Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Home owners association

Our developer completed and sold 14 homes and little free common space. Covenents were included. We cannot get him to sign over the lease to homeowners. We formed an informal association and voted not to have comenents. However some homeowners want covenents so we might have to accept the developers covenents.

My question is...

1. Can we remain informal and accept or reject covenents as we wish?

2. Will we need to form a corporation in order to have covenents?

If your answer is we must have covenents regardless of weather we are informal or a corporation, then can we modify the covenents?

Thank you for your answers and time.


Asked on 11/04/00, 9:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stuart Williams

Re: Home owners association

What lease can you not get him to sign over?

I don't understand. Please explain. You may e-mail me

directly at [email protected] to reply.

If homes have already been sold, they were probably sold with "covenants"

that "run with the land", that is, that are already built in for those

properties sold.

The question should probably, in my guess, not be whether or not to

have covenants but which of the proposed covenants you and the

other affected property owners would like to have and can agree upon.

But, again, I don't fully understand.

What about the covenants do you not like?

I'd like to hear some examples of the ones you find

offensive to you. Is it the number of them that bothers

you, or the tone of the list? It's probably not too

late to get agreement to modify the list of them. You

could also agree to not have any, but there are definite downsides

to doing that.

Read more
Answered on 11/17/00, 10:19 pm


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