HOA board member must follow pet rule like everyone else
Q: We just found out that the vice president on our homeowners association board has three pets when our covenants, conditions and restrictions say only two pets per unit. I plan on privately confronting her about this. She has to remove herself from the board, but what happens with the fact that she knowingly is breaking the rules? What is the recourse to this situation?
A: Your officers and directors are homeowners. They have the same obligations and the same responsibilities in complying with the governing documents of the association. In this case, the management company should be sending a violation letter to the vice president. Both the management company and the board of directors need to follow the due process of your association’s violation process. The vice president would be given “X” number of days to comply in order to avoid receiving a hearing fine letter. She has the same right to attend a hearing over a fine letter. As a board member, she would recuse herself from the discussion and decision by the board.
Q: I’m a HOA board member. There’s so many things going on at our property. At this point I requested the list of our HOA members’ addresses, phone numbers and emails. The board told me I could not have the list or contact the owners.
Is it any state law that forbids me to have access to this list?
A: In general, the law recognizes the privacy and confidentiality of the homeowner roster. There are a couple of sections in Nevada Revised Statutes that prohibit the association from providing the names and contact information of the homeowners. For example, if you wanted to know who in the community are receiving violation letters, the association cannot provide that explicit information but can only list the violations per month without the homeowners’ names or addresses (NRS 116.31175 (5a-b). If you were running for a board position and wanted a mailing list, the association can provide a mailing list of each unit that must not include the names of the unit owners (NRS 116.31034 (17b1). Based on these laws, the association would not be able to provide you with phone numbers and email addresses.
Q: Thank your for your article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sept. 24, 2017.
I have just been notified by my Dakota HOA its management company that they are charging me a fine of $1,250 for not fixing the dent in my outside screen on the window of my son’s bathroom.
The HOA says they were using the address on Chicago Home and Title to deliver the violation notices but I never received any of them, even though that is a forwarding address.
They tell me that they started receiving “returned mail” from this address in 2017, but never made any attempt to notify me.
The only way I discovered this accruing “violation” charge against me was because in mid-April, I, purely by accident, contacted their office in Las Vegas and requested that they send me a ballot for the upcoming Dakota HOA Board elections on May 21.
Within 18 hours of discovering this problem, I repaired this slight problem and notified them.
The person(s) who most likely tried to jimmy my window screen was Cox Cable workers, who often try to get into the electric room to attach the Cox Cable for new homeowners — but since they cannot find the person with the key to this room, they try to “break in” the door or my window.
Barbara, do I have any legal rights in Nevada or Las Vegas relating to this kind of situation?
Although the management began receiving these “returned mail” letters in 2017, they did absolutely nothing to try to notify me, even though the HOA residents live on my same property (the HOA president actually lives above me, on the second floor)!
Thank you for any advice you can give me on how I can defend myself in the state of Nevada or in Las Vegas from this kind of lazy mismanagement and bullying.
A: Technically, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to inform the association of their mailing address or any changes in their mailing address. I would recommend that you contact the management company in writing and asked if the board would allow you to meet with them in executive session to explain the situation and to ask them to waive the fine. In your letter, you will need to explain why you are requesting the meeting and requesting that the fine should be waived.
Barbara Holland is a certified property manager, broker and supervisory certified association manager. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.