§ 8.01-178.1.Waste; who is liable.

Section 8.01-178.1 identifies who answers in damages for waste — physical harm or the depletion of value a person in possession does to land that belongs, in whole or part, to someone else. Subsection A reaches the most familiar case: a tenant of land, or a person who has aliened, or transferred, land, who commits waste while in possession, without special license to do so, is liable for damages. The absence of a license matters — someone given permission to do what would otherwise be waste is not liable under this subsection.

Subsection B addresses waste between co-owners. A tenant in common, a joint tenant, or a parcener who commits waste is liable to the cotenants, and that liability can be enforced jointly or severally — the injured cotenants are not required to sue together, nor is a wasting cotenant shielded merely because more than one other owner shares the loss.

Subsection C covers a different relationship entirely: a guardian or conservator managing a ward’s estate. If the guardian or conservator commits waste of that estate, the statute fixes liability to the ward as running from the expiration of the guardianship or conservatorship, when the ward, or the ward’s estate, is positioned to pursue it.