anybody have this in their Declaration??

"If any provision of this Declaration would be unlawful, void, or voidable by reason of applicability of the rule against perpetuities, such provision shall expire twenty-one (21) years after the death of the last survivor of the now living descendants of the youngest living President of the United States having a descendant. Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit termination of any easement, covenant, restriction, or obligation created in this Declaration without the consent of the holder of such easement."

Steven,

It's called the "rule of perpetuity" and is probably in the majority of HOA CCRs. Mine says essentially the same thing except that "the Pres of the U.S." is replaced by "Ronald Reagan". In the CCRs of my former assn it was "the issue of the board who are living at the time".

Here's a definition: "Rule that no contingent interest is good unless it vests not later than 21 years after the death of a person living at the time the interest is created. It prevents a person from keeping property in his family for multiple generations. Under the rule, a future interest must vest within a certain period of time. This period is limited to the duration of a life or lives in being (the "measuring lives") at the time the interest in the property is transferred, plus twenty-one years. Under the common-law rule, if there is a possibility that the future interest will not vest until after the expiration of the life or lives in being, plus twenty-one years, the interest is void. The determination is made at the time the future interest is created. In order to avoid the harshness of this rule, some states have enacted statutes providing that the validity of the interest is to be decided at the time the interest actually does vest, rather than at the time it is created. Under these statutes the courts "wait and see" if the interest does in fact vest within the period of the rule. If it does vest within the period of the life or lives in being plus twenty-one years, then the interest is valid. Under other more limited "wait and see" statutes, a decision is made at the time of the death of the life tenant or tenants. These statutes are also called second look statutes."

John,

So why, do you think, this is put into CCRs. CCRs (restrictive covenants) run with the land and are automatically passed on to the successor owners of the property.

Thx, John. There are a lot of legal concepts that I find hard to understand and this one is certainly on the list. Especially when I got to the "wait & see statutes", the "second look doctrine" and let's not forget the "fertile octogenarian", the "unborn widow" and a number of other concepts that Wikipedia described as "creations that live only in the minds of the lawyers." I've heard it said that engineers are a "different breed" but I think that also applies to lawyers.

Ours are a little different, ours run for a period of 35 years, then are extended for 10 year periods after that unless 75% of the lots sign a document abolishing the HOA.