Racist and offensive language can still be found in many residential deeds throughout the state prohibiting certain people from owning property, even though it’s been illegal since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
These deed restrictions were long used in real estate transactions, growing in popularity after Emancipation to discriminate against Black Americans trying to build their lives. Although made unenforceable in court after a 1948 Supreme Court case, the custom of barring Black Americans, as well as others considered undesirable, from owning homes in many Delaware communities continued.
In 2018, New Castle County’s Recorder of Deeds Michael E. Kozikowski Sr. set out a way to make it easy for property owners to have the illegal wording redacted from these home ownership documents.
FOR SUBSCRIBERSHow Delaware’s HOA laws can make it hard for residents to settle disputes
Today, deeds with restrictive language excluding people with certain religious beliefs or those of “Negro or of Negro extraction” from owning the property can be found in many of the older communities − including President Joe Biden’s former home in the Faulkland area, which had a clause forbidding Black people from owning or living in the property.
Restrictive covenants can also be found in the bylaws of civic and community associations, as well.
How redaction of this language became possible
The issue of offensive language in deed-restricted properties, Kozikowski wrote in an email, was brought to his attention after receiving a complaint from a resident in a Brandywine Hills common interest community.
At the time, Delaware Code required that the property owner request an association meeting and that 70% of the homeowners in the neighborhood be present to pass an amendment to change their community by-laws — a challenging task for anyone who did not want to appear to endorse the objectionable wording.
A law signed into effect in 2018 now allows homeowners, after approval from the county attorney, to have the unlawful language redacted from community association recorded bylaws and their individual deeded property.
How to get the racist language removed
New Castle County has made the process simple and free of charge to do so with the submission of a one-page form available on its website.
While Kent and Sussex counties do not have single-page redaction forms available on their websites, the law applies to all three counties.
For more information on how to redact illegal language in governing documents, contact the county’s recorder of deeds.
New Castle County Recorder of Deeds
Sussex County Recorder of Deeds
Scroll to the fifth page of the embedded document to see an example of this language stricken from a deed.
