If the amount of the judgment does not exceed twenty dollars, exclusive of interest and costs, no bill to enforce the lien thereof shall be entertained, unless it appear that thirty days before the institution of the suit, the judgment debtor or his personal representative, and the owner of the real estate on which the judgment is a lien, or, in case of a nonresident, his agent or attorney, if he had one in this Commonwealth, had notice that the suit would be instituted, if the judgment was not paid within that time.
Code 1950, § 8-392; 1977, c. 617.