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There is a parcel of land I am interested in buying in Florida to put a home on. A title search on the land shows that there is a Declaration of Restrictions.
The declaration is fairly simple, just 3 pages. But there is one item on it that worries me a little bit. It says "No buildings shall be moved onto any parcel of land in the area covered by these restrictions unless approved in writing by the subdividers."
The "subdividers", a Corporation which created these declarations are in an Inactive state for the last several years according to the Secretary of State's corporation records. The registered agent cannot be found.
No known HOA was ever formed according to the owner of the parcel next door.
Are you going to build a new home on it or move a mobile home onto the property? If there's no active HOA or developer, then no one is enforcing the restrictions. Another neighborhood property owner could possibly bring a suit if they thought you were breaking some of the "rules" but most likely not. You should probably talk with the neighbors to find out their understanding of the community. Also check with the city/county building department to see about whether whatever you intend to build there would be allowed.
You can pay an attorney but they don't have any magic powers -- if the Sec of State already said the subdivider has been "inactive" for several years and there is no longer any valid info for the registered agent you've done 96% of what is possible to track down any one. Private investigators can use more labor intensive and costly things like tracking down any people with similar names to see if there is still some one capable of objecting, and it would be smart to talk to anyone else that owns any of the subdivided parcels to fill in the details of who was the original developer and what their intent was with the subdivision BUT that could be money that really does not get any more complete an answer than you already have. Worse, I seen situations where investigators sort of "stir up a hornets nest" and some ancient feud is revived. You might end up stumbling across some disinherited crank that NOW decides they want their own lawyer to investigate any claim to the property ...
I would put more faith in doing things without drawing attention to yourself -- that includes taking NORMAL precautions like paying for title insurance and verifying standard compliance, but don't go overboard trying to determine if anyone could "come out of nowhere" to complicate things!
The declaration is fairly simple, just 3 pages. But there is one item on it that worries me a little bit. It says "No buildings shall be moved onto any parcel of land in the area covered by these restrictions unless approved in writing by the subdividers."
IANAL, but it sounds like a restriction against mobile homes and prefabbed sheds like you see at Lowes.
Probably nothing to worry about. But, if I was going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new home. I would definitely invest a few hundred talking to an attorney. You may be able to do something as simple as sending a registered letter to the defunct corp. or putting an ad in a local paper that may bar action in the future? A consultation now could save a whole lot of time, money and stress in the future.
Probably nothing to worry about. But, if I was going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new home. I would definitely invest a few hundred talking to an attorney. You may be able to do something as simple as sending a registered letter to the defunct corp. or putting an ad in a local paper that may bar action in the future? A consultation now could save a whole lot of time, money and stress in the future.
Here's the thing -- if the OP has a relationship with an honest attorney odds are that attorney would say something along the lines of "this is likely not something that there is anyone out there to enforce. I can't undo these restrictive covenants without quite a bit of slow and costly court filings, and there is a chance that attempting to get them removed will stir up some kook that will make this even slower, more costly and potentially a deal breaker. If this was something that really bugged me I'd look for another piece of vacant land. Odds are it will never come to anything, but you've been a client before and I don't want to take your money if there is a simpler way to look at this...".
Of course if the OP knew that kind of attorney odds are this thread would not exist.
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