HOA glossaryGoverning documents

What are CC&Rs?

The recorded covenants that run with the land in a community, binding every owner to the same set of use restrictions and obligations.

Also called: Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, Covenants, Deed restrictions

CC&Rs stands for Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. They are recorded against the land at the county, which is what makes them binding on whoever owns a lot next — not just the person who signed at closing. That single fact is why they outrank almost everything else the association produces: a rule the board adopts on Tuesday can be repealed on Wednesday, but a covenant is a property interest.

Practically, the CC&Rs are where you find what an owner may and may not do with their lot, what the association is obliged to maintain, how assessments are levied and what happens if they are not paid, and the enforcement powers the board actually holds. If a power is not granted here or in the bylaws, the board very likely does not have it.

They are amendable, but deliberately hard to amend — usually a supermajority of the membership and sometimes mortgagee consent, with the approved amendment recorded to take effect. Your own document states the threshold; do not assume a neighbouring community's number applies to yours.

Why it matters to a board

Every enforcement action, every assessment, and every architectural decision traces back to a specific sentence in this document. A board that cannot cite the sentence is improvising.

The common mistake

Treating the CC&Rs and the rules and regulations as interchangeable. They are not: one is recorded and hard to change, the other is adopted by the board and cannot contradict it.

HOA laws by state

Related terms

BylawsThe association's internal operating manual — how directors are elected, how meetings are called and run, and what the officers may do.DeclarationThe recorded instrument that creates the community, submits the land to the association's authority, and defines what is common and what is owned.Governing documentsThe full set of instruments that binds an association and its members, read in a fixed order of authority.Rules and regulationsStandards adopted by the board under authority granted in the covenants — enforceable, but subordinate to them.AmendmentA formal change to a governing document, adopted at the threshold that document requires and, for covenants, recorded to take effect.Architectural reviewThe process by which proposed exterior changes to a lot are submitted, measured against published standards, and approved or denied.
General information, not legal advice. This entry explains what the term means, not what your association must do about it. Any notice period, cure window, fine cap, vote threshold or deadline comes from your recorded declaration and your state's act — those differ in all fifty states and are amended every session. Updated August 2026. Confirm the current requirements with an attorney licensed in your state before acting.
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