The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 27A : Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (1994)

Article 002 : Creation, Alteration, and Termination of Common Interest Communities

• § 2-117. Amendment of declaration

  (a) Except in cases of amendments that may be executed by a declarant under subsection 2-109(f) or section 2-110 of this title, or the association under subsections 2-106(d), 2-108(c), and 2-112(a) or section 2-113 of this title, or by certain unit owners under subsection 2-108(b), 2-112(a), 2-113(b), or 2-118(b) of this title, and except as limited by other subsections of this section, the declaration, including any plats and plans, may be amended only by vote or agreement of unit owners of units to which at least 67 percent of the votes in the association is allocated unless the declaration specifies a different percentage for all amendments or for specific subjects of amendment. If the declaration requires the approval of another person as a condition of its effectiveness, the amendment is not valid without that approval.

  (b) No action to challenge the validity of an amendment adopted by the association pursuant to this section may be brought more than one year after the amendment is recorded.

  (c) Every amendment to the declaration shall be recorded in every town in which any portion of the common interest community is located, and is effective only upon recordation. An amendment, except an amendment pursuant to subsection 2-112(a) of this title, shall be indexed in the grantee’s index in the name of the common interest community and the association, and in the grantor’s index in the name of the parties executing the amendment.

  (d) Except to the extent expressly permitted or required by other provisions of this title, no amendment may create or increase special declarant rights, increase the number of units, change the boundaries of any unit, or change the allocated interests of a unit, or the uses to which any unit is restricted, in the absence of unanimous consent of the unit owners.

  (e) Amendments to the declaration required by this title to be recorded by the association shall be prepared, executed, recorded, and certified on behalf of the association by any officer of the association designated for that purpose or, in the absence of designation, by the president of the association.

  (f) Provisions in the declaration creating special declarant rights that have not expired may not be amended without the consent of the declarant.

  (g) The time limits specified in the declaration pursuant to subdivision 2-105(a)(8) of this title within which reserved development rights must be exercised may be extended, and additional development rights may be created, if persons entitled to cast at least 80 percent of the votes in the association, including 80 percent of the votes allocated to units not owned by the declarant, agree to that action. The agreement is effective 30 days after an amendment to the declaration reflecting the terms of the agreement is recorded unless all the persons holding the affected special declarant rights, or security interests in those rights, record a written objection within the 30-day period, in which case the amendment is void, or consent in writing at the time the amendment is recorded, in which case the amendment is effective when recorded.

  (h) If any provision of this title or of the declaration requires the consent of a holder of a security interest in a unit as a condition to the effectiveness of an amendment to the declaration, that consent is deemed granted if a refusal to consent in a record is not received by the association within 60 days after the association delivers notice of the proposed amendment to the holder at an address for notice provided by the holder or mails the notice to the holder by certified mail, return receipt requested, at that address. If the holder has not provided to the association an address for notice, the association shall provide notice to the address in the security interest of record. Notwithstanding this section, an amendment to the declaration that affects the priority of a holder’s security interest or the ability of that holder to foreclose its security interest may not be adopted without that holder’s consent in a record if the declaration requires that consent as a condition to the effectiveness of the amendment.

  (i) If the declaration contains a provision requiring that amendments to the declaration may be adopted only by the vote or agreement of unit owners of units to which more than 80 percent of the votes in the association are allocated, the amendment is approved:

  (1) if:

  (A) unit owners of units to which at least 80 percent of the votes in the association are allocated vote for or agree to the proposed amendment;

  (B) no unit owner votes against the proposed amendment; and

  (C) notice of the proposed amendment is delivered to the unit owners holding the votes in the association that have not voted or agreed to the proposed amendment and no written objection to the proposed amendment is received by the association within 60 days after the association delivers notice; or

  (2) unit owners of units to which at least 80 percent of the votes in the association are allocated vote for or agree to the proposed amendment but at least one unit owner objects to the proposed amendment and, pursuant to an action brought by the association in the Superior Court for the county in which the common interest community is located against all objecting unit owners, the court finds that the objecting unit owners do not have an interest, different in kind from the interests of the other unit owners, that the voting requirement of the declaration was intended to protect.

  (j) An amendment to the declaration may prohibit or materially restrict the permitted uses of or behavior in a unit or the number or other qualifications of persons who may occupy units only by vote or agreement of unit owners of units to which at least 80 percent of the votes in the association are allocated, unless the declaration specifies that a larger percentage of unit owners must vote or agree to that amendment or that such an amendment may be approved by unit owners of units having at least 80 percent of the votes of a specified group of units that would be affected by the amendment. An amendment approved under this subsection must provide reasonable protection for a use or occupancy permitted at the time the amendment was adopted. (Added 1997, No. 104 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Jan. 1, 1999; amended 2009, No. 155 (Adj. Sess.), § 20, eff. Jan. 1, 2012.)