Adopt the Uniform Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act
Summary
LB21 adopts the Uniform Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act for Nebraska. The bill defines key terms related to land records, unlawful restrictions, governing instruments, and recorders, and creates a process for removing certain discriminatory or otherwise unlawful restrictions from deeds and other recorded real property documents. It allows an owner of affected real property to submit an amendment for recording that removes an unlawful restriction from the owner’s property record, and it also authorizes an association’s governing body to amend a governing instrument to remove an unlawful restriction without a vote of the membership in specified circumstances.
The bill establishes filing, acknowledgment, recording, and indexing requirements for these amendments, including cross-referencing the amendment to the original document containing the restriction. It also provides standardized form language and clarifies that removal of an unlawful restriction does not affect other valid restrictions in the document. The act further directs courts to construe the law in a way that promotes uniformity among states that enact it and states that the act modifies, limits, or supersedes certain provisions of the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act only to the extent necessary to carry out the act’s notice and recording framework.
Impact
LB21 changes Nebraska real property and land-records law by creating a statutory mechanism to identify and remove unlawful restrictions from recorded documents affecting title to real property. It affects property owners, homeowners’ associations or similar associations, county recorders, and anyone relying on land records, while preserving the enforceability of restrictions that are not unlawful under the act. The bill also standardizes how such amendments are recorded and indexed in county land records, which should improve clarity in title records and reduce the continuing effect of discriminatory or otherwise invalid covenants in recorded instruments.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have enjoyed broad, bipartisan support and little visible opposition. It advanced 36-0 and passed final reading 47-0-2, indicating strong consensus in both chambers. The governor approved it on March 11, 2025, suggesting the measure was viewed favorably as a technical but meaningful update to property-record law.
Contention
No committee transcript or floor debate excerpts were provided, and the voting record shows no recorded opposition, so there is little evidence of substantive contention. The main policy issue inherent in the bill is the balance between allowing removal of unlawful restrictions and preserving the validity of other recorded covenants or property restrictions. A secondary procedural issue is the authority given to an association’s governing body to amend governing instruments without a membership vote in certain cases, but the unanimous votes suggest this was not a major point of dispute.