Send courtesy letters to owners draining pools in street

Q: I have enjoyed reading your article for many years.

I am a board member and have a question for you. We have a problem in our community of homeowners draining their pools in the street and cleaning their pool filters in the gutters. We send them courtesy letters but wonder if there is some way to fine them so maybe they would not do it the next time.

This is different than most violations as they will not continue to do this, as they only do this maybe once or twice a year. So, you cannot send them a hearing letter like other violation for the reason of not correcting the violation. There is a county code, and we did contact the county. But what are they going to do after the fact?

We put it in the newsletter almost each quarter and even have a flyer sent to each home showing the county code.

Would appreciate if you could help us with this problem.

A: Continue to remind pool owners in your flyers. For those violators, do send out courtesy letters, which include the statement that a second offense will result in a hearing (check your enforcement policy as to when you can send the hearing letter). By sending out the notices, you have on record that they have at least once violated your rules as well as county ordinances.

The notices are warning the owners that next time they would be called to a hearing even if their violation only occurs once or twice a year. The point of the courtesy letter is to inform the owner of their violation. By sending out your letters, you have, in fact, notified them.

Q: I read your article every Sunday and respect your vast knowledge and expertise with the Nevada Revised Statutes and homeowners associations. I have a couple of questions I would like you to address.

At a recent HOA membership and board of directors meeting the members were made aware of a resignation of a board member by a letter the board read at the meeting. Prior to that reading, the only people, to my knowledge, who knew of this resignation was the board and a person who was affiliated with the person who resigned. The board then read another letter from the affiliated person to volunteer for that board position. The board at that time immediately appointed the affiliated person to the open board position without any notice to all homeowners that this vacancy occurred to see if anyone else was interested in the position or have a run off election. To me this seems like a way to stack the board.

Could you please advise in this matter as to any violations or is this legal?

A: I would agree that the resignation and the appointment seemed to be preplanned. The state law allows the board to appoint a director if there is a vacancy, unless otherwise stated in your governing documents that an election would be held. The law does not go into any detail as to how the appointment should be made. (NRS 116.3103 (2c)). There could be times when a quick action is needed to obtain a quorum. Their action is not illegal. Is it good PR? No.

Barbara Holland is an author and educator on real estate management. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.