Private Ordering, Social Cohesion and Value: Residential Community Association Covenant Enforcement

Abstract

Residential community associations (common interest communities such as condominiums, cooperatives and planned unit developments, as well as properties subject to homeowners associations and architectural review boards) have become the dominant form of ownership for new United States single-family residential units. Community associations typically use covenants, conditions and restrictions (also known as CCRs, C&Rs, deed restrictions or covenants) to impose extensive private-ordered controls over unit owners. This empirical study uses regression analysis of a Web-based community association enforcement practices survey, concluding that more intense private-ordered enforcement is associated with increased unit value and decreased covenant violation levels. It also finds that judicial deference to private-ordered community association enforcement decisions is associated with higher value, and that some measures of social cohesion are associated with decreased covenant violation levels.
 

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Keywords

Homeowners Association, Condominium, Covenant, Private Ordering, Enforcement, Social Cohesion

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