Anybody have any thoughts?

If you are the first house in a development with deed restrictions, can subsequent homeowners be forced to abide by revised deed restrictions?

In other words, can the deed restrictions be made even more stringent? For example, if the first homeowner's deed restrictions say "exterior holiday decorations must be removed within two weeks of the holiday" can the owner change them to read "exterior and interior holiday decorations must be removed within two weeks of the holiday"?

The owner of the devepment (not a HOA or committee) has full control of the deed restrictions.

I would think that it would go by when you initially signed the original contract. How could they go back and change the rules after you signed the contract, purchased and moved in? Why would anyone purchase a house with deed restrictions? We had an aquaintance that did this and one of the deed restrictions was that any further building on the property had to be done by the original builder, so when they decided they wanted to put up a shed to put their garden tools/lawn mower/etc. in, they weren't allowed, they had to hire him to build them a shed (at quite an expensive price).

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Yes, they can change deed restrictions after you move in (at least here in Texas). There is probably some statement to this fact in your covenants. They can add and make changes as it becomes necessary. If you don't have an HOA or a board I'm not sure how they decide on the changes (that should also be covered in your covenants), but we have to have a majority vote by the homeowners even though our restrictions are handled by a management company and not a HOA board of homeowners. When they make changes they have to send you notification of the changes and give you a set time to be in compliance.

I can't imagine how they can police decorations INSIDE a home, though. Or was that just as an example?

Good luck,
Renee

Maybe you should move?

Our last home was in a deed restricted area (although it was light restrictions).....we found out ours was the 1st home there, model home and thus somehow wasn't subject to the restrictions. The HOA president at the time was really irked about it and was rude to us frequently. We had no idea until some neighbors enlightened us.

dl

Are deed restrictions the same as CC&R's? I'm not familiar with that particular term. I work for the HOA for my neighborhood enforcing CC&R's, so I am familiar with those. Our board is still the developer and they have made some changes to the CC&R's while I've been in. The developer can do it since they have overriding voting power. Generally they will not do it to be more strict on issues though, they will do it to be more lienent(sp?). I hope this helps.