Deed covenant preserves single-family home

The Near South Neighborhood has an exceedingly high rate of rental properties and apartments. In 2023, the NSNA board of directors developed a tool to help homeowners keep their property as a single-family residence, even after it is sold. 

Michael and Nicole Renaud share their story: 

In 2013 we bought a house on B Street, with a goal to completely restore and bring it back to life. The home had previously been neglected and used as a rental. Over the course of 11 years, we touched every square inch of the home’s interior and exterior spaces, keeping the historical integrity of the property. We added more finished space inside and out.

We won a NSNA award for best maintained property in 2018. The neighborhood really noticed and appreciated all the changes and improvements we were making. We also knew this house would not be our forever home.  We wanted to restore one more historical home in our lifetime as well as have a much larger yard for our dogs. With that in mind we really wanted to be able to make sure the home’s historical quality, and the work we did, would stay preserved when it was time to sell. The board had discussed doing the deed covenants, but it was not made a priority until 2023.

The main purpose of a deed covenant is to protect and preserve a single-family home. There are different options a homeowner can specify in the covenant document. The most common is to ensure it stays a single-family home, and to keep it owner-occupied. This prohibits it from becoming a short or long-term rental property, such as an Airbnb or VRBO.

 Another common reason to get a deed put in place is the Near South neighborhood is population dense and has many absentee landlords and rental units. The infrastructure cannot keep up with more single-family homes being divided into rental units or potentially bulldozed and turned into more apartment complexes. 

 If you are interested in getting a deed put on your home, the process is quite simple. You can reach out to anyone on the NSNA board to get started. If you have specific questions, you can email tpeterson@knudsenlaw.com and he can get you the documents you need to take care of the legal aspects. If you sell your home, the deed covenant stays with the property. You get homeowner copies, and it is with all the legal paperwork when the transfer of ownership happens at closing. The deed lasts one hundred years. If someone wants to remove it from the property, it goes through the NSNA board first. We sold our home earlier this year and the deed did not cause any problems with us or the buyers. Our realtor mentioned it to everyone walking through the open house and it was disclosed on the listing. Additionally, the NSNA board of directors has generously set aside funds to help Near South homeowners with legal fees.