The Devil is in the Details

Sometimes, when a developer develops a new subdivision, he attaches covenant restrictions to each deed.  He can put almost anything he wants in there, and it is binding on anybody who buys the property, including future owners forever and ever.  When you buy the property, it constitutes a de facto agreement to abide by the covenant restrictions.  If you don't like that, you don't have to buy the property.  It sounds like Uncle Ken is dealing with something like that only different, because covenant restrictions usually can't be changed by God or anybody.

Another thing they have are homeowner's associations, which sounds something like Uncle Ken's board.  Some homeowner's associations are formed by the homeowners after the fact, in which case membership would be voluntary, and the only thing they could do to you for noncompliance would be to kick you out of the association.  I suppose that a homeowner's association could be constituted right in the covenant restrictions, in which case you would be stuck with them.  Their power would not be unlimited, however, they could only do what the covenant says they can do.  If Uncle Ken would take a closer look at his big book of regulations or, better yet, have a lawyer look at it, he might find out what the board can and cannot legally do.  Of course the board members can always be voted out of office, but for that you'd have to wait until election time.

I don't know what would happen if a covenant restriction conflicted with civil law.  I read about an interesting case in Bay View, which is kind of a suburb of nearby Petoskey.  Bay View was founded a long time ago by a bunch of Methodists.  I think it was originally owned by the Methodist Church, but was subsequently sold to some of its members who formed their own association.  One of their covenant restrictions is that, if you want to sell your property, you can only sell it back to the association, and they can decide who they sell it to next.  One guy wants to leave his house to his daughter when he dies.  The Bay View Association says that he can't do that because the daughter is a card carrying Atheist, and one of their rules is that only card carrying Christians can live there.  Last I heard, the case was going to court, but I haven't heard if it's been resolved yet.  My own daughter, who is a card carrying Wiccan, used to live right next to Bay View until she moved to Charlevoix a  few years ago, so she might know something about it.  I'll try to remember to ask her next time I see her.