The Pleasant Valley West
Your Property Rights

ALERT: PLEASANT VALLEY WEST RULE CHANGE:

               The Board of Pleasant Valley West Club, Inc. recently implemented a new rule that would restrict new property buyers from leasing or renting their homes for less than 30 days. This rule targets all property owners .  Effective August 1, 2023, the board voted to restrict all newly deeded properties from renting their properties for less than 30 days, thereby infringing on the rights of all  current and future owners.

A small group of property owners has retained an experienced attorney to challenge this rule, as it violates the property rights of owners and negatively impacts all current and future property owners.  As more and more owners learn of this regressive rule change, there will surely be more opposition and funding for legal action.

The problems with this rule change are several;

1)     They did this behind closed doors, without the involvement of all property owners.

2)     This rule change violates the property rights of all current property owners.

3)     This rule change negatively impacts the current value of all properties in Pleasant Valley West.

4)     This rule change negatively effects your ability to sell your property in the future, as it significantly shrinks the market of buyers.

After research and evaluation by the retained legal firm, it has been determined that such a regulation not only takes rights away from owners, but it's been determined that many owners are NOT REQUIRED to join an HOA.  This means that this rule, and all HOA rules, would not apply to those property owners, or any future property owner if they rescind their membership.  That's good news.  A deed search will reveal in the chain of title whether or not a property is required to join an HOA.  If not, in most cases, owners will simply need to pay a prorated share of road and recreation area maintenance fees.

Here is a brief history and summary of the legal judgements, which we believe will lead to a declaratory judgement against this rule change when it reaches the court. Since this is the first time many owners are hearing about the rule change and the pending legal challenge to it, specific case law references have been removed for brevity, ease of reading and clarity.  A full summary is available by request.

Pleasant Valley West Club, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation formed on 1/05/1976, which makes the Club subject to the Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1972.   The Club was formed for the development known as Pleasant Valley West, and alternatively as Pocono Pleasant Valley West. A subdivision plan was originally recorded and prepared by Sellamerica on or about January of 1973, prior to the establishment of the Club.

By prior decision and analysis of the Court of Common Pleas of Carbon County, in which the Club is situated, the Club is not part of a planned community under the Uniform Planned Community Act. This means that the Club may not avail itself of the enforcement mechanisms of the Act, including those provisions that permit enforcement of the deed covenants. Per the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas “Neither the protective covenants filed by Sellamerica, nor the restrictive covenants later filed by Pocono Pleasant Valley, refer to or make mention of any existing property owners’ association … or that any membership in any such association would be restricted to property owners who, by virtue of their ownership of lots within the Development, would automatically become members.”

The restrictive deed covenants are provided by the Club at the Club’s website, and a true and correct copy of these covenants was provided to the group and brought to the attention of the Board. Neither set of restrictive deed covenants mandates joining an association and, in fact, the only obligation of future property purchasers appears to be that “The Buyer agrees to pay unto the seller such annual fees as the seller may charge for each lot for the repair, maintenance and snow removal of the streets and roads, and/or control, maintenance, and administration of any beach, lake, trout streams, parks and other recreational facilities until or when dedicated.” Covenant 14, Exhibit 3.  This means, owners are responsible for a representative portion of maintenance fees, but are NOT required to become a member of an HOA and NOT required to pay any portion of fees as membership dues to an HOA.

The bylaws of the Club provide that the Uniform Planned Community Act applies but, in the next sentence, also provide that “In the event of a conflict between the provisions of these Bylaws and the Act, the said acts shall prevail.”  Case law provided by the attorney proves that a declaration amendment would be required, and such amendment would likely require unanimous consent of all property owners because there is no amendment mechanism under the Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1972.

Therefore, we have determined that the Club is, at best, a successor declarant/developer, and NOT a mandatory homeowner’s association.

And since the Club is NOT a mandatory homeowner’s association in many cases, and is merely a voluntary homeowner’s association, the following rules apply:

Under significant case law, which has been outlined in detail by the attorney, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that under the Nonprofit Corporation Law or 1972, “provisions affecting property or contractual rights cannot be repealed or altered without the consent of the parties whose interests are thereby impaired.”

Additional case law has determined that "The right to own property and to use it includes the right to lease it and permit its use; and a leasehold interest is one in land …"

 Under long standing law within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as cited by Huddleson, supra, interests in real property may not be affected without the consent of the property owner. This standard flows from the decision of the Supreme Court, in which interpreted the Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1972 to preclude the ability of associations to impair property interests by amendment of its governing documents unless the property owners provided consent.

Additional case law determined that “there is no covenant of record which permits the implementation of a fine schedule by the Association for leasing one’s own property, nor could any be read into the restrictive deed covenants as courts should not attempt to remedy the omissions of those creating restrictive covenants and extend, by implication, a restraint on the use of land by writing into a restriction that which is not therein clearly expressed.”  And “That a prohibition on the short-term leasing of real estate works as a restriction and curtailment of inherent rights of ownership cannot be disputed. Consequently, such limitation is not judicially enforceable unless consented to by the affected owners.”

It’s important to note that current owners can rent their homes if they so choose, but they want to prevent owners from transferring that right to a new owner. Therefore, for those property owners who are required to be part of the HOA, if the current rule change is permitted to stand, if you sell, or change your deed in any way, (i.e. add a relative or transfer ownership), those property rights which you currently hold will be lost.  And since this will significantly impact the value of your property, this owner group is interested in retaining the rights sand property values of both current AND future property owners, and maintaining their right and ability to rent their home if they so choose.

If you have any questions, please e-mail us.

And if you're wonder why vacation homes and vacation rentals are so important to everyone who invests in the Poconos, read this.

 Pleasant Valley West Property Owners