Hancock Beach Association

What Hancock Beach Association's governing documents say

Hancock Beach Association is not a typical homeowners association with a full rulebook — this document is a 1964 deed conveying a small beach lot on Chilmark Pond in Chilmark, MA (Book 253, Page 426), along with shared rights to use the other numbered beach lots. It reads like a single lot-owner's deed with reciprocal easements among the lot owners rather than a community-wide set of rules. Anyone who owns or is thinking of buying one of these beach lots is the person it concerns.

• What this document is: A 1964 deed conveying beach lot No. 4 (about 20 feet of Atlantic Ocean frontage, 20 feet on Chilmark Pond) plus shared rights over the other numbered beach lots, recorded in 1964. It is a deed for one lot with reciprocal rights among lot owners, not a full association rulebook.
• What you can use: Each lot owner may use all the other numbered beach lots (except lots 54 and 55) for beach purposes, including the right to walk between the parking area, the lots, and the beach.
• Beach purposes only, until 2056: Every numbered lot (except 54 and 55) is restricted to beach purposes only until January 1, 2056, and lot owners can enforce that restriction against each other. "Beach purposes" means ordinary recreational beach use — it does not allow building any structure or driving or operating a motor vehicle on the lots.
• Access, parking & the gate: Owners may pass on foot and by vehicle between Quenames Road and the shared Parking Area, park there, and walk from the lot to the beach. The landowner north of the lots may designate the route and maintain a locked gate; owners get a key and must relock it after passing through.
• Who may use the rights: The rights are personal to the lot owner and the members of that owner's household on Martha's Vineyard — they don't pass to someone who merely leases the beach lot unless that person also leases a dwelling house from the same owner. If the lot is subdivided, only an owner of a piece with at least 20 feet of ocean frontage keeps the rights.
• Selling your lot: the $1,000 buy-back option: Until 21 years after the grantor's death, an owner must first offer the lot back to the grantor (or his estate/assigns) for $1,000 — or at fair market value if higher — before selling to anyone else. The grantor's side has 30 days to accept, with arbitration available to set fair market value.
• What this document doesn't cover: There is no association, dues or assessments, architectural rules, or ongoing maintenance obligations — the grantor and successors expressly have no duty to maintain the lots, access route, or parking area. It also doesn't address the lots numbered 54 and 55, which are excluded from the shared rights.

Plain-language summary generated from the governing documents on file for this community. It may be incomplete and is not legal advice — read the full documents below or consult the official recorded versions.