The Vermont Statutes Online

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

Article 004 : Protection of Purchasers

• § 4-116. Statute of limitations for warranties

  (a) Unless a period of limitation is tolled under section 3-111 of this title or affected by subsection (d) of this section, a judicial proceeding for breach of any obligation arising under section 4-113 or 4-114 of this title shall be commenced within six years after the cause of action accrues, but the parties may agree to reduce the period of limitation to not less than two years. An agreement to reduce the six-year period shall be evidenced by a separate instrument executed by the purchaser.

  (b) Subject to subsection (c) of this section, a cause of action for breach of warranty of quality, regardless of the purchaser’s lack of knowledge of the breach, accrues:

  (1) as to a unit, at the time the purchaser to whom the warranty is first made enters into possession if a possessory interest was conveyed or at the time of acceptance of the instrument of conveyance if a nonpossessory interest was conveyed; and

  (2) as to each common element, at the time the common element is completed or, if later, as to:

  (A) a common element that may be added to the common interest community or portion of it, at the time the first unit is conveyed to a bona fide purchaser; or

  (B) a common element within any other portion of the common interest community, at the time the first unit is conveyed to a bona fide purchaser.

  (c) If a warranty of quality explicitly extends to future performance or duration of any improvement or component of the common interest community, the cause of action accrues at the time the breach is discovered or at the end of the period for which the warranty explicitly extends, whichever is earlier.

  (d) During the period of declarant control, the association may authorize an independent committee of the executive board to evaluate and enforce by any lawful means warranty claims involving the common elements, and to compromise those claims. Only members of the executive board elected by unit owners other than the declarant and other persons appointed by those independent members may serve on the committee, and the committee’s decision must be free of any control by the declarant or any member of the executive board or officer appointed by the declarant. All costs reasonably incurred by the committee, including attorney’s fees, are common expenses, and must be added to the budget annually adopted by the association under section 3-115 of this title. If the committee is so created, the period of limitation for a warranty claim considered by the committee begins to run from the date of the first meeting of the committee. (Added 1997, No. 104 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Jan. 1, 1999; amended 2009, No. 155 (Adj. Sess.), § 46, eff. Jan. 1, 2012.)