The ground lease gives the community land trust and the organizing municipality a purchase right over the improvements, with time limits, assignment options, and limits on ejecting certain parties.
(a) Each ground lease shall grant the community land trust and the organizing municipality the right to purchase all improvements to the real property, subject to any rights held by or granted to a mortgagee or other holder of an interest in the real property, including under land use restrictive covenants or other restrictive agreements. (b)(1) The community land trust shall have 90 days to exercise its purchase option from the date when notice of the event that triggers the purchase option is received. (2) If the community land trust fails to exercise its option within those 90 days or declines the option subject to any superior rights, the organizing municipality shall have an additional 90 days to exercise the purchase option from the date when notice is received that the community land trust has not performed or declined its purchase option. (3) The community land trust shall act in an expeditious manner in all matters related to negotiating purchase agreements under this subsection. (c)(1) Subject to any superior rights, the community land trust may assign its purchase option to a third party that agrees to operate the improvements as affordable housing regardless of any other criteria established in the ground lease for the transfer of an interest in residential real property. Any sale pursuant to the assignment must be completed in the same time frame applicable to the community land trust. (2) Subject to any superior rights, the organizing municipality may assign its purchase option to a qualifying owner regardless of any additional criteria established in the ground lease for the transfer of an interest in residential real property. Any sale pursuant to the assignment must be completed in the same time frame applicable to the organizing municipality. (3) The community land trust shall act in an expeditious manner in all matters related to the assignment of its purchase agreements under this subsection. (d)(1) Subject to any superior rights, including the payment in full of any mortgages, the failure of a community land trust to exercise the preemptive purchase option does not prohibit the community land trust from exercising any other right established in the ground lease, including the right to share in the proceeds of the first sale to a purchaser following the failure of the community land trust to exercise its right to repurchase. (2) If the community land trust and organizing municipality both fail to exercise or decline their purchase option within the specified time period, the qualifying owner shall be allowed to sell the improvements to any buyer at a negotiated price, provided that a sale does not violate any other restriction, mortgage, or interest affecting the real property. (3) Only the initial arm’s-length, third-party transaction of the specified interest in real property, occurring after the community land trust and organizing municipality either fail to exercise or decline their purchase option, is subject to the purchase option and pro-rata sharing provisions of the ground lease. (4) A second or later purchaser who acquires the specified interest in an arm’s-length, third-party transaction at fair market value receives title free of any rights established in the ground lease or deed of conveyance that would otherwise be enforceable by the community land trust. (5) Notwithstanding subdivision (4), if real property is subject to a ground lease at the time a subsequent purchaser acquires the specified interest after the community land trust and organizing municipality have not exercised their preemptive purchase options, the purchaser shall remain obligated concerning any applicable ground lease payment for the remaining lease term unless otherwise agreed to by the subsequent purchaser and the community land trust or their respective successors in interest. (6) The community land trust, or its successor in interest, shall not have the right to eject a mortgagee, its purchaser at foreclosure, or a leaseholder by an assignment in lieu of foreclosure, or the subsequent purchaser for any reason other than failure to pay regularly scheduled rent payments, not including any fees or other amounts resulting from a default in payments.