New Owner

We have bought the remaining 20 lots of a subdivision that the developer went bankrupt on. There were restrictions but they were never recorded. We would like to make a few changes and use those same restrictions. Is this possible? What is the first step? Call a meeting to discuss with current property owners in the subdivision?

Angela,

If I were you, my fist step would be to have a meeting with an attorney.

As John pointed out, did the Declarant rights transfer to you or are you simply an owner?

If the restrictions were never recorded, were they recorded on the lots of other members? If not, you can't force them to accept them now - they may or may not agree to them, but you can't force them.

Like I said, my first step would be a consultation with an attorney to find out what I really purchased and what my rights are. Also, since the recordation of deed restrictions are being questioned, what rights other property owners in the development have.

Thanks Fred.

Hopefully Larry doesn't see it

This was caused by not pressing down hard on the "r" key and failing to reread the post prior to submitting. It was not caused by spell check or auto completion. Simple human error caused it to happen.

I have my attorney looking it over currently. I was just researching for myself as it is taking some time to hear back from my attorney. . I did see that the restrictions were filed but there was never an hoa set up and no assessment fees were ever collected from what I understand.

Twenty out of how many lots? Twenty lots in a 21-lot subdivision would make you a big fish in a little pond. Twenty lots out of 1,000 gives you very little clout.

Since it appears that restrictions were recorded and most likely apply to your 20 lots the amount of leverage you have will determine whether you can make the changes in restrictions you want. This assumes you still want to make changes. Restrictions can usually be amended by some percentage of lot owners and depending on the overall number of lots you may have sufficient power by yourself to make changes.

The fact that the developer failed to incorporate the HOA is not fatal. If the restrictions require owners to be members of an association then anyone may file Articles of Incorporation to establish the association. The first order of business is usually to call for a meeting to vote for a board of directors, who will run the association afterwards.