Can the buyer take over our Virginia contractor license?

No. Licenses are issued to firms and are not transferable under 18VAC50-22-210, so the buyer's entity applies for its own HVA license on its own facts. Your license is not voided by the sale itself: that regulation reaches the licensed entity being dissolved or altered, which is what usually happens to the seller entity later, in the wind-down. The temporary license is no help to a buyer that is not already licensed in another state, and § 54.1-201.1 caps it at 45 days in any event. The workable choices are to file the new application before closing rather than after it, to sell equity instead of assets, or to keep the licensed seller entity alive under a transition arrangement and let it perform the permitted work.

Our master tradesman is the retiring owner. What does that leave the buyer?

A firm cannot hold the HVA classification without a qualified individual who personally holds a Master HVAC Tradesman license, and that person must be a full-time employee of the firm, which 18VAC50-22-10 defines as 30 hours a week and an IRS Form W-2 from that firm, or a member of its responsible management, which carries no hours test. A technician already holding a Virginia journeyman HVAC license needs one year in grade to sit for master, so the roster is the first place to look. A platform hoping to use one master-licensed person as the qualifier for two Virginia companies would be relying on the responsible management route, and should confirm that with the Board rather than build a structure on it.

Which of our technicians can be bound?

It turns on how each technician is paid, not on what the covenant says. A non-exempt hourly technician is entitled to overtime under 29 U.S.C. § 207, which puts them inside the low-wage definition at § 40.1-28.7:8 whatever they earn. A technician whose earnings come in whole or predominant part from commissions, incentives or bonuses falls outside that definition and can be bound. The bar reaches entering into the covenant as well as enforcing it, so a covenant signed with an hourly technician was a violation when it was signed.

I am staying on after closing. Where should my own covenant sit?

Not in the post-closing employment agreement. The only sale-of-business carve-out in § 40.1-28.7:8, at subsection H 2, is written for health care professionals and does not reach an HVAC seller, so the same covenant restated in an employment agreement sits inside the employer and employee relationship the section governs. Subsection C, effective July 1, 2026, makes a covenant unenforceable where the employer discharges the employee without cause and without severance or other monetary payment, so a buyer's headcount decision after closing can release the covenant it paid for. A separate sentence requires that the payment be disclosed when the covenant is executed. Whether subsection C reaches covenants signed before July 1, 2026 is not settled on the face of the Code, so have that confirmed before a covenant book is priced.

Does an equity deal avoid the licensing problem?

For a corporation or an LLC, largely yes. The licensed entity stays standing, its classification history and board file survive, and the changes a closing triggers are reported to the Board, not reapplied for. A same-day merger of the target into an acquisition subsidiary undoes that by ending the licensed entity, and because the regulation does not name mergers expressly, confirm the position with the Board before scheduling one.

HVAC & Mechanical in Virginia

Virginia licenses your HVAC company twice, and a buyer's new entity inherits neither.

Virginia licenses an HVAC company at two levels, and neither credential moves with the business. The firm holds a Board for Contractors license carrying the HVAC contractors classification, which the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation abbreviates HVA, and the person named as its qualified individual holds a Master HVAC Tradesman license personally. The 2025 session rewrote the dollar thresholds that set the firm's class. The covenant book splits on pay, not on rank: an hourly technician entitled to overtime cannot be bound at any wage, while the commission-paid sales layer can. Wraith [represents Virginia sellers directly](/services/sell-side-advisory), because the DPOR filings and the technician pay plans both have to be worked months before a buyer is in the room.

Northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Loudoun County) / Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News (Hampton Roads) / Richmond / Roanoke

Virginia has no bridge license between your closing and the buyer's first permit

Class is set by contract size and by nothing else, and 2025 Acts cc. 127 and 133 moved every figure in the test. Class A is a single contract or project of $150,000 or more, or $1 million or more of work in any 12-month period. Class B is $30,000 or more but under $150,000 on a single project, or $250,000 or more but under $1 million in 12 months. Class C is more than $1,000 but under $30,000, or under $250,000 annually. The two prongs of each class run independently, so a company sitting well below the annual figure becomes a Class A the day it signs one $150,000 project. 18VAC50-22-20 gives HVA the heating, ventilating, cooling, boiler, process piping and mechanical refrigeration work, and states that it does not provide for fire suppression installations, sprinkler system installations, or gas piping. A company that sets gas furnaces is carrying a second classification with a second master credential behind it.

A mechanical license rests on a named individual, which is true of HVAC and mechanical companies anywhere. Virginia's version of that is a second license with its own file. 18VAC50-22-61, effective September 1, 2025, makes a Master HVAC Tradesman license issued by the Board for Contractors the qualification for HVA, and the qualified individual provisions for Class A, Class B and Class C all carry that table, so it reaches the smallest license as well as the largest. The same individual needs experience in the classification itself: one year for Class C, three for Class B, five for Class A. The routes to the master license sit at 18VAC50-30-39 D, effective April 1, 2025: one year holding a journeyman license in the trade, three years holding a residential HVAC tradesman license, or nine years of practical experience. Buyers hear the nine years and price a departing owner-qualifier as a wall. A technician already holding a Virginia journeyman HVAC license needs one year in grade instead.

The license itself is issued to the firm and cannot be assigned. 18VAC50-22-210 says so in its first sentence, and the rest of that section is narrower than it looks. What voids a license is the licensed entity being dissolved or altered to form a new business entity, in which case the license goes back to the board within 30 days and a new application is filed within 30 days. Selling assets to an unrelated buyer does neither of those things to the seller, so the seller's license survives the closing and can still carry open permits, warranty callbacks and transition work. What it cannot do is travel. The buyer's newly formed Virginia entity has never held a license, applies on its own facts, and under § 54.1-1103 A cannot lawfully contract in the meantime.

There is nothing to hold in the gap. The temporary license at 18VAC50-22-65 goes only to a firm that already holds a comparable license in good standing in another state, cannot be renewed, is issued once per firm, and has to be applied for at the same time as the permanent license, with § 54.1-201.1 capping it at 45 days. A single-state buyer forming a Virginia entity does not qualify for it. That entity is a first-time applicant in every other respect too: the designated employee or a member of responsible management must have completed a board-approved basic business course, and the company has to verify $45,000 of net worth for Class A or $15,000 for Class B from a standing start, or file the $50,000 surety bond that § 54.1-1106 C allows in place of the test. An asset sale is also not a way to leave a record behind. Section 54.1-1110 lets the Board refuse a license to a firm holding a substantial identity of interest with one whose license was revoked or not renewed, which it measures by a controlling financial interest, substantially identical officers, or the same designated employee.

An equity purchase is the structure that keeps the license. Buying the shares or membership interests of a corporation or an LLC leaves the licensed entity standing, so nothing is dissolved or altered, and the regulatory work is filings: a change in principals reported within 120 days under 18VAC50-22-220 A, a change of qualified individual within 60 days under subsection C, and, tighter than either, a change of the licensed name or of the address of record within 30 days under 18VAC50-22-230. A post-closing rebrand or office move runs on the shortest clock in the set. Two targets do not get the benefit at all. The triggers in 18VAC50-22-210 include the death or withdrawal of a general partner, or of the managing partner of a limited partnership, so a partnership buyout is itself a voiding event, and a sole proprietorship has no equity to sell. Both should be converted to an LLC well before a process opens. Section 54.1-1106 E for a Class A licensee and § 54.1-1108 E for a Class B licensee both let a contractor in good standing change its own form of business entity without sitting the examination again. Neither provision reaches a buyer's new company, whose designated employee must hold a current pass on the board examination or an exemption under § 54.1-1108.1.

Whether a Virginia technician can be bound turns on the pay plan

The definition of a low-wage employee at § 40.1-28.7:8 carries a limb that reads straight past the wage line. Entitlement to overtime under 29 U.S.C. § 207 for hours worked over 40 in any one workweek puts an employee inside the definition regardless of average weekly earnings, and no covenant not to compete may be entered into, enforced or threatened against a low-wage employee. A non-exempt hourly service technician is inside it at any earnings level, so an hourly senior commercial refrigeration tech is no more bindable than a first-year installer. That leaves the wage limb deciding only the salaried exempt staff.

The carve-out at the end of the same definition cuts across both limbs. No employee whose earnings are derived, in whole or in predominant part, from sales commissions, incentives or bonuses is a low-wage employee. A technician earning mostly from spiffs and accessory commissions sits outside the definition and can be bound. Two technicians running identical calls off the same truck can therefore end up on opposite sides of the statute.

A void technician covenant is a disclosure item and not a retention asset, and the threat to enforce it is itself the violation, carrying a civil penalty of $10,000 per violation alongside the employee's claim for lost compensation, damages and attorney fees. The demand letter a buyer sends a departing technician is where that exposure gets created. What can still be drawn is a customer non-solicit on the line the statute leaves, which is that a covenant may not restrict an employee from providing a service to a customer or client of the employer where the employee did not initiate contact with or solicit that customer. A technician can be barred from calling the maintenance base they serviced, and not from taking the call when that customer follows them.

No mechanical permit and no local license until the new number issues

Section 54.1-1111 A stops a county, city or town official from issuing a building or other permit for construction or improvement, which at the counter includes the mechanical permit a change-out needs, unless the applicant furnishes evidence of a valid Board license and its number or a written statement of exemption, and makes issuing one without that a Class 3 misdemeanor for the official. Subsection B bars a locality from issuing or renewing a local business license to a contractor on the same evidence, so the buyer's entity waits on its DPOR number before it can obtain either one.

Which class the target holds decides how much of Virginia it is permitted to work in. Section 54.1-1117 A lets a locality require its own license, its own examination and its own bond of persons engaging in the home improvement business and in the construction of single-family or multi-family dwellings, and expressly excepts contractors licensed under § 54.1-1106, which is the Class A license. Section 54.1-1108 runs the other way for Class B: the applicant shows evidence of a current local license where one is required, and the licensee may contract only in the counties, cities and towns where it has complied with all local licensing requirements. For a residential Class B target the diligence item is the list of localities it has already licensed into, because that list, and not its service map, is the territory the license reaches. For a commercial target the local grant usually binds nowhere, because it is drawn around home improvement and dwelling construction and reaches no further.

Under § 58.1-3715, a contractor that has paid the local license tax where its principal and branch offices sit owes no further locality a license until it does more than $25,000 of business there in a year, so an asset sale into a new company restarts that registration in every locality above the line. Virginia attaches no insurance requirement and no mandatory bond to the state license, but § 54.1-1117 A leaves a locality free to demand a bond of its own from any home improvement or dwelling contractor below Class A.

Questions Virginia sellers ask

Can the buyer take over our Virginia contractor license?: No. Licenses are issued to firms and are not transferable under 18VAC50-22-210, so the buyer's entity applies for its own HVA license on its own facts. Your license is not voided by the sale itself: that regulation reaches the licensed entity being dissolved or altered, which is what usually happens to the seller entity later, in the wind-down. The temporary license is no help to a buyer that is not already licensed in another state, and § 54.1-201.1 caps it at 45 days in any event. The workable choices are to file the new application before closing rather than after it, to sell equity instead of assets, or to keep the licensed seller entity alive under a transition arrangement and let it perform the permitted work.
Our master tradesman is the retiring owner. What does that leave the buyer?: A firm cannot hold the HVA classification without a qualified individual who personally holds a Master HVAC Tradesman license, and that person must be a full-time employee of the firm, which 18VAC50-22-10 defines as 30 hours a week and an IRS Form W-2 from that firm, or a member of its responsible management, which carries no hours test. A technician already holding a Virginia journeyman HVAC license needs one year in grade to sit for master, so the roster is the first place to look. A platform hoping to use one master-licensed person as the qualifier for two Virginia companies would be relying on the responsible management route, and should confirm that with the Board rather than build a structure on it.
Which of our technicians can be bound?: It turns on how each technician is paid, not on what the covenant says. A non-exempt hourly technician is entitled to overtime under 29 U.S.C. § 207, which puts them inside the low-wage definition at § 40.1-28.7:8 whatever they earn. A technician whose earnings come in whole or predominant part from commissions, incentives or bonuses falls outside that definition and can be bound. The bar reaches entering into the covenant as well as enforcing it, so a covenant signed with an hourly technician was a violation when it was signed.
I am staying on after closing. Where should my own covenant sit?: Not in the post-closing employment agreement. The only sale-of-business carve-out in § 40.1-28.7:8, at subsection H 2, is written for health care professionals and does not reach an HVAC seller, so the same covenant restated in an employment agreement sits inside the employer and employee relationship the section governs. Subsection C, effective July 1, 2026, makes a covenant unenforceable where the employer discharges the employee without cause and without severance or other monetary payment, so a buyer's headcount decision after closing can release the covenant it paid for. A separate sentence requires that the payment be disclosed when the covenant is executed. Whether subsection C reaches covenants signed before July 1, 2026 is not settled on the face of the Code, so have that confirmed before a covenant book is priced.
Does an equity deal avoid the licensing problem?: For a corporation or an LLC, largely yes. The licensed entity stays standing, its classification history and board file survive, and the changes a closing triggers are reported to the Board, not reapplied for. A same-day merger of the target into an acquisition subsidiary undoes that by ending the licensed entity, and because the regulation does not name mergers expressly, confirm the position with the Board before scheduling one.

Where these facts come from

Everything above that is a rule rather than a judgment is listed here with its publisher and the date it was checked. Licensing, tax and non-compete rules change, sometimes without much notice. None of this is legal or tax advice, and it is not a substitute for your own counsel and CPA.

Class A contractors perform or manage work where the total value of a single contract or project is $150,000 or more, or where the total value of all such contracts or projects undertaken within any 12-month period is $1 million or more. Class B covers a single contract or project of $30,000 or more but less than $150,000, or all contracts within any 12-month period of $250,000 or more but less than $1 million. Class C covers a single contract or project of more than $1,000 but less than $30,000, or all contracts within any 12-month period of less than $250,000. These figures were amended by 2025 Acts cc. 127 and 133. The section also provides, in a sentence at the close of the Class C definition, that the Board shall require a master tradesmen license as a condition of licensure for electrical, plumbing, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contractors.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1100. Checked 2026-09-07.
Guides published before the 2025 amendments still print the superseded $120,000 and $750,000 Class A figures and the $10,000 and $150,000 Class B figures. The two prongs of each class are independent tests, so a firm below the annual figure is Class A on a single project at or above $150,000. The HVA classification scope and its exclusions are not in this section; they are at 18VAC50-22-20.
The HVAC contractors classification, abbreviated HVA, provides for the installation, alteration, repair or maintenance of heating systems, ventilating systems, cooling systems, steam and hot water heating systems, boilers, mechanical refrigeration systems and process piping. The regulation states that this classification does not provide for fire suppression installations, sprinkler system installations, or gas piping. Gas piping falls to the separate gas fitting classification.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-20, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
18VAC50-22-61, effective September 1, 2025, lists a Master HVAC tradesman license issued by the Board for Contractors as the qualification required for the HVAC contractors (HVA) classification, and a Master Gas Fitter license as the qualification for the gas fitting classification. The qualified individual provisions for all three classes, at 18VAC50-22-40 B 4 for Class C, 18VAC50-22-50 C 4 for Class B and 18VAC50-22-60 C 4 for Class A, incorporate that table, so the master credential requirement runs to every class.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-61, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
18VAC50-30-39 D, effective April 1, 2025, sets the routes to a master tradesman license: having held a journeyman license in the trade for at least one year, or a residential HVAC tradesman license for three years, or nine years of practical experience in the trade.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-30-39, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
18VAC50-22-60 C requires the Class A qualified individual to be a full-time employee of the firm or a member of its responsible management and to have five years of experience in the classification; 18VAC50-22-50 C sets three years for Class B and 18VAC50-22-40 B sets one year for Class C. 18VAC50-22-60 D requires a Class A firm to verify net worth or equity of $45,000 by completed financial statement with supporting documentation, a CPA-reviewed financial statement or a CPA audit, and 18VAC50-22-50 D sets $15,000 for Class B; Class C has no financial test. 18VAC50-22-60 H, 18VAC50-22-50 H and 18VAC50-22-40 F require the designated employee or a member of responsible management to have completed a board-approved basic business course.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-60, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
The only insurance mandate anywhere in 18VAC50-22 is a general liability requirement for a residential building energy analyst firm, a classification an HVAC target will not hold. There is no general liability insurance requirement and no mandatory surety bond attaching to the HVA license itself.
'Full-time employee' means an employee who spends a minimum of 30 hours a week carrying out the work of the licensed contracting business and who receives an IRS Form W-2 annually. 'Responsible management' means the principals of the entity, including the officers of a corporation and the members or managers of a limited liability company, and carries no hours or W-2 test.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-10, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
Nothing in 18VAC50-22 expressly bars one master-licensed individual from serving as the qualified individual for more than one licensed firm. The full-time-employee route is effectively single-firm; the responsible-management route carries no hours test. A shared qualifier across two firms is an unresolved point and should be confirmed with the Board rather than assumed.
Licenses are issued to firms and are not transferable. Whenever the legal business entity holding the license is dissolved or altered to form a new business entity, the original license becomes void and shall be returned to the board within 30 days of the change, and the firm must apply for a new license on a board form within 30 days of the change. The listed triggers include the death of a sole proprietor, the death or withdrawal of a general partner of a general partnership or of the managing partner of a limited partnership, and the formation or dissolution of a corporation, a limited liability company, an association or any other business entity. Amended effective September 1, 2025.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-210, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
The section acts on the licensed firm. A third-party asset sale in which the seller entity is neither dissolved nor altered does not void the seller's license and starts no return clock; the buyer's new entity needs its own license because a license is not transferable, not because the seller's has lapsed. The regulation does not name mergers or conversions expressly, so a merger that ends the target should be treated as within the dissolution trigger and confirmed with the Board rather than relied upon either way. Nothing in the section authorises operating during the 30 days.
18VAC50-22-65 B limits a temporary license to a firm that holds a comparable license or certificate in good standing in another state. 18VAC50-22-65 C bars renewal and limits a firm to one temporary license, and 18VAC50-22-65 A incorporates § 54.1-201.1. The application for a temporary license is filed at the same time as the application for the permanent license.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-65, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
The section itself carries no duration. The maximum term comes from § 54.1-201.1 and is cited to that section here.
A temporary license is valid for a period not to exceed 45 days from the date of issuance and may not be renewed.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-201.1. Checked 2026-09-07.
Any change in the principals of a corporation, a limited liability company or an association must be reported to the board in writing within 120 days of the change (18VAC50-22-220 A). A change of designated employee must be reported on a board form within 120 days (subsection B) and a change of qualified individual within 60 days (subsection C), on the board's Change in Qualified Individual and/or Designated Employee application. A change in principals or responsible management is filed on the board's Change of Responsible Management application.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-220, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
The regulation states 120 days for a designated employee change while § 54.1-1106 E and § 54.1-1108 E state 90 days. The statutory 90 days is the conservative figure to work to. Form revision suffixes are deliberately not quoted here, because DPOR increments them.
A licensee must operate under the name in which the license is issued, and any change of that name must be reported to the board in writing within 30 days. A change of the address of record or of the principal place of business must likewise be reported within 30 days.
Virginia Administrative Code 18VAC50-22-230, Board for Contractors. Checked 2026-09-07.
No examination shall be required where the licensed Class A contractor changes his form of business entity, provided he is in good standing with the Board, except in accordance with § 54.1-1110.1. Where the designated employee leaves the contractor's full-time employment or ceases to be a member of responsible management, no new examination is required of that person and the contractor shall within 90 days of that departure provide the Board with the name of the new designated employee. The license permits contracting only so long as the designated employee is in the full-time employment of the contractor or is a member of the contractor's responsible management. Subsection C permits an applicant to file a $50,000 surety bond from a corporate surety licensed in Virginia and approved by the Attorney General in place of the net worth requirement. Subsection D imposes a continuing duty to keep the Board advised of changes in the officer, partner or member list.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1106. Checked 2026-09-07.
The no-examination relief runs to the licensed contractor changing its own form of business entity, not to a sale to an unrelated buyer. A buyer's newly formed entity is a first-time applicant, and its designated employee must hold a current pass on the board examination or an exemption under § 54.1-1108.1. The relief is written for Class A; the Class B equivalent is § 54.1-1108 E, and the chapter carries no equivalent express provision for Class C.
A Class B applicant must show evidence of having obtained a current local license where one is required, and a Class B contractor may contract only in the counties, cities and towns where such person has complied with all local licensing requirements. Subsection E carries the same no-examination provision on a change of the contractor's own form of business entity and the same 90-day duty to name a new designated employee, and permits a $50,000 surety bond in place of the net worth requirement. Section 54.1-1108.1 sets out the exemptions from the examination requirement.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1108. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 54.1-1108 E ties the Class B license to the designated employee's full-time employment and does not carry the 'or is a member of the contractor's responsible management' alternative that § 54.1-1106 E gives Class A.
The Board may deny, suspend or revoke a license where the applicant firm has a substantial identity of interest with a firm whose license has been revoked or not renewed, described as (i) a controlling financial interest, (ii) substantially identical principals or officers, or (iii) the same designated employee. The section also permits denial or revocation for violations of the workers' compensation and unemployment tax chapters.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1110. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 54.1-1103 A makes it unlawful for any person to engage in, or offer to engage in, contracting work in Virginia unless licensed by the Board, subject to the exemptions in the chapter.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1103. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 54.1-1111 A provides that no county, city or town official may issue a building or other permit for the construction, removal, grading or improvement of any building or structure unless the applicant furnishes satisfactory evidence of a valid Board license, including the license number, or a written statement supported by an affidavit that he is not subject to licensure, and makes a violation by the official a Class 3 misdemeanor. Subsection B bars a county, city or town from issuing or renewing a local business license to a contractor without the same evidence.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1111. Checked 2026-09-07.
The word mechanical does not appear in the section. A mechanical permit for an HVAC change-out sits within 'building or other permit' for an improvement, which is how the requirement is met at a Virginia permit counter.
Section 54.1-1117 A permits a locality to require a license, an examination and a bond of persons engaging in the home improvement business and in the construction of single-family or multi-family dwellings, and expressly excepts contractors currently licensed under § 54.1-1106, which is the Class A license.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 54.1-1117. Checked 2026-09-07.
The local licensing power reaches home improvement and dwelling construction only. A commercial contractor sits outside the grant, so the § 54.1-1108 geographic limit usually binds nowhere for a commercial Class B target.
Once a contractor has paid the local license tax where its principal office or branch office is located, no other locality may require a further license unless the contractor does more than $25,000 of business in that locality in a year.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 58.1-3715. Checked 2026-09-07.
No employer shall enter into, enforce, or threaten to enforce a covenant not to compete with any low-wage employee. 'Low-wage employee' means an employee whose average weekly earnings are less than the average weekly wage of the Commonwealth as determined under § 65.2-500 B, or who, regardless of his average weekly earnings, is entitled to overtime compensation under 29 U.S.C. § 207 for any hours worked in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek. The term also includes interns, students, apprentices and trainees, and an individual who has independently contracted with another person to perform services independent of an employment relationship and who is compensated at an hourly rate less than the median hourly wage for the Commonwealth for all occupations as reported for the preceding year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 'Low-wage employee' does not include any employee whose earnings are derived, in whole or in predominant part, from sales commissions, incentives or bonuses paid to the employee by the employer. A covenant not to compete shall not restrict an employee from providing a service to a customer or client of the employer if the employee does not initiate contact with or solicit the customer or client. A violation carries a civil penalty of $10,000 per violation, an employee may sue for lost compensation, damages and reasonable attorney fees and costs, and every employer must post a copy of the section or an approved summary. Subsection C provides that no covenant not to compete is enforceable if the employer discharges the employee without providing severance benefits or other monetary payment, unless the discharge is for cause, and separately requires that such severance benefits or other monetary payment be disclosed upon execution of the covenant. The only sale-of-business carve-out in the section, at subsection H 2, is for covenants with a health care professional or such person's business entity.
Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 40.1-28.7:8. Checked 2026-09-07.
Subsection C was added by 2026 Acts cc. 883, 1113 and 1114 with an effective date of July 1, 2026, and displays as current law. The enrolled chapter text was not retrievable, so no applicability clause governing covenants executed before that date has been confirmed and should be checked before a covenant book is priced. The void trigger in subsection C is the failure to pay on a discharge without cause; the disclosure duty is a separate sentence and not an element of it. The wage limb is pegged to a figure that resets annually, so no dollar amount is carried on the page.
DPOR's Contractor Licensing Information for the Board for Contractors states that a person may be the qualified individual for more than one classification or specialty, and that the qualified individual must be a full-time employee of, or a member of the responsible management of, the business applying for the license. It also describes the temporary license as a 45-day license that cannot be renewed, reinstated or reapplied for.
Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Board for Contractors, Contractor Licensing Information (A501-27INTRO). Checked 2026-09-07.
The booklet addresses one person qualifying multiple classifications within a single firm and says nothing about qualifying multiple firms. No negative implication about multiple firms should be drawn from it.

Page last reviewed 2026-09-07.

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