Page 4 - Allisons Newsletter, Lakewood Edge - Dec 2018 Issue

Q & A with the real estate expert
ASK ALLISON VAN WIG

DEED RESTRICTIONS – ARE THEY LEGALLY

(OR CONSTITUTIONALLY) BINDING?

Q Dear Allison, In potential buyers? Can we have discrimination based on race, more likely to run into houses or don’t like what they see in the

color, religion, sex, disabilities, condos on which the builders, contract, they don’t have to buy
the mid-1950s, my them removed?
parents bought a - Sydney
house where they national origin or familial developers or neighborhood the house. When the housing
status; or the Americans with or homeowners associations market is robust, you will likely
lived until they moved into Dear Sydney, Race- Disabilities Act (1990), which impose covenants, conditions get multiple offers. Unless your
a retirement community in A based restrictions ensures the right to install vital and restrictions (CC&Rs). place is haunted, you’re sure to
1998. My husband and I took have been illegal amenities, such as a wheelchair These can set limits ranging find someone agreeable to your
over the property and raised our since 1948, although since ramp. from acceptable exterior paint terms. n
children here; now that they’re then, property owners whose Your state may place a colors and types of shrubbery to
grown and gone, we decided neighbors shared their limit on the life of a covenant, forbidding the use of chain-link
to downsize. The house and sentiments have gotten away although some jurisdictions fences and clotheslines.
neighborhood are well kept, so with inserting them into their will allow it to “run with the Removing a deed restriction
we don’t expect a difficult sale. deeds. While it may seem odd, land,” i.e., remain effective in can get complicated. If the
While idly flipping through it’s legal to write these rules perpetuity, binding all future original owner of your house
the old paperwork, however, into the document but illegal owners. is long deceased, you may have
we discovered deed restrictions to enforce them. Although you are required to find the heirs (of which there
of which we never were aware. Some stipulations seem to inform the buyer of any may be one or a dozen). If you
Most of them seemed reasonable innocuous; others might conditions attached to the sale own a condo or a house in a
enough, primarily centered feel intrusive or even be of the property, you don’t newish development, you need
on preserving the mature trees unconstitutional. There are necessarily have to tell them to get in touch with the HoA
and not trying to rezone the regulations specific to this verbally. Usually, providing and then get the OK from every
property for industrial use. issue. A property owner may that information within the real homeowner in the association.
But then we were horrified to not place restrictions that could estate documents is sufficient. In any case, you would be well Allison Van Wig
find a clause forbidding sale to threaten public health or violate However, the disclosure served by hiring a real estate (CA DRE #00985700) is the
minorities and certain religions. local community or zoning must be unambiguous, with attorney who can make sure Owner of Van Wig & Associates
Is that binding, or even legal? laws. They also may not violate no deliberate attempt at you do it right, get it in writing you can call or email her at:
What about other restrictions? the Fair Housing Act (1968), obfuscation. and make it stick. 562-882-1581 or
Do we have to mention them to which protects people from Today’s homebuyers are Of course, if the prospects Allison@superbroker.com

Go to: www.LakewoodPrices.com

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