New construction time limit verbiage?

Hi all,

I'm the President of a small (32 lot) HOA. We have Declarations which limit the amount of time that a homeowner has to rebuild after a disaster, but NO verbiage at all limiting homeowner's on the time to completion during initial construction. One homeowner has been building a house for well over 5 years, self-financed, with no end in sight.

We are looking to put an amendment to our declarations which would limit new home construction to be completed within 18 months of the start of construction. I would like to solicit input from this forum for examples of how amendments like this might be worded. I've googled around a bit and not found a whole lot (keywords are tough as 'construction' 'time' and 'limit' appear in various places in almost all Declarations).

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Greg Fields

Hi Greg:

This is in essence what my documents state (changed to the 18 months you stated above):

Time of Construction. Approved projects must be completed within eighteen (18) months after issuance of a building permit or within eighteen (18) months after approval by the ACC if no building permit is required. If the work is not completed within the prescribed time, the ACC may rescind its approval and re-submission will be required. The ACC may grant an extension for good cause; provided, however, that any such project must also be completed within any timeframe imposed by the City.

Have you checked with your local city/county planning or government to see if they have any specific requirements that need to be met? Keep in mind that you need to also potentially abide by any state or local statutes.

Thanks Tim,

We don't specifically address that so far, but it's a good point. The text should probably also include boilerplate about being able to request an extension from the Board which would give lot owner's a qualified out provided they can prove to the Board that its really beyond their control.