Declarant

Welcome to HOATalk, Stacie! We lived in Charlotte once upon a time and my spouse worked in Gastonia.

How many homes in your HOA? How many on your Board?

Generally, when the declarant no longer controls your HOA, you delete the language of "declarant" and insert the language of "the Association" (unless some other word is used in NC). I do no think you add: "or successors or assigns," but I might be wrong.

Exceptions are cases where the declarant still might have a voice. In our high rise, for instance, the declarant could still have a voice in architectural change approvals for 10 years after turnover to our HOA (though he never exercised it). In some cases, the declarant has the right in the CC&Rs to develop more of the land in the future. Or post signs to market existing homes he built that haven't sold.

I think others will reply who actually have experience with what you're asking.

Our HOA is pretty complicated so we'll get an attorney to help us when we amend our CC&Rs. Has your board considered that?

Thanks so much for the feedback Kerry, it is much appreciated. We are a very small community of 34 homes on Lake Norman with 5 Board Members which are all homeowners in our Subdivision. The last vacant lot was sold over 15 years ago. We are definitely planning on using our attorney but the Board was just reviewing the suggested changes that our Covenant Review Committee put together for us and they were not sure how to handle it so I just thought I would help them research it.

Heres' what a CA attorney-compiled website says about CC&Rs & bylaws too, it appears:

" Declarant language should be deleted along with all the legalese that goes with it. It gives associations the opportunity to clarify maintenance issues (always a source of conflict and potential liability), add director qualifications, incorporate changes in the law, and make the documents easier to read."

In CA, Stacie, the declarant part of CC&R revisions isn't too hard:

"Approval Requirement. Declarant provisions may be deleted by a majority of those owners representing a quorum, regardless of any higher amendment requirements called for in the documents. The membership may delete any provisions that are unequivocally designed and intended or which by its nature can only have been designed or intended, to facilitate the developer in completing the construction or marketing of the development."

I wonder if NC (or SC, JohnC) has this approach in its statutes.

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