(Woodland, CA) – (August 25, 2020) – Yolo County Assessor, Clerk-Recorder, and Registrar of Voters Jesse Salinas, along with Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, announced that fees related to the recording of Restrictive Covenant (CC&Rs) Modifications will be waived in the future.
State law authorizes a person who holds an ownership interest of record in property that is the subject of a racially or otherwise unlawfully restrictive covenant to record a Restrictive Covenant Modification document to have the illegal language stricken (Government Code §12956.2). This law exists because before it became illegal to do so, many CC&Rs were recorded with language that today is outdated and inappropriate.
Prior to 2005 homeowners who found restrictive covenants on their property based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, familial status, marital status, disability, national origin, source of income, or ancestry had to apply to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to have the language voided. In 2005, Assembly Bill 394 changed the process allowing homeowners to record a Restrictive Covenant Modification with the County Recorder, upon verification by County Counsel that the language in the covenants violated state and federal fair housing laws. Assembly Bill 394 also stated that the County Recorder “may choose to waive the fee prescribed for recording.”
The Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters along with the District Attorney are informing the public of their intent to officially waive the County’s Recording Fee and the District Attorney Fraud Prevention Fee which are normally charged to the Restrictive Covenant Modification. At the Yolo County Board of Supervisors meeting on August 4, 2020, the Board of Supervisors thanked Salinas and Reisig for their proactive efforts and unanimously motioned in favor of permanently waiving the county imposed fees.
Jesse Salinas stated, “It is alarming that in 2020 we still have language in covenants that is discriminatory in nature. Our office researched what we could do and how we could remove the language from these covenants and shared it with Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig. He was completely on board and wanted to work as quickly as possible to waive these locally generated fees. Unfortunately, Yolo County cannot waive any State related fees to these documents, but we will be working actively with our legislative partners to address this issue in the future.” Jeff Reisig echoed Salinas’ statement and added, “We have a moral obligation to do what we can to remove the remnants of hate, discrimination and intolerance from these official recorded documents. Thank you to Jesse Salinas for his leadership on this important issue.”
If your CC&Rs contain racially or otherwise unlawfully restrictive covenants, the Yolo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office will work with you to prepare and record a Restrictive Covenant Modification as well as waive the standard fees associated with recording this document. For more information or to contact the Yolo County Recorder’s Office you may call: (530) 666-8135, or email: clerk-recorder@yolocounty.org. The physical office is located at 625 Court Street, Room 104, Woodland, CA. Their hours of operation are Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
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