Keep in mind that there may be a limit to the duration of the extension. However, it also means you will have to secure a majority vote every time your CC&Rs are set to expire. This is a much simpler process because it doesn’t require the board to make an amendment. It’s a good idea to ask a lawyer for help when amending the governing documents.Īlternatively, you can extend the term of the declaration by obtaining a majority vote from the members of your association. During the meeting, the board may need to explain the amendment again and answer any questions that owners may have. As such, it is important to educate all homeowners about the impending change so they can make a decision ahead of time and attend the meeting to vote. To pass an amendment of the CC&Rs, an HOA board will need to obtain the approval of a certain number or percentage of all owners. Associations must provide sufficient notice of the meeting. Amending your CC&Rs also means having to schedule a meeting so that owners can vote to approve to reject the amendment. An amendment will also require the board to go through several steps, including drafting the amendment and proposing it to homeowners. If your association’s CC&Rs don’t contain a provision for automatic renewal, consider making an amendment. Additionally, it covers the HOA should a court rule in the future that CC&Rs must still include termination dates. In doing so, homeowners associations can operate without worrying about their covenants becoming unenforceable. This is also known as extending the term of declaration. Many lawyers nowadays craft CC&Rs to include an automatic renewal that would kick in periodically. Newer associations tend to have built-in renewal clauses or no expiration dates at all. This is why you will normally find expiration clauses in the declarations of older communities. This rule basically required covenants to have an expiration date. In the past, real estate attorneys wrote expiration dates into CC&Rs because of the rule against perpetuities. While it may seem like a small event, the expiration of HOA covenants can have a huge impact on everyone in the community. Residents can then expect curb appeal to drop and property values to plummet soon after. The HOA board’s powers basically become null and void.Īs an added effect, the homeowners association will simply cease to exist. Homeowners don’t need to pay their dues anymore, and the HOA doesn’t need to maintain the community’s common areas. That means homeowners no longer have an obligation to the association and vice versa. First of all, it would render the covenants basically unenforceable. The expiration of an association’s CC&Rs can set off a domino effect. If neither state laws nor the association’s declaration says anything about an expiration, then the covenants will persist until the homeowners choose to terminate them. For example, if your declaration says that covenants have a lifespan of 20 years, then they will no longer be enforceable past that point. If a CC&Rs expiration clause is written within the declaration, then the covenants will expire. The second way CCRs expire is when the association’s governing documents say they expire. For instance, in Florida, covenants that are more than 30 years old expire and essentially become unenforceable. The first is when state law says they expire. In fact, it’s entirely possible for CC&Rs to expire. There are two ways this can happen. It’s also one of the things that grant the association its authority.īut, these covenants don’t always last forever. An HOA’s Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) is what legally binds homeowners to the association. They then have to abide by the association’s rules. When someone buys a property belonging to an HOA, they automatically become a member of that association. Homeowners associations are responsible for the maintenance and management of communities. Worse, there is a possibility that your HOAs CC&Rs expire. However, it could’ve been written so long ago that its content may not be applicable anymore to the current times. Your HOAs CC&Rs is one of the most important documents that govern your association.

Covenants and hoa