Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7917 – Registry; substitute notice
(a) The Department shall establish and maintain a registry that contains all environmental covenants and any amendment or termination of those covenants. The registry may also contain any other information concerning environmental covenants and the real property subject to them which the Department considers appropriate. The registry is a public record for purposes of Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 100 of Title 29].
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7917
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Department: means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
- Environmental covenant: means a servitude arising under an environmental response project that imposes activity and use limitations. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- Holder: means a person that is the grantee of an environmental covenant. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Owner: means a person that owns a fee simple interest in real property that is subject to an environmental covenant. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- real property: is synonymous with the phrase "lands, tenements and hereditaments. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
- Record: when used as a noun, means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
- State: means the State of Delaware, in the United States. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7907
(b) After an environmental covenant or an amendment or termination of a covenant is filed in the registry pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, a notice of the covenant, amendment, or termination that complies with this section may be recorded in the land records in lieu of recording the entire covenant. Any such notice must contain:
(1) A legally sufficient description and any available street address of the real property;
(2) The name and address of the owner of the real property, the Department, and the holder if other than the Department;
(3) A statement that the covenant, amendment, or termination is available in a registry at the Department, and disclosing the method of any electronic access; and
(4) A statement that the notice is notification of an environmental covenant executed pursuant to this subchapter.
(c) A statement in executed with the same formalities as a deed in this state satisfies the requirements of subsection (b) of this section:
(1) This notice is filed in the land records of the deeds of county of jurisdiction in which the real property is located pursuant to § 7913 of this title.
(2) This notice and the covenant, amendment or termination to which it refers may impose significant obligations with respect to the property described below.
(3) A legal description of the property is attached as Exhibit A to this notice. The address of the property that is subject to the environmental covenant is [insert address of property].
(4) The name and address of the owner of the real property on the date of this notice is [insert name of current legal owner of the property and the owner’s current address as shown on the tax records of the jurisdiction in which the property is located].
(5) The environmental covenant, amendment or termination was signed by [insert name and address of the Department].
(6) The environmental covenant, amendment, or termination was filed in the registry on [insert date].
(7) The full text of the covenant, amendment, or termination and any other information required by the Department is on file and available for inspection and copying in the site files by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) at a building in which the files are maintained.