We looked at four houses yesterday and one we liked is on 2 acres of land in Auburn.

There is also a 20 acre “common area” of land that connects directly behind the 2 acres. The land is owned by the development (all houses pay taxes on it) and prevents any other houses from being build around it to keep things more private.

The land can be used for basic things like walking the dogs, snowshoeing and stuff like that.

We’re being told that there are covenants and restriction put in place in order for the developer to build but then they expire after 10 years.

This one is supposedly expired and there are no requirements to follow but we can’t seem to find anything to back that up yet.

Is anyone familiar with them and how they work?
How can I find out more details of it? Would town hall have anything on the neighborhood or is it something that is strictly controlled by the neighbors?
Our agent is looking into it but hasn’t found anything yet and is basing the fact that it’s expired by word of mouth by the seller.

Relatively new to NH here too.

Go to https://www.nhdeeds.org/ and click on the county, look up the deed for that house/property and read the covenants yourself. What I found when I did that for properties we were interested in, was that the covenant "expires" at x years BUT self-renews unless a majority petitions to kill the covenants. I never saw one case where this happened, so that all of them self-renewed every x years.

That’s what I’m seeing. It self renews for a 10 year period in the original form however we can not find any updates past the original in 1997.

As an update we actually contacted some neighbors and asked about it all. Apparently it never took full affect because the developer went bankrupt part way through. Nothing is enforced and several people have had trailers, chicken coops, fences, atv’s and whatever else and have never been an issue.
Still not black and white lettering but it’s a small bit of piece of mind.

My neighborhood has two parcels of common land. Same idea, but unfortunately for me it explicitly prohibits hunting and target shooting. The bigger one is all swamp and flood plain so there's no concern of it ever being built on. I think my dog and I are the only ones that ever go back there.

The other parcel is in the center of the loop, and encompasses a buffer zone for the wells operated by Pennichuck that supply the neighborhood.

I'm the only HOA board member, and any change to rules requires a majority, and any change in disposition of land (selling, etc) requires unanimous agreement by all members. We've never had more than 3 people show up to a meeting lol so nothing ever changes.

The one I’m looking at has similar rules but so far it seems nothing every took effect. Spoke with one neighbor yesterday who shoots air rifle with his kids in the yard, then walks out into the woods to shoot handguns.

After more research this property has the 20 acres of “common land” and also abuts 25 acres of conservation land.

There is a lot of land around in all directions so now I’m working on finding out the details of what kind of land, who owns it and what kind of laws/rules are in place.

Odds are in Auburn, no one gives a shit about shooting, haha

Based on what I've seen walking around my new neighborhood last Fall, most of the covenants are ignored and people have a live and let live attitude. However, it takes just one Karen to screw it up. All those covenants are registered in the County Deeds office and are legally enforceable if someone decides to cause trouble for a neighbor.

@LenS

This is the same situation. Unfortunately we’re getting nowhere trying to research this but it does seem that this is also registered (maybe) but after a few other calls with people it really seems that people don’t give a crap about the covenants and have zero interest in messing with the lives of others.

Unfortunately it’s seems to be a gamble at this point but with what we’re looking at I think we’re about to put in an offer and hope.

Obviously if you buy the property, immediately get on the HOA board. Best defense is a good offense haha.

Maybe I have an odd situation. We have covenants written by the builder 40+ yrs ago. We have no HOA (I would never buy a property in an HOA), no dues, no maintenance fees, beach rights but we don't own it or pay for it, etc.

Interesting. Who pays the taxes?

This seems to be the way the one we’re looking at is.
There is no HOA, no dues, no board of directors.

To answer @thormx538 question, the taxes for the common land is paid through the town from what I understand direct from each home owner.

Reading the info it seems to read as “if there is no board of directors after x years the town can essentially assign people to do the job or we can get together and disolve the terms”
This is only IF there is some kind of issue and someone complains but there is no BOD to complain to.

I have no idea. Perhaps it was left as conservation land? There seems to be 2 private beaches on the pond. I'm guessing that part of the area has legal access to one of them and the rest of the houses have access to the other one. Having walked down one of the paths, it looks suitable only for launching small boats (no car access), not for swimming. We haven't yet tried to get a better definition, but whenever COVID is over with, we will do so.

Update:

We got the house, offer was accepted and already had the home inspection. Things are going smooth with no major issues anywhere.

We will close on the house March 30th.

Two more conservative votes coming in.

Congrats! And welcome to NH! We need all the conservatives we can muster...
Some great motorcycle roads in and around Auburn and if you have a pooch there’s a great vet (Tower Hill)

Thank you @Hillcountry

Tower Hill vet is a few minutes up the street. With our two dogs I’m sure we’ll be visiting them.