FROM THE SACC CHAIR:

Dear Serenade Neighbors,

Every two years the Serenade Architectural Control Committee will mail you an Age Verification form, as required by the State of California and the federal government to keep our legal status as a certified 55+ age-restricted senior community. We must keep records showing residents’ proof of age through driver’s license, passport, military ID, immigrant ID, or other state or federal ID – you may black-out the actual ID numbers. This information will be shredded as soon as it is verified by SACC. If you prefer, someone from the SACC will come to your home and visually verify your information without recording it. So, why should we want to keep our 55+ status? 1. Our Neighborhood Watch – Block Captains, quarterly newsletter, website, neighborhood parties, events, and clubs give us a sense of real community and security that you rarely find in random ungated neighborhoods.  2. Even though we don’t pay dues, we still have CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions, & Restrictions) that encourage yard and home maintenance and upkeep, which really does matter. See for yourself; check out the homes just outside our boundaries on Reading, Terrytown west of Lake Forest, and Potomac west of Gillette. The difference is pretty obvious. 3. While our grown kids and our grandchildren absolutely can visit us, “No kids living here” means a quieter, more peaceful atmosphere on our streets – we never have rambunctious teens doing wheelies on their bikes or ollies on their skateboards, revving up their hotrods, or partying loudly into the wee hours. So, whenever you receive that form (every two years), please fill out and return the form, so as not to jeopardize the 55+ senior status that we have maintained for 3+ decades. Complete a form for each person living in your home – relatives, caregivers, and disabled persons, or others.  Thank you for helping Serenade stay beautiful and certified as a senior community.

Jack Roy, Chairperson, Serenade ACC

early community history

The Serenade Architectural Control Committee (or SACC) was created in 1991 by the builders of Serenade Homes. The Marlborough Development Corporation produced our original Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions, known as CC&Rs, prior to the completion of Serenade community. Serenade was built in five phases and, after completion, Marlborough decided to hand over management of the SACC to volunteer residents. Those hard-working, senior volunteers from our community were instrumental in making Serenade what it is today. They met with attorneys and legislators to make changes to laws that affected HOAs, some specific to Riverside County. That was more than twenty years ago and we have them to thank for our beautiful community … but the work must continue to maintain our community and organization.

more legal work for sacc

Subsequently (about ten years ago), then SACC board member Sharon Janecek worked diligently with a top-notch legal team to create required Articles of Association and By-laws for SACC and, with help from a CPA, applied for and acquired tax-exempt status from California’s Franchise Tax Board. This exempted SACC from paying annual corporate taxes. She also created information and summary documents to include along with the CC&Rs in order to help residents better understand our organization and community. Also, important changes in state laws had occurred that overrode or superseded certain provisions in our CC&Rs (like who is qualified to live in a 55+ community); some of those are reflected in the three single-page documents included below.

Real estate agents or sellers are required by state law to provide all residents (owners and renters alike) with all materials relevant to ownership or occupation of every home in the Serenade community, and those documents are included below for realtors to access, as well as prospective and current residents.

why does all this matter?

If the State of California determines that our community is “out of compliance” with state housing laws, especially regarding age requirements, we WILL lose our 55+ designation. Let’s not let that happen.

The bottom line is that if you are a current Serenade resident – owner or renter – the laws and CC&Rs really do still apply to you, because they apply to the house and property itself, even if your realtor or landlord failed to give you the documents.

Please, if you live in Serenade and somehow you did not receive any of these above-mentioned materials, you should immediately open and download them from the buttons below.

How might this affect you as a resident?

First of all, before you start to worry, read this paragraph and open the materials below. There is a good chance that you have nothing to worry about! The reason we are making these documents available is to help us all understand the ways in which we are required by law to help maintain our beautiful community. If you need help deciphering the legalese in any of the materials, please email us at SerenadeACC@gmail.com or write us at SerenadeACC, P.O. Box 2324, Menifee, CA 92586. For example, if you’re considering painting your house, or changing out a window, or putting up a shed, or buying an RV, and you have questions, read the third document below – it’s a condensed and more readable version of the original CC&Rs.

If you’re concerned about someone who is currently living in your home, or someone who might live there in the future, read over carefully the last item below, “Requirements of a 55+ Community.” You may be surprised to learn that you have nothing to fret about. Listed in that document are quite a few “types” of individuals who in fact do qualify to live in Serenade – for example, handicapped grown children under 55, and others under 55 for up to sixty days per year.

Also, we truly understand that, given the economic consequences of the pandemic, a family member of yours may be in dire straits and need temporary housing, and we sympathize with you. However, if you do have someone living in your home permanently who does not meet the state-mandated age restrictions for someone living in a 55+ community, you will need to help them locate some other housing, so that Serenade does not fall out of compliance.