Eugenia
THORNTON 
Kent County Recorder of Deeds
Eugenia won her election and was sworn in on Jan 3, 2023.  

Thank you for your support!

She does not have a re-election committee.  
State Law
The State statute says simply: "If a county, by ordinance, waives county recording fees for common interest communities or civic associations, the recorder for that county shall not collect the surcharge of $5.00 or fee of $25 under this subsection for any document or paper recorded or filed by a common interest community or civic association." 9 Del. C. §9607 (b).
NCC Ordinance No. 16-041 Exempting Common Properties from Recording Fees--why it was approved
State and County representatives spoke publicly about the changes: 

• "We recognize the important benefits this legislation creates for the Delaware common interest community. To eliminate the fee now provides the CIC's with a clear path forward to consistently record all of their governing documents." State representative Larry Mitchell;

• "… importantly, the [waiver of costs is an] incentive to keep these documents up-to-date," New Castle County Councilman George Smiley; and

• "… provide[s] financial relief to civic organizations and other common interest communities which proactively improve the quality of life for their residents. Civically minded communities ease the burden on government, and I'm glad that we in turn, could take a small but meaningful step to ease the burden on them." Senate President pro tem Patricia Blevins

In one community, a board lost its 1972 bylaws in the 70s, then created new bylaws that conflict with their Certificate of Incorporation on several important subjects including elections, and recorded them at a cost of $236 dollars. They are now reviewing new bylaws based on a later found copy of the 1972 bylaws, with a lawyer. They need not pay the fee again, since New Castle County waived its fee, which triggered the State’s waiver of the its portion of the recording fee.

Communities with unrecorded bylaws cause problems that come to my attention daily and often result in litigation. I see problems in each county, and perhaps more often in Sussex, that result from unrecorded bylaws. First, is that boards lose the bylaws and have no reference on how to govern their community. They make many mistakes. Some mistakes in elections, voting, and procedure affect the legality of every action of a board that is not in compliance with the bylaws, or by officers not elected according to the bylaws. As Vice Chancellor Parsons discussed in Adams v. Calvarese, the result makes the actions of the board either “void or voidable.” (On the positive side, the court explained that the cure is usually to follow the bylaws to conduct a proper election, and have the resulting board review each action of the improperly elected board and either ratify or rescind each action. I attached copy of Vice Chancellor Parsons’ opinion for your information. 

A second concern resulting from lost, ignored, or undistributed bylaws is that members of the community paying annual assessments to the board, cannot review the propriety, legality and enforceability of actions by the board that conflict with the bylaws and other governing documents. The resulting lack of transparency often results in conflicts at the board level and among members. Once recorded, as now required by the DUCIOA, all board members, community members, potential purchasers, real estate professionals and property managers can find a copy and monitor the board managing the community.  

The Recorder of Deeds and the Commissioners may be concerned about losing revenue resulting from waiver of local recording fees. New Castle County addressed this concern, but after study, concluded lost revenue would be minor to the overall budget. See, the New Castle County the fiscal note to the Ordinance. It overstates the actual annual fiscal impact, since not every community will record governing documents or amendments in any year. The documents are likely to trickle in, since most or all communities created since 2009 already recorded their governing documents; and most pre-existing communities are unaware of the requirement of recording bylaws under DUCIOA, enacted in 2009.


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