Easements & Covenants

Covenants on historic properties play a crucial role in safeguarding their cultural and architectural significance for future generations in several ways:

1. Preservation of Historical Integrity: Covenants often restrict alterations and modifications to historic properties, ensuring that their original architectural features and historical character are preserved. By preventing inappropriate changes, covenants help maintain the authenticity and integrity of these properties over time.

2. Prevention of Demolition: Covenants may include provisions that prohibit the demolition of historic structures or require approval for any demolition activities. This helps protect valuable cultural landmarks from being lost forever due to development pressures or neglect.

3. Guidance for Restoration and Rehabilitation: Covenants often provide guidelines and standards for the restoration and rehabilitation of historic properties. This ensures that any work done on the property is carried out in a manner that respects its historical significance and preserves its character for future generations to appreciate.

4. Educational Opportunities: Historic properties serve as tangible links to the past, offering opportunities for education and interpretation. By preserving these properties through covenants, future generations can learn about their local history, architecture, and cultural heritage.

5. Community Identity and Sense of Place: Historic properties contribute to the unique identity and sense of place within communities. Covenants help maintain this identity by protecting significant landmarks and ensuring that they remain integral parts of the built environment.

6. Tourism and Economic Benefits: Well-preserved historic properties often attract tourists, contributing to local economies through heritage tourism. By safeguarding these properties with covenants, communities can continue to benefit from their cultural and economic value for years to come.

Overall, covenants on historic properties serve as essential tools for preserving our shared cultural heritage and ensuring that future generations have the opportunity to experience and appreciate the richness of the past.

An easement on a historic preservation property refers to a legal agreement between a property owner and a preservation organization or government agency. In this agreement, the property owner agrees to restrict certain rights to the property in order to preserve its historic character and significance.

These restrictions typically limit the owner’s ability to alter or demolish the historic features of the property, ensuring that its historical integrity is maintained. Easements can include provisions related to exterior alterations, maintenance standards, and even limitations on certain uses of the property, including the home must be owner-occupied.

In exchange for placing an easement on their property, owners may be eligible for financial incentives such as tax credits or deductions. Easements are often recorded with the property’s deed and are legally binding, meaning that future owners must also abide by the terms of the easement.

The organization or public agency (the recipient/donor) is granted the right to enforce the covenants of the easement and to monitor the property.

The owner retains the right and duty to manage and care for the property, pays taxes on it, and can live in the house just as before and may sell or lease it or pass it on to heirs.

Overall, easements on historic preservation properties play a crucial role in safeguarding culturally and historically significant buildings and landscapes for future generations.