On October 28, 2009, a document was filed (PDF) with the El Paso County Clerk and Recorders office claiming that 238 homeowners voted to terminate the covenants in the Heights at Jackson Creek. This document was signed by a .William Smith.. The signature is not notarized. We have not found anyone in the subdivision by that name. This person used a font and letterhead similar to that used by Robert Cottrell. The address he used is for the Circle K/Popeyes in the King Soopers Shopping Center.

It is our belief that this document is false and possibly fraudulent. At this point, we believe that a pseudonym was used on the document and that "William Smith" does not exist. No vote has taken place to terminate the covenants.

We do not know who filed this document. In our opinion, this document is even more serious than those filed by Robert Cottrell. If anyone has any information about this document, please contact us.

Like with the Cottrell documents we do not know how each individual title company will treat the document. The document has several legal deficiencies. It will need to be nullified by a court order. I do not know what the effect would be if the person who recorded this were to record another document attempting to rescind it. However, similar to the Cottrell documents, a rescission may be insufficient to fully nullify it, and we believe that a court order would be needed to make absolutely certain that title to our homes is not negatively affected.

This means that one or more persons in the neighborhood will have to pay for the costs to clean this up and sue a fictitious person. If the person who recorded the document can be identified, he will be liable for the costs.

Unlike the two documents filed by Cottrell, this document is not directly filed in the chain of title for each of our houses. Instead, it was filed in the "General Index" under the name of the HOA Cottrell created. It has been explained to us that it is filed this way by the title plant that most of the title insurers across the Front Range use. However it is possible that some title companies use a different title plant which could have filed it differently.