Recording amendments

The vote adopts it. Recording binds it.

An amendment to the declaration usually starts with a vote among the owners, at whatever threshold your document or state statute sets. That vote changes what the association intends the declaration to say. It does not, by itself, change what binds a buyer who has never seen the amendment. A declaration only runs with the land because it is recorded in the public land records, and an amendment to it works the same way: it has to be filed, not just approved.

"The persons executing the amendment shall provide a copy thereof to the association, which shall record it. The amendment must be recorded in the names of the parties and the common-interest community."

Source: Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 116, State of Nevada Legislature

Nevada's statute is quoted here only as an illustration of how this kind of requirement is commonly written. Which office records amendments in your state, and exactly what the filing must contain, is set by your own state's statute.

No recording, no bite against a buyer

If an approved amendment never gets filed with the county, it generally has no effect against someone who buys the property afterward and had no way to see it. That's the entire logic of recording: a public record exists so a buyer, a title company, or a lender can find out what actually restricts a property before money changes hands. Fannie Mae requires lenders reviewing a project for financing to pull the recorded declaration and related documents, not whatever paperwork a seller happens to hand over.

Whatever binds the property is whatever is on file at the recorder's office: the original declaration plus every amendment that has actually been recorded, read together, not the packet a homeowner was handed at closing years ago and never checked since.

Recording protects the county copy. It doesn't tell your members.

Filing with the recorder protects the association against outside parties: future buyers, title companies, lenders. It doesn't automatically mean your own members have seen the change. Some states layer a separate notice duty on top of recording.

"If any change is made to the governing documents of an association, the secretary or other officer specified in the bylaws of the association shall, within 30 days after the change is made, prepare and cause to be delivered a copy of the change that was made."

Source: Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 116, State of Nevada Legislature

Whether your state requires a separate notice to members, and how many days you have to send it, depends on your own state statute and bylaws. Check both before assuming recording alone was enough.