Henderson HOA accepts city’s help to replace water system

The homeowners association of an aging townhome complex in east Henderson accepted the city’s help to replace a broken water distribution system that had threatened the residents’ ability to remain at their homes, according to the homeowners association’s management company.

The city had given the HOA until Tuesday to make the fix after notifying residents in August of the dire conditions of the community’s underground pipe system and warning that failure to fix the problem could result in their water services being cut off.

A week ago, however, the city said it was open to fronting the cost of replacing the system, which was estimated to be between $400,000 and $600,000, officials said.

Under this proposed solution, the residents will be allowed to stay home with minor disruptions, Mayor Michelle Romero said.

Romero said that officials were still ironing out the details, but she said the city will probably recoup the cost through liens imposed through installments on residents’ property taxes.

CAMCO Homeowner’s Association Management — which manages the Somerset Park HOA — had been working on its own solution that the HOA board had to approve. It received repair bids estimated to cost over $1 million, CAMCO CEO Joel Just told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday.

The management company met with residents on Monday to “adopt a budget and discuss needed repairs,” company spokesperson Ruth Furman wrote in a statement. Media who showed up to the meeting were not allowed in.

‘Next steps’

“The purpose of the meeting was to inform the homeowners that the HOA board is accepting Henderson’s help for the total replacement of the plumbing,” Furman wrote. “The city told the board they will not accept the repair to the plumbing as a solution, so the bids CAMCO received for repairs cannot be considered.”

Henderson acknowledged receiving the homeowners’ response.

“City staff is working on the next steps,” a city spokesperson wrote in a statement.

CAMCO, a Nevada-based company, took over the “underfunded” Somerset HOA’s management about a year ago after its previous management company was fined and dissolved by the Nevada Real Estate Division, CAMCO said.

Management companies act on the behest of HOAs, who control their own accounts, CAMCO has maintained.

“Due to financial stressors based on the community’s budget shortfalls and past management, the board is facing some budget issues, and CAMCO is efforting solutions,” the management company said previously.

‘Bad shape’

The HOA’s finances and documentation were in disarray when CAMCO was brought on, Just said. “They were in a bad shape.”

While other associations have thousands or even millions of dollars in their coffers for repairs, the Somerset HOA had only a few hundred dollars, he added.

The HOA, and therefore the residents, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to contractors, including for landscaping and plumber companies, Just said.

On Monday, the HOA approved about $90 in monthly increases to residents’ fees to pay down debt and catch up, Just said.

The funding for the water system will be separate from the HOA fees, Just said.

“They have to dig themselves out of the hole before we can start to work on beautification projects,” Just said.

Crisis averted for now

The city discovered the water system’s dilapidated condition last month when it made emergency repairs to a sinkhole that had begun to swallow a car, officials said.

Water leaks were damaging car ports and eroding the asphalt and the bedding for the soils underneath, said officials, citing a preliminary inspection.

The city told residents in a letter that the broken water system posed an “imminent hazard to the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

If Henderson were to shut off water to the 85-unit complex — located near Sunset and Pabco roads — residents would have to abandon their homes for an indefinite amount of time, officials said.

The city had maintained that the private water system was the responsibility of the HOA, and CAMCO had told officials that the HOA didn’t have funds to cover repairs.

Residents who spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal had expressed concern over having to find another place to stay in a short period of time. Married couple Rick and Sarah Martinez, for example, had just bought their home this summer and were contending with the possibility that they would be kicked to the street if the city forced them out.

The city held a pair of community resource sessions before Romero announced the city’s proposal.

The City Council recently approved a bill draft for the 2025 Legislature that if passed into law would allow local governments to step in to fix similar issues at HOA communities, with a payback system.

“It’s very difficult,” Just said. “I know some of these homeowners are going to struggle with the payments, but the work has to be done.”

He added: “And in the end, the HOA is the homeowners, so it will fall on all of them to take an active role in their community, their homeowners association.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Contact Annie Vong at avong@reviewjournal.com.