Tessera Declarant

An association's “Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions” (“declaration” or “CC&Rs”) is a recorded document (or instrument) setting forth the majority of the powers, rights and responsibilities of the association and its members.

Said Declaration is declared by the Declarant. There would be no CC&Rs if they had not been declared...

For the TOA:
- Michael Hurlocker was the original declarant in 2007 (see attached);
- Hurlocker deeded his rights over to LANB when LANB took the property;
- Homewise became the successor declarant in 2012 (see attached).

Each of these actions happens via a recorded instrument, recorded at the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office.

March 6, 2021: 75% of the homes became owner owned => that's when the TOA became board-owner run, while it was run before by a Homewise Board.

April 10, 2023: Homewise sold its last home.

Since the declarant nolonger owned propoert, the declarant relinquished all control of the DGs and DCs.

However, there is confusion between Declarant Control and (Reserved) Declarant's Rights.

We are being told, since April 12, 2023, that "Homewise, Inc. is no longer the Declarant. This means that they relinquished all decision-making and the ability to overrule any actions."

Usually, after the build-out phase, the Declarant moves on, but does not (necessarily) relinquish their rights. That would have to be done officially via a recorded instrument at the Santa Fe County Clerk's office. If such a document does not exist, Homewise remains the declarant of our CC&Rs, and retains certain rights over our CC&Rs (as much as we could think they left) namely the rights given to them in 18.3(b) of the CC&Rs...

https://www.wardandsmith.com/articles/declarant-in-planned-community
The Termination of Declarant Rights: A Declarant's authority ends when all of the declarant rights for that particular Declarant expire or terminate. {....} Although a Declaration may provide that some or all of the declarant rights expire upon the Declarant's sale of the last lot, they often do not. {....}

NB: Saying Homewise is no longer the Declarant is like saying Homewise is no longer the builder who built most of Tessera's homes.

And that's very clear in CC&R'S Section 18 - Amendment #4 (green below) - Subsection 18.3.(b) {recorded instrument 1951538}:

In the CC&Rs, the word Declarant is mentioned 196 times, and most of the time with it, the mention of the Declarant's provisions follow.

I'm going to quote a few:
- sometimes they say "(...so long as Declarant or any Related Entity Owner owns any property subject to the Declaration)" as in 1.12 and 7.5;

- but in 18.3.b: "The following provisions of the Declaration may not be amended at any time (including after the Transition Date) without the written consent of Declarant"
- and in 15: EXEMPTION OF DECLARANT FROM RESTRICTIONS: there is no time cap, it does not say "For so long as the Declarant owns property subject to the Declaration", which means that Declarant has rights even in the future and forever.

This is not a legal opinion, but from all that I have read, the Declarant retains certain rights even after the transition date and beyond... The Declarant gets to choose those throughout the CC&Rs as it declares them.