Covenant Legalese help, please

Our covenants read as follows:
"These covenants are to run with the land for a period of twenty-five (25) years from the date these covenants are recorded in the Pickens County Deed Records, after which time such covenants shall be automatically extended for successive periods of ten (10) years unless an instrument signed by a majority of the then owners of lots in the subdivision is recorded agreeing to change said covenants in whole or in part."

Am I correct in interpreting this to mean that ONLY AFTER 25 YEARS, can the covenants be amended by a majority vote? Or if there is a majority vote can they amend the CC&Rs sooner?

Second question - when the CC&Rs does somebody have to certify and record in the county that a majority approved the amended CCC&Rs before filing the new docs with the county?

Adriana,

I am not an attorney and I do not work in the legal profession. I see the citation as separate items:

These covenants are to run with the land i.e. regardless of how many owners there are, the deed restrictions will remain in effect.

run with the land for a period of twenty-five (25) years from the date these covenants are recorded The covenants shall remain attached to the deed for 25 years from the date they are initially recorded with the County.

recorded in the Pickens County Deed Records identifies where the document is to be recorded.

after which time such covenants shall be automatically extended for successive periods of ten (10) years After the initial 25 year time frame, the covenants shall automatically be renewed for another 10 years.

unless an instrument signed by a majority of the then owners of lots in the subdivision is recorded agreeing to change said covenants in whole or in part." The original document shall be renewed as written every 10 years unless it is amended and the amendment is recorded with the same office. Once that is done, the automatic renewal will occur with the amended document (unless the amendment was to remove the automatic renewal).

Therefore, in my opinion, the answer to your questions are:

Am I correct in interpreting this to mean that ONLY AFTER 25 YEARS, can the covenants be amended by a majority vote? Or if there is a majority vote can they amend the CC&Rs sooner?
An amendment may occur at any time providing the proper procedure to make the amendment is followed and the amendment is properly recorded.

when the CC&Rs does somebody have to certify and record in the county that a majority approved the amended CCC&Rs before filing the new docs with the county?
Your CC&Rs require that a physical document signed by a majority of the members be filed. Therefore, as Larry pointed out, a single document with a majority of members signing it or separate documents that account for a majority of members must be filed. The Board may not simply certify that a majority of members agreed (although this is allowed in other Assocaitions).

If only a document certifying such agreement was filed, the Board would be leaving the amendment open for a legal challenge. Being open for a legal challenge is not the same as saying that the challenge would be successful. If the Board can produce documentation that a majority of owners did approve the change (the original ballots, proxies and sign-in sheet) then a judge may only slap the Boards hands for not filing the proper document but rule the amendment stands.

Hope this helps,

Tim

Thanks, Larry, are you a lawyer?

I did not mean to use the term "vote". My question is, given the above language can we modify the CCR&Rs before 25 years if the majority of the members sign it? Or must the conditions be met in the order stated in the original covenants i.e., first the 25 years and after that changes can be made by a majority.

"If there is language elsewhere describing a procedure for amendment then you CAN amend before 25 years, there is no contradiction. "

There is no orher language in the covenants regarding amendments. This is it.

Thanks, everybody, we have an appointment scheduled with a lawyer.

Unfortunately, another lawyer drafted new covenants for us a 10 years ago. Even though they only got 1/3 approval, they went ahead and filed revised covenenats agianst the individual property owners deeds! Now what we have is a mess!

(The original lawyer, now deceased, had a huge conflict of interst. He owned a separate subdivision, adjacent to ours, with an easement through our roads and membership for his lots in our POA, with no payment of assessments until the lots sold. Then he died and the economy crashed...

He had completely bamboozled our board at the time and they were and thrilled to receive "pro bono" advice. At on point the association paid his firm to redraft our covenants (the ones that fid not get majority approval but were filed anyways).

I suspect we could have filed a legal malpractice case against his firm but i suspect the statute of limitations has probably passed since it was 10 years ago. We now have a much worse mess than we started with. (The fact that as soon as he dued his partners severed all work on our behalf is telling)

"These covenants are to run with the land for a period of twenty-five (25) years from the date these covenants are recorded in the Pickens County Deed Records, after which time such covenants shall be automatically extended for successive periods of ten (10) years unless an instrument signed by a majority of the then owners of lots in the subdivision is recorded agreeing to change said covenants in whole or in part."

I love legal doubletalk, covenants run with the land for 25 years, with automatic 10 year renewals UNLESS AMENDED but what it doesn't say is if the clock starts over after an amendment or if the automatic 10 year renewals continue.

Adriana

What issues do you have with new versus old covenants?

Thanks

Fred that is exactly where I think we are heading.

Problems with old vs. new...old have zero enforcement capability. Cannot issue liens or fines or late fees or collect attorneys fees for non-payment. Cannot do anything about compliance issues except for one resident suing their neighbor. The New (not adopted) corrected those,problems, not quite sure what the problems are with the new, but have been told that they need to be tightened,

which since yours are silent IMO would need to be amended first.

I meant amended with a homeowner vote not a Board vote.

Oy, my eyes blurred over reading all these posts, so if I missed some answer I beg your forgiveness. Doesnt't this declaration just mean that the FORM of the CC&R's run for twenty-five years, but the CONTENT can be amended via the proper procedure established within them. Then, after those twenty-five years are up, the CC&R's as they are at that time, will automatically be extended for another ten years, again, still open to amendment according to established procedure. However, if at that twenty-five years deadline, the association wishes to change/amend that caveat, say to a five-year time-frame or hell, just to get rid of them altogether, or any other variation, then the established majority for amendment in place at that time will prevail.

Wow, that there is only one paragraph addressing covenant ammendments, while commendable for its also unusual brevity in typically verbose, overwrought and overwritten like documents, 'tis an association's nightmare, indeed, but an attorney's dream! Bring on the billable hours trying to parse this one out!

Oh yeah, I especially like the, "Well, if your covenants are silent on [insert issue here]. . ." Hell, it's a rodeo then! Alas, reined in by the established "intent" of the WHOLE document, so the fun is short-lived, like so much HOA 'bidness!