• Homepage
»
• Real Property
»
• Titles

6. In an appropriate action by the buyer to enforce the restrictive covenants against the businessman's 95-acre tract, if the businessman wins it will be because

The recording act of the jurisdiction provides: «No conveyance or mortgage of real property shall be good against subsequent purchasers for value and without notice unless the same be recorded according to law.»

However, shortly thereafter, the owner conveyed the remaining 95 acres to a businessman for $100,000 by a deed that made no mention of any restrictive covenants in the buyer's deed. The businessman now proposes to build an industrial park which would violate such restrictive covenants if they are applicable.

Blackacre was a tract of 100 acres retained by the owner after he had developed the adjoining 400 acres as a residential subdivision. The owner had effectively imposed restrictive covenants on each lot in the 400 acres. A buyer offered the owner a good price for a five-acre tract located in a corner of Blackacre far away from the existing 400-acre residential subdivision. The owner conveyed the five-acre tract to the buyer and imposed the same restrictive covenants on the five-acre tract as he had imposed on the lots in the adjoining 400 acres. The owner further covenanted that when he sold the remaining 95 acres of Blackacre he would impose the same restrictive covenants in the deed or deeds for the 95 acres. The owner's conveyance to the buyer was promptly and properly recorded.