Recent Legislation to Amend Racist Covenants

SB 117 (2019) 

AN ACT relating to real property; authorizing certain persons to record a declaration relating to real property under certain circumstances; revising certain provisions concerning restrictions and prohibitions relating to real property; and providing other matters properly relating thereto

Sponsored by Senator Julia Ratti, Senator Dallas Harris, and Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner, SB 117 went into effect on October 1, 2019, and allowed homeowners who objected to restrictive language within their chain-of-title to attach a Declaration of Removal of Discriminatory Restriction form at the bottom of their deed to voice their objection and disinterest in enforcing the restrictive covenant. While not exclusive to racially restrictive covenants — SB 117 mentions alternate forms of discrimination such as religion, ancestry, and sexual orientation — SB 117 explicitly voided existing discriminatory covenants and reinforced the rights of marginalized groups to freely occupy and own homes. 

Despite SB 117’s success in providing a service for homeowners to disavow racist covenants, SB 117 did not provide homeowners with the means to edit or redact the covenants within their deeds. Thus, regardless of an owner’s protest, racially restrictive covenants remained in the property documents of homes in Nevada. 

SB 368 (2023)

 AN ACT relating to real property; prescribing a procedure for removing certain discriminatory restrictions or prohibitions from a written instrument relating to real property; requiring the Real Estate Division of the Department of Business and Industry to prescribe a restrictive covenant modification form; eliminating certain provisions relating to a declaration of removal of a discriminatory restriction or prohibition; requiring each county recorder in this State to provide certain notice to each owner who recorded a declaration of removal of a discriminatory restriction or prohibition with the office of the county recorder; making appropriations; and providing other matters properly relating thereto

During the 82nd Nevada Legislative Session, 14 Nevada senators and two assembly members successfully passed SB 368: a bill establishing a formal process to remove restrictive covenants from deeds in Nevada. While homeowners could once only voice their disapproval of covenants within their deeds, homeowners could now revise their property documents and challenge the discrimination within their deeds.

SB 368 passed with overwhelming support from both the Nevada Assembly and Senate and outlined the actions that had to be taken to initiate racial redaction. Any homeowner may now petition their district judge and contact the county recorder to purge discriminatory language from their deed free of charge. While this bill provides an updated version of a property deed, the county recorder will still be retaining the original, coveted property record for historical purposes. 

Since SB 368’s passage, our team has worked diligently to identify and redact coveted property records in Reno. With the funds supplied by SB 368, our team of researchers continue to discover more racist covenants by the day!