Developer rights

What's in the bundle

During the control period, the stretch of time when the developer still runs the board, state law gives the developer a specific bundle of privileges called special declarant rights. Under the model act most states build their laws on, that bundle typically includes: finishing the improvements shown on the filed plans, keeping a sales office and model units on site, using easements through the common areas to keep building, adding more property into the community, and appointing or removing board members and officers.

The exact list, and the statute section it lives in, differs by state, so check your own state's condominium or common interest community act and your declaration's development rights section. These are legal privileges, not just informal influence: a developer doing something on this list is generally acting within its rights, not overstepping them.

Where these rights come from

Two documents control what a developer can actually do: the state statute, and the declaration the declarant recorded before selling any units. The statute sets a floor, and the declaration can grant the declarant rights beyond that floor, or commit it to more than the statute requires, particularly around adding future phases to the community.

Before assuming a developer has overstepped, pull both documents: the state statute section on special declarant rights, and the declaration's own development rights article. That comparison is the first step, not a replacement for a transition attorney's read.

Rights can end early, and past problems don't disappear

A developer's rights do not vanish the moment it stops paying attention, and they do not automatically follow the property if it changes hands. Selling the remaining lots to a new investor does not, by itself, hand that investor the special declarant rights that came with them.

"An instrument evidencing the transfer recorded" in every county where the community sits is required, and the transfer is not effective unless the transferee also signs it.

Source: NRS 116.3104, Transfer of special declarant's right, Nevada Legislature

Until that signed transfer happens, the original developer still holds the rights, and it is not released from obligations or warranties that arose before any transfer. Rights can also end involuntarily: if the developer loses the property to foreclosure, bankruptcy, or a tax sale, its special declarant rights end too, unless the court judgment or sale document specifically hands them to a successor.