When can these covenants be changed?

Our covenants have this statement.

TERM. These covenants are to run with the land and shall be binding on all parties and all persons claiming under them for a period of twenty-five (25)
years from the date these covenants are recorded,
after which time said covenants shall be automatically extended for successive periods of ten (10) years
unless an instrument signed by a majority of the then owners of the lots has been recorded, agreeing to change said covenants in whole or in part.

The covenants were originally filed on May 10th, 1985, and no changes have been made since then..

Since no instrument agreeing to change was recorded prior to May 10th, 2010, I believe that these covenants were automatically extended until May 10th, 2020.
If the association agrees to change the covenants, the changes must be approved, and recorded prior to May 10th, 2020, and become effective on May 10th, 2020.

Does anyone have a different interpretation? If there is a different interpretation, then why wasn't it written differently.

'spot on'

Tim, thanks for your response.

We are in the process of amending the covenants and we want to be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Is your interpretation any different than not having any article concerning the duration of the covenants, and not stating when they can be changed? That is, what is the default in the absence of any such article?

Is there any value in the statement "the amended document will continue to renew every 10 years"? Why not "the amended document will last indefinitely"? Why not say nothing? If there in nothing to say the amendments will expire, then they will last indefinitely.

At some time, someone thought that the wording in the original post had some value. I wonder what they were thinking. Perhaps that wording was picked from some previous covenant and applied to our covenant without any thought.

One further concern: Your interpretation means that the covenants can be changed as often as we wish.

Thanks,
Gary

Gary

I hope you are getting legal advice on Covenant changes. If not, you are headed down a slippery slope.

The attached file is a 1998 Michigan appeals court opinion. I think it explains much on this issue. With thanks to those who posted this file to thread http://www.hoatalk.com/Search/ForumSearch/tabid/87/view/topic/postid/55661/Default.aspx

Thanks for posting that. That has to be one of the more nutty court decisions I've read.

To think that the deed restrictions were put in place to prevent changes for a quarter of a century, no matter how minor and no matter the preferences of what could be a unanimous membership base, is absurd.

ditto