East Lansing Homeowners Can Now Formally Disavow Racist Property Covenants

Old property restrictions for around 100 homes in the Brookfield Heritage Neighborhood explicitly forbid sales to anyone who is not white. While the discriminatory language in these documents has not been enforceable for over 75 years, the documents serve as a jarring reminder of East Lansing’s and the United States’ legacies of discrimination.

New legislation was signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer late last year that allows homeowners to formally disavow the discriminatory language in their housing documents. The law also allows larger organizations like homeowners’ associations or condominium boards to disavow discriminatory language in their documents.

The bill, HB 4416, was proposed by state Sen. Sarah Anthony in 2021 when Anthony was serving in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Attorney David Pierson helped work on the legislation and explained to ELi that the bill allows residents to fill out a form that “removes and abolishes” discriminatory language.

While it doesn’t change the language in the original document, the new discharge form is added to a homeowner’s property title record to state the resident’s opposition to the language.

“It allows you to put something on record that says, ‘We disavow this,’” Pierson said.

Homeowners also have the option to receive a copy of the form with the discriminatory language. They may then cross the discriminatory language out and return the copy with the discharge form.

Ingham County Deputy Register of Deeds Trisha Gerring explained that condominium boards, homeowner associations and other similar groups can go through a different process to receive a discharge form. Gerring said a majority vote from the board of these groups would allow them to obtain a discharge form without needing the approval of individual property owners.

Anthony’s Legislative Director Remy Gelderloos said the legislation was created after extensive collaboration with as many stakeholders as possible. She said they worked with the Lansing ACLU, Michigan Realtors, Rental Properties Owners Association of Michigan, the Michigan Association of Registers of Deeds and the Ingham County Register of Deeds, among others.

Gelderloos said the process is designed to be quick and painless.

“People have lives, they have families and they have jobs,” she said. “We don’t want this to be an added thing that people have to go through in life.”

Gerring said the Ingham County Register of Deeds has forms available, but they are not able to assist with filling out the forms or notarize them.

Gerring also provided information about what the process of filling out the discharge looks like.

“If anyone who wants to record a discharge form needs a copy of the restrictions containing the restrictive language, they would need to provide our office with the address of their property,” she wrote in an email to ELi. “We will try [to] print a copy of the restrictions pertaining to their subdivision for them. Fees for copies of recorded documents are $1.00/page. A copy of the restrictions can be attached to the discharge when it is submitted for recording. The fee to record a discharge document is $30.00.”

There are limitations to the legislation, however.

Plats of land that have discriminatory language but do not have official homeowner associations are caught in a middle ground. Brookfield is in this situation. Gerring said homeowners in neighborhoods like this can disavow the discriminatory language in documents pertaining to their individual property, but not the whole subdivision.

“From what I can tell, the statute is silent as to how to discharge any restrictive covenants for an entire subdivision/plat or condominium without an active homeowners’ association,” Gerring said in the email to ELi. “I can only assume that is why the statute does permit each individual property owner to record a discharge for their own property.”

Jeffrey Johnson, a homeowner in the Brookfield neighborhood, explained he and his neighbors have long opposed the discriminatory language in their housing documents, but they do not want to get rid of the association’s covenant altogether. This is because the covenant language restricts the use of the property, prohibiting large commercial developments.

“It basically restricts it to a residential neighborhood,” he said.

Johnson said previously he and his neighbors have tried to have the discriminatory language removed altogether, but it would require agreement from every property owner in the subdivision. The association’s web site reflects the ongoing effort.

“That barrier is basically what’s prevented us from removing it in the past,” he said. “I think we have a hundred lots in the area, and some of them are rentals, and the person who owns the lot isn’t here… It’s virtually impossible to get to 100%.”

The new bill gives homeowners an alternative route to voice their disagreement with the discriminatory language.

In addition to removing the offensive language, Gelderloos said that becoming aware of the history of housing discrimination can be a learning opportunity. She said her office worked with Justice Indeed, a University of Michigan group that studied housing discrimination within Washtenaw County. Gelderloos pointed to the mapping on the group’s website as a great tool that shows just how prevalent housing discrimination was.

Above all, Gelderloos sees the law as a way to take common sense action.

“This change is long, long overdue and we are really excited,” she said.

Correction notice, April 20, 2023: The original version of this article stated, “The law also allows larger organizations like neighborhood associations or condominium boards to disavow discriminatory language in their documents.” The word “neighborhood” was changed to “homeowners'” here and in two other paragraphs to reflect the language of the law.