Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/WVCODE/code.cfm?chap=22&art=22B
Timestamp: 2019-11-12 08:27:24
Document Index: 451506363

Matched Legal Cases: ['§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22']

§22-22B-1. Short title.
§22-22B-2. Definitions.
§22-22B-3. Nature of rights; subordination of interests.
§22-22B-5. Validity; effect on other instruments.
§22-22B-6. Relationship to other land-use law.
§22-22B-7. Notice.
§22-22B-8. Recording.
§22-22B-9. Duration; amendment by court action.
§22-22B-10. Amendment or termination by consent.
§22-22B-11. Enforcement of environmental covenant.
§22-22B-12. Uniformity of application and construction.
§22-22B-13. Relation to Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.
§22-22B-14. Severability.
This article may be cited as the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act.
As used in this article and insofar as they are not in conflict with article twenty-two of this chapter, the following terms shall mean:
(1) "Activity and use limitations" means restrictions or obligations created under this article with respect to real property.
(2) "Agency" means the Department of Environmental Protection or any federal agency that determines or approves the environmental response project pursuant to which the environmental covenant is created.
(3) "Common interest community" means a condominium, cooperative, or other real property with respect to which a person, by virtue of the person's ownership of a parcel of real property, is obligated to pay property taxes or insurance premiums, or for maintenance or improvement of other real property described in a recorded covenant that creates the common interest community.
(4) "Environmental covenant" means a servitude arising under an environmental response project that imposes activity and use limitations.
(5) "Environmental response project" means a plan or work performed for environmental remediation of real property and conducted:
(A) Under a federal or state program governing environmental remediation of real property, including article twenty-two of this chapter;
(B) Incident to closure of a solid or hazardous waste management unit, if the closure is conducted with approval of an agency; or
(C) Under a state voluntary clean-up program authorized in article twenty-two of this chapter.
(6) "Holder" means the grantee of an environmental covenant as specified in subsection (a), section three of this article.
(7) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity.
(9) "State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(a) Any person, including a person that owns an interest in the real property, the agency, or a municipality or other unit of local government, may be a holder. An environmental covenant may identify more than one holder. The interest of a holder is an interest in real property.
(b) A right of an agency under this article or under an environmental covenant, other than a right as a holder, is not an interest in real property.
(c) An agency is bound by any obligation it assumes in an environmental covenant, but an agency does not assume obligations merely by signing an environmental covenant. Any other person that signs an environmental covenant is bound by the obligations the person assumes in the covenant, but signing the covenant does not change obligations, rights or protections granted or imposed under law other than this article except as provided in the covenant.
(1) An interest that has priority under other law is not affected by an environmental covenant unless the person that owns the interest subordinates that interest to the covenant.
(2) This article does not require a person that owns a prior interest to subordinate that interest to an environmental covenant or to agree to be bound by the covenant.
(a) An environmental covenant that complies with this article runs with the land.
(8) The holder dies, ceases to exist, resigns or is replaced; or
(c) An instrument that creates restrictions or obligations with respect to real property that would qualify as activity and use limitations except for the fact that the instrument was recorded before the effective date of the enactment of this article during the regular session of the Legislature in two thousand five is not invalid or unenforceable because of any of the limitations on enforcement of interests described in subsection (b) of this section or because it was identified as an easement, servitude, deed restriction or other interest. This article does not apply in any other respect to such an instrument.
(d) This article does not invalidate or render unenforceable any interest, whether designated as an environmental covenant or other interest, that is otherwise enforceable under the law of this state.
This article does not authorize a use of real property that is otherwise prohibited by zoning, by law other than this article regulating use of real property, or by a recorded instrument that has priority over the environmental covenant. An environmental covenant may prohibit or restrict uses of real property which are authorized by zoning or by law other than this article.
(a) A copy of an environmental covenant shall be provided by the persons and in the manner required by the agency to:
(1) Each person that signed the covenant;
(4) Each municipality or other unit of local government in which real property subject to the covenant is located; and
(5) Any other person the agency requires.
(a) An environmental covenant and any amendment or termination of the covenant must be recorded in every county in which any portion of the real property subject to the covenant is located. For purposes of indexing, a holder shall be treated as a grantee.
(b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), section nine of this article, an environmental covenant is subject to the laws of this state governing recording and priority of interests in real property.
(2) Terminated by consent pursuant to section ten of this article;
(3) Terminated pursuant to subsection (b) of this section;
(A) The agency that signed the covenant is a party to the proceeding;
(B) All persons identified in subsections (a) and (b), section ten of this article are given notice of the pendency of the proceeding; and
(C) The court determines, after hearing, that the termination or modification will not adversely affect human health or the environment.
(b) If the agency that signed an environmental covenant has determined that the intended benefits of the covenant can no longer be realized, a court, under the doctrine of changed circumstances, in an action in which all persons identified in subsections (a) and (b), section ten of this article have been given notice, may terminate the covenant or reduce its burden on the real property subject to the covenant. The agency's determination or its failure to make a determination upon request is subject to review pursuant to article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
(c) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (a) and (b) of this section, an environmental covenant may not be extinguished, limited or impaired through issuance of a tax deed, foreclosure of a tax lien, or application of the doctrine of adverse possession, prescription, abandonment, waiver, lack of enforcement, or acquiescence, or a similar doctrine.
(d) An environmental covenant may not be extinguished, limited, or impaired except as authorized by this article.
(2) Unless waived by the agency, the current owner of the fee simple of the real property subject to the covenant;
(3) Each person that originally signed the covenant, unless the person waived in a signed record the right to consent or a court finds that the person no longer exists or cannot be located or identified with the exercise of reasonable diligence; and
(4) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (2), subsection (d) of this section, the holder.
(b) If an interest in real property is subject to an environmental covenant, the interest is not affected by an amendment of the covenant unless the current owner of the interest consents to the amendment or has waived in a signed record the right to consent to amendments.
(c) Except for an assignment undertaken pursuant to a governmental reorganization, assignment of an environmental covenant to a new holder is an amendment.
(d) Except as otherwise provided in an environmental covenant:
(1) A holder may not assign its interest without consent of the other parties;
(2) A holder may be removed and replaced by agreement of the other parties specified in subsection (a) of this section; and
(2) The agency or, if it is not the agency, the Department of Environmental Protection;
(5) A municipality or other unit of local government in which the real property subject to the covenant is located.
(b) This article does not limit the regulatory authority of the agency or the Department of Environmental Protection under law other than this article with respect to an environmental response project.
This article modifies, limits or supersedes the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. Section 7001, et seq.) but does not modify, limit or supersede Section 101 of said Act (15 U.S.C. Section 7001(a)) or authorize electronic delivery of any of the notices described in Section 103 of said Act (15 U.S.C. Section 7003(b)).