New Law Means it May Take a Month to Get a Sign Post Installed

Update: This is not necessarily a new law. What is new is Virginia’s seriousness about enforcing the law and actually imposing fines.

Virginia just passed the has begun enforcing it’s “Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act”, which requires that Realtors® and sign companies call the Virginia Utility Protection Service (aka Miss Utility) before putting up any sign that involves sticking something in the dirt (including typical spike signs).

How does this affect Virginia home sellers?

It means that the time to get a sign put in your front yard just went from a few days to well over a week, a potential delay in putting your home on the market.

Why so long?

Because Miss Utility is quoting 3 to 4 business days to mark the property (despite the law claiming it only needs 48 hours). Then, the sign company takes 2 to 3 business days to install the sign post. That equals 5 to 7 business days from start to finish.

And that time frame will soon increase dramatically. A total of 4059 new listings came on the market between 1/1/09 and 6/30/09 – in Loudoun County alone. Imagine what is going to happen now that almost every new listing in Virginia has to go through Miss Utility before putting a real estate sign in the ground. I’d be willing to bet that it will soon take up to a month before Miss Utility has a chance to make it out to mark your yard.

Who is allowed to call Miss Utility to mark the property?

Only the person/company actually installing the sign. The overwhelming majority of agents use a sign company to dig the hole and install the sign post in their seller clients’ yards. That means that only the sign company can call Miss Utility. The problem with that is, the sign company has no clue what your property looks like nor how it’s situated on the lot, where underground utilities are, etc., so they can not tell Miss Utility precisely where the sign will go nor where to mark the property. This could further delay the process and/or increase the cost.

Is there a way around it?

Home owners are exempt from the law, but I have yet to find a seller who is willing to dig up a hole and put a real estate sign in their front yard on their own. And don’t forget – whoever installs the sign post is probably going to be the person listed as “at fault” should an underground utility line be damage/broken.

The other loop hole is to use a “coat hanger” sign with “wires”, but that looks about as professional and appealing as a hand written “For Sale” sign hanging by a string from the tree in the front yard.

And no…you can’t claim that your dog dug the hole and the sign post just happened to end up in the hole somehow.

P.S. If Miss Utility finds out that the person/company who installed the sign didn’t call them first, it’s a $2,500 fine.

What’s the solution?

Allow either the homeowner or their listing agent to call Miss Utility to mark the property even if they’re not the one actually installing the sign. Miss Utility could easily be called a week or several weeks ahead of time so that when the sellers are ready to go on the market, the sign can be installed by the sign company within 2 to 3 days just like normal.

As far as the “safety concerns” cited by Virginia regarding this solution, I don’t buy it – once the property is marked, the sign company can easily see where Miss Utility marked the property and put the sign in safely.

Local and state Realtor® Associations (and others) are lobbying Virginia to come up with a solution. Until there is one, plan on at least 1 to 2 weeks to get a sign post in the ground.