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GUEST COMMENTARY

Are you confused about Sun City West CC&Rs?

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In a Governing Board training session this week, the board discussed covenants, conditions and restrictions, and the discussion cleared up some misunderstandings about CC&Rs.

As Del Webb built out Sun City West, the lots in each neighborhood had deed restrictions called CC&Rs. Every lot in our community has a set of CC&Rs that are lot specific and run with the land.

As one neighborhood was completed, and the builders moved on to another neighborhood (or unit), a new set of CC&Rs were crafted for the new neighborhood. This process was repeated until all the neighborhoods were built. The result is many variations of the CC&Rs throughout the community.  A common misconception is that there is a master set off CC&Rs that covers every house in Sun City West. There is not one set of CC&Rs that everyone must abide by.

You received your property’s CC&Rs with your settlement papers when you bought your house. CC&Rs basically tell you what you can and can’t do with your property. Common restrictions include parking RVs, trailers or boats at your property for a length of time, having backyard standalone sheds is another common restriction, as is the use of chain link fencing. 

Your property’s CC&Rs also make membership in the Recreation Centers of Sun City West, and its associated dues, mandatory. The CC&Rs also give RCSCW officials the authority to enforce compliance with your CC&Rs.

There are many different types of neighborhoods in Sun City West — single-family homes, duplexes and attached homes. It gets more complicated than that, as about 40 percent of neighborhoods have an additional homeowners association that takes care of outside landscaping, roofs, utilities or any number of common area aspects. These homes have CC&Rs that are lot specific, and many have HOA rules that have further restrictions on the properties in that HOA. 

HOAs can have more restricted rules than the lot CC&Rs, but the HOA can not loosen lot CC&Rs. Violations of HOA rules and CC&Rs are handled by the specific HOA’s management. There are more than 100 separate HOAs in Sun City West, from a few houses to 180 units.

Things get even more confusing in the northern annexed expansion area. Besides the lot specific CC&Rs, there is a blanket set of CC&Rs that covers all the homes in the expansion area. If there are any neighborhood HOAs in that area, there could even be a third set of restrictions on those properties.

So, what does the RCSCW CC&R department do? It is tasked with ensuring compliance with the CC&Rs on the roughly 60 percent of the properties not covered by a separate HOA. The process starts when a resident submits a written complaint of a potential CC&R violation to the CC&R department. A representative from that department will visit the property named in the complaint and make a documented assessment of the violation. Department officials then contact the owners of that property and tries to resolve the violation. If a resolution cannot be reached, department officials rely on Policy L-08, which covers timelines for compliance and possible fines for noncompliance.

Compliance with CC&Rs protect the character of Sun City West and the well-being of our neighborhoods.

The CC&R Department is in the upper R.H. Johnson Recreation Center, 19803 R.H. Johnson Blvd., and can be reached at 623-544-6661.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.