 55.1-1800 et seq., and the Condominium Act moved from the former § 55-79.39 et seq. to § 55.1-1900 et seq. Any citation to a former Title 55 section is obsolete.²

Virginia is a state with statutes covering each community type, but it is not a UCIOA state, and the condominium and planned-community statutes are separate and should not be blended.² Most associations are also incorporated under the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act, Title 13.1, which supplies corporate formalities such as board governance and meetings. Virginia has a dedicated regulator, the Common Interest Community Board within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation; associations must file an annual registration with the Board, and community association managers and management firms must be licensed by the Board.¹⁰

Virginia has no statutory right to keep an ordinary pet that would override a no-pet declaration.¹ For any pet question, the order of precedence runs: federal and state fair housing law, mandatory, first; then the applicable statute's mandatory provisions, the Condominium Act for condominiums, the Property Owners' Association Act for planned communities; then the recorded declaration or CC&Rs; then the bylaws; then board rules.

2B. Federal fair housing constraints: assistance animals

The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., bars disability discrimination in housing and, at § 3604(f)(3)(B), makes it unlawful to refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices, or services whenever necessary to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. Homeowners associations and condominium associations count as covered.³

Permitting an assistance animal despite a no-pet policy or a pet restriction counts as a reasonable accommodation. Assistance animals are not pets, so no-pet bans, breed limits, size and weight limits, number limits, and pet fees and deposits simply do not reach them. The "assistance animal" category under the FHA runs broader than the "service animal" category under the Americans with Disabilities Act: it includes animals that perform tasks and animals that provide disability-related emotional support, and support animals need no specialized training.¹¹

HUD's operative guidance had been the January 28, 2020 notice FHEO-2020-01, which set out best practices for assessing accommodation requests and documentation. On September 17, 2025, HUD issued a memorandum, "Notice of the Withdrawal of FHEO Guidance Documents," withdrawing FHEO-2020-01, together with the 2013 assistance-animal notice, consistent with Executive Order 14192 of January 31, 2025, "Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation," and Executive Order 14219 of February 19, 2025, stating that the guidance should not be relied upon while under review; the memo also states that "such withdrawal is not necessarily final."¹² The withdrawal removed the detailed federal best-practices framework but did not change the Fair Housing Act itself or the Virginia Fair Housing Law, both of which continue to require reasonable accommodations for assistance animals.

For a disability or disability-related need that is not obvious, an association may request reliable documentation. It may not require registration, certification, or licensing of the animal; a specific breed; professional training for a support animal; detailed medical records; or any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional insurance for the assistance animal. Online "ESA registration" products carry no legal requirement and do not by themselves establish a disability-related need.¹¹

An association may deny a specific assistance animal only on an individualized finding that the animal would impose an undue financial and administrative burden, would fundamentally alter operations, or that the specific animal poses a direct threat or would cause substantial physical damage no other accommodation could reduce. The FHA does not require housing to be made available where a tenancy would constitute a direct threat or result in substantial physical damage to others' property.³ Denial cannot rest on breed, size, or generalized fear, and the owner remains responsible for the animal's conduct and any damage it causes.

The ADA is distinct. It generally governs public accommodations and government programs, not an association's internal residential operations, and its narrower service-animal definition does not displace the FHA's broader assistance-animal protections for residents. The ADA may reach association facilities open to the public, such as a clubhouse rented to non-residents.¹¹

2C. Virginia law overlay: fair housing law, assistance-animal documentation, and dog law

The Virginia Fair Housing Law, Va. Code § 36-96.1 et seq., bars housing discrimination based on disability and backs the same assistance-animal accommodation analysis as the federal FHA. The Virginia Fair Housing Office and the Real Estate Board within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation enforce it, and it operates alongside the federal Act.⁴

Virginia's specific assistance-animal documentation provision is § 36-96.3:1. It provides that a person with a disability who maintains an assistance animal must comply with the same rules that apply to all residents but may not be required to pay a pet fee, deposit, or additional rent, while remaining responsible for physical damage the animal causes. If a disability or disability-related need is not obvious, the association may ask for reliable documentation of the disability and the disability-related need, including documentation from a person with a "therapeutic relationship" with the requester, a term the statute defines to include specified medical, mental health, peer-support, and caregiver providers. The related provision, § 36-96.3:2, governs the interactive process. Section 36-96.3:1 operates within FHA limits and cannot authorize denying a valid FHA accommodation, and it also makes providing fraudulent supporting documentation a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.⁵

Virginia does have a public-accommodations service-animal-access statute, Va. Code § 51.5-44, which grants people with disabilities the right to be accompanied by a trained service dog in public places. A companion statute, § 51.5-44.1, makes it a Class 4 misdemeanor to fraudulently represent a dog as a service dog or hearing dog to gain public access. These are public-accommodations provisions distinct from the Title 36 housing documentation provision; they do not govern an HOA's assistance-animal analysis for a resident's dwelling.⁷

On dog law, Virginia follows common-law dog-bite liability. There is no general strict-liability bite statute; liability turns on negligence and the owner's knowledge of a dog's dangerous propensity. Virginia regulates dangerous and vicious dogs by a statewide statute, Va. Code § 3.2-6540, under which a court adjudicates a dog dangerous on the facts of an incident. That statute is breed-neutral: no dog may be found dangerous, and no dog may be found vicious, § 3.2-6540.1, solely because it is a particular breed, and no breed is prohibited. The dangerous-dog process is a government proceeding initiated by a law-enforcement or animal-control officer, separate from an association's private authority. A related section, § 3.2-6540.01(H), expressly allows a recorded restrictive covenant, condominium instrument, or cooperative instrument to prohibit the keeping of a dangerous dog or impose conditions more restrictive than the statute.⁶

Section 3: Operational rules and compliance obligations

A. Enforceable pet restrictions (what holds up)

When properly adopted in the declaration or CC&Rs, restrictions on the number, size, weight, and type of pets, along with leash and waste rules for common areas, generally hold up. In planned communities the board's rule-making authority runs through § 55.1-1819; in condominiums it runs through § 55.1-1959.⁸ A rule must fall within the authority the governing documents grant, since Virginia courts strictly construe restrictive covenants and association rules and require a grounding in the recorded documents.¹³ Every such restriction yields to the assistance-animal accommodation requirement under the FHA and § 36-96.3:1.⁵

B. Handling an assistance-animal request

When a resident requests to keep an assistance animal, the association evaluates the request as a reasonable accommodation. If the disability or the disability-related need is not obvious, the association may ask for reliable documentation from a person with a therapeutic relationship with the requester, § 36-96.3:1, but may not demand registration, certification, a specific breed, or proof of training for a support animal. The association should respond in a timely, good-faith manner through the interactive process, § 36-96.3:2.⁵ A denial is defensible only on an individualized finding that the specific animal is a direct threat or would cause substantial physical damage no other accommodation could reduce, or that the accommodation imposes an undue burden or fundamental alteration; a denial based on breed, size, or generalized fear is not defensible.¹¹

C. Pet fees, deposits, and insurance

An association may charge pet-related fees or deposits for ordinary pets only if the declaration or CC&Rs authorize the charge, since no statute independently creates that authority. For an assistance animal, the association may not charge any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional rent, and may not require additional insurance for the animal, § 36-96.3:1. The resident remains liable for physical damage the animal causes to the same extent a pet owner would be.⁵

D. Enforcement and disclosure

Pet violations are enforced under § 55.1-1819, planned communities, or § 55.1-1959, condominiums, and the declaration. Both statutes require that, before charges are assessed or privileges suspended, the owner receive written notice and a reasonable opportunity to correct the violation, followed by a hearing on at least 14 days' notice, with the result delivered within seven days; charges may not exceed $50 for a single offense or $10 per day for a continuing offense, and total charges for a continuing offense may not be assessed for more than 90 days, a $900 maximum per continuing violation.⁸ Associations may also seek injunctive relief or damages in the General District Court or Circuit Court. Significant disputes proceed in the Circuit Court, and civil appeals go to the Court of Appeals of Virginia, which gained general civil appellate jurisdiction on January 1, 2022 under Senate Bill 1261, signed March 31, 2021, and then, by discretionary review, to the Supreme Court of Virginia.¹⁴ The Common Interest Community Board administers association registration and, through the Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, receives certain complaints, though it does not intervene in an association's internal decisions.¹⁰ Pet rules are disclosed to buyers through the association disclosure packet in planned communities, § 55.1-1809, and the resale certificate in condominiums, § 55.1-2310, each of which includes the governing documents and rules.¹⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No qualifying Virginia bill enacted in the past 24 months creates, changes, or repeals a pet-specific rule, an assistance-animal housing standard, or a dog-law provision in a way that materially changes obligations for community associations. The 2026 General Assembly session produced few changes affecting associations; its most consequential association measure was a rewrite of the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act, Title 13.1, which now provides that where a declaration or condominium instrument conflicts with the articles or bylaws on dues, assessments, fees, or membership, the declaration controls.¹⁶ The 2025 session amended the public-accommodations service-animal statute, § 51.5-44, which sits outside the housing analysis.⁷ In the absence of a pet-specific or assistance-animal bill, the federal Fair Housing Act and the Virginia Fair Housing Law assistance-animal frameworks control.

The most significant recent development affecting associations was administrative rather than legislative.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published opinion of the Court of Appeals of Virginia or the Supreme Court of Virginia in the past 36 months addresses pet restrictions or assistance-animal accommodation in the community-association context. Assistance-animal disputes in Virginia are generally resolved administratively through the Virginia Fair Housing Office or in federal court rather than in reported state appellate opinions. Covenant-enforcement questions continue to be litigated: the Court of Appeals of Virginia issued a published 2026 decision, Terrace View Property Owner's Association, Inc. v. Jannah, holding that an entity is not a valid property owners' association able to enforce covenants unless its recorded declaration both grants assessment authority and imposes a duty to maintain common areas.¹⁷ That line of authority bears on pet rules, since a pet restriction is enforceable only if the governing documents authorize it, but no in-window appellate decision turns on a pet or assistance-animal question.

C. Active legislative debates

The General Assembly's recent association-related attention has centered on assessments, collections, corporate governance, and energy infrastructure rather than pet rules; no active proposal specific to pet restrictions or assistance animals in associations has turned up for the current cycle.¹⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Among the states, Virginia sits with the large majority whose HOA pet authority is grounded in the recorded declaration or CC&Rs rather than in a statute granting a pet-keeping right. A small group, most clearly California under Civil Code § 4715, gives owners a statutory right to keep at least one pet; Virginia has no equivalent.⁹ What every state shares is the federal floor: the Fair Housing Act's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement applies uniformly. For a multi-state operator, the practical takeaway is that in Virginia, the binding pet rules come from the declaration or CC&Rs, the recodified Title 55.1 statutes supply the framework, the Common Interest Community Board oversees registration and mandatory manager licensing, and the federal assistance-animal analysis applies regardless of the state framework. Virginia's distinctive features are the October 1, 2019 Title 55.1 recodification, a dedicated regulator with mandatory manager licensing, a specific assistance-animal documentation provision in § 36-96.3:1, and a Court of Appeals that gained civil jurisdiction on January 1, 2022.

HOA Weekly's Virginia Pet Restrictions coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Common Interest Community Board, and the courts act. The federal Fair Housing Act's assistance-animal framework applies to Virginia associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Va. Code § 55.1-1819, Adoption and enforcement of rules (board rule-making authority; no pet-specific statute) ↩
2. Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Property and Conveyances (Chapter 18 Property Owners' Association Act §§ 55.1-1800 et seq.; Chapter 19 Virginia Condominium Act §§ 55.1-1900 et seq.; Chapter 21 Virginia Real Estate Cooperative Act §§ 55.1-2100 et seq.; recodified effective October 1, 2019) ↩
3. 42 U.S.C. § 3604, Discrimination in the sale or rental of housing (reasonable accommodation, subsection (f)(3)(B); direct-threat exception, subsection (f)(9)) ↩
4. Va. Code § 36-96.1 et seq., Virginia Fair Housing Law ↩
5. Va. Code § 36-96.3:1, Rights and responsibilities with respect to the use of an assistance animal in a dwelling (no pet fee or deposit; documentation standard; "therapeutic relationship"; fraudulent documentation as a Consumer Protection Act violation) ↩
6. Va. Code § 3.2-6540, Dangerous dogs; investigation, summons, and hearing (breed-neutral finding); see also § 3.2-6540.1 (vicious dogs) and § 3.2-6540.01(H) (declarations may prohibit dangerous dogs) ↩
7. Va. Code § 51.5-44.1, Fraudulent representation of a service dog or hearing dog; penalty (Class 4 misdemeanor); § 51.5-44, Rights of persons with disabilities in public places (amended by Acts 2025, c. 378) ↩
8. Va. Code § 55.1-1959, Condominium enforcement, notice, hearing, and charges; see also § 55.1-1819 for planned communities ↩
9. Cal. Civ. Code § 4715(a) (governing documents may not prohibit an owner from keeping at least one pet; no Virginia equivalent) ↩
10. Va. Code § 54.1-2346, License required for common interest community managers; Va. Code § 55.1-1835, Annual report by association filed with the Common Interest Community Board ↩
11. HUD FHEO-2020-01, Assessing a Person's Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act (January 28, 2020) (assistance animals are not pets; permissible inquiries; documentation limits; direct-threat and individualized-assessment standard) ↩
12. HUD, Notice of the Withdrawal of FHEO Guidance Documents (September 17, 2025) (withdrawing FHEO-2020-01 and FHEO-2013-01 pursuant to Executive Orders 14192 and 14219) ↩
13. Sainani v. Belmont Glen Homeowners Ass'n, 297 Va. 714 (2019) (restrictive covenants strictly construed; association rules must be grounded in the declaration) ↩
14. Va. Code § 17.1-405, Appeal of right to the Court of Appeals of Virginia in civil matters (Senate Bill 1261, effective January 1, 2022) ↩
15. Va. Code § 55.1-1809, Contents of association disclosure packet; see Va. Code § 55.1-2310, resale certificate contents for condominiums ↩
16. Community Associations Institute, 2026 Virginia End of Legislative Session Report; Whiteford, 2026 Virginia Legislative Updates for Common Interest Communities (Nonstock Corporation Act rewrite, SB 246 / HB 439) ↩
17. Terrace View Property Owner's Ass'n, Inc. v. Jannah, Record No. 2007-24-3 (Va. Ct. App. 2026) (published) (requirements for a valid property owners' association able to enforce covenants) ↩