What are CC&Rs in real estate? The recorded declaration that creates a homeowners association and binds every lot in it: what owners may build, what they may not do, and what they owe.
CC&Rs are the covenants, conditions and restrictions in a community's recorded declaration. The declaration is the document that creates the association, defines the common areas, and attaches to every lot inside the boundary it describes. It is recorded with the county, which is what makes it run with the land: a buyer takes title subject to it whether or not they ever opened it, and it survives every sale until it is amended or expires on its own terms.
Four things are usually inside. Use restrictions say what a lot may be used for and more often what it may not: no short-term rentals, no commercial use, limits on vehicles and pets, how long a trash can may sit at the curb. Architectural control requires the board's approval before an exterior change, from paint color to a patio cover. The assessment article obligates every owner to pay dues and gives the association a lien on the lot when they do not. And the amendment article states the share of owners, often 67 or 75 percent, needed to change any of it.
Here Nevada makes them easy to read before committing. Under NRS 116.4109 the seller delivers the association's resale package before closing and the declaration is in it, and the buyer may cancel without penalty until midnight of the fifth calendar day after receiving it. The declaration is also on file with the Clark County Recorder against the parcel, so it can be pulled at the offer stage rather than after acceptance.
A worked example
An owner in a valley association wants to replace a gravel yard with artificial turf. The declaration requires written architectural approval before any exterior change, the committee meets monthly, and the approved product list excludes the brand quoted at $4,200. Doing the work first risks a fine under NRS 116.31031 and an order to remove it. Applied for in advance, the approval costs a month and nothing else.
Questions people ask
Can you get out of CC&Rs?
Not as an individual owner. The declaration binds the lot rather than the person, so the exits are an amendment passed by the share of owners the declaration names, a court holding a provision unenforceable, or selling. Buying outside an association is the reliable way to avoid them.
Where do you find the CC&Rs for a property?
In the resale package the seller delivers before closing, from the association or its manager directly, or from the county recorder's index against the parcel, where the declaration was recorded when the community was built.