Permanent Proxy?

We are a 59 lot HOA in Illinois that is still under Developer control. While looking through the declaration and restictions trying to find out how many votes he might have I found this:

"In addition, a special amendment shall also be deemed to include, until such a time as Developer owns no Lots in the Development, such amendment to this Declaration as Declarent elects to record at any time and from time to time for any other purpose, so long as such an amendment will not encumber upon the rights of the Owners hereunder or materially increase the expenses to be borne by them hereunder. In furtherence of the foregoing, a power coupled with an interest is hereby reserved and granted to the Declarent to vote in favor of, make, or consent to a Special Amendment on behalf of each Owner as proxy or attorney-in-fact, as the case may be. Said power shall be irrevocable."

He goes on to say the signing of any deed, mortagage etc. constitutes acceptance of this. Surely this only applies during the Developer run phase. Incidently, he built his own house in the development so he will always own a lot.

Can this even be legal?

gary
Proxies cannot be permanent, i believe almost all states have laws banning that.

Secondly, there is also the exact definitions of "developer" and "owner". I bet the developer of the property was a company, not a person. For instance, "Kingslot homes" is the actual company that does business as a developer. Kingslot homes may be owned by Terri Michaels, but Terri Micheals is a person, not a company.

So, when Kingslot homes sells a lot to Terri Michaels, then the developer is no longer an owner. Terri Michaels is. And Terri Micheals is a person, not a company, and thus, has no more votes than anyone else.

If this person tries to pull a rabbit, and claim that Kingslot Homes actually bought the home, check the title, and be ready to inform the IRS.. they will be very interested in what other tricks Kingslot and Michaels play with their company.