§ 8.01-230.Accrual of right of action.

Section 8.01-230 answers a question that decides more limitations disputes than any single time period does: when does the clock start? For personal injury and property damage claims, the answer is the date the injury is sustained, not the date the injured party discovers it or realizes it is actionable. For breach of contract, the clock starts the moment the breach occurs, again regardless of when the resulting damage becomes apparent.

That injury-date rule is a deliberate rejection of a discovery-based approach for most tort and contract claims. Virginia could have chosen to start the clock when a reasonable person would have learned of the harm, but this section chooses certainty and an earlier start date instead, which shifts real risk onto plaintiffs whose injuries are slow to surface.

The section builds in its own exceptions, though, and they matter as much as the rule. Claims seeking solely equitable relief are not covered here. Nor are claims where § 8.01-233, subsection C of § 8.01-245, § 8.01-249, or § 8.01-250 (or some other statute) supplies its own accrual test — and § 8.01-249 in particular lists a whole set of claims, from fraud to asbestos exposure to certain products liability actions, where discovery, not injury, starts the clock. Reading this section together with those named exceptions is the only way to know, for any given claim, which accrual rule governs.