Homeowners, associations square off over bill

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, Feb. 21, 2003 | 11:30 a.m.

A state senator Thursday ordered the state's real estate administrator and ombudsman to settle a dispute in Summerlin over the right to leave out basketball hoops.

"Get the books, get the records ... solve it," Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, told Real Estate Administrator Gail Anderson and Ombudsman Eldon Hardy. "This shouldn't be that hard."

The comment came during a hearing on a bill that would set new rules for homeowners associations before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, which he chairs.

Senate Bill 100 would set up a commission for settling homeowner complaints, give homeowners the right to fly a flag and limit to $1,000 the amount associations can fine violators per year, among other measures. It would need a two-thirds majority vote to become law.

During the hearing homeowner Terri Janison described two years of conflict with the Summerlin North Community Association over her insistence at leaving a basketball hoop in front of her house.

The association has ordered her to remove the hoop, saying the rules require hoops be at least 40 feet from the road. Janison says that is selective enforcement favoring homeowners with larger lots.

Janison said she approached Hardy in September for help and never heard back from him. Hardy said he tried to get a subpoena for the records requested under state law, but was denied permission from the attorney general's office.

"Homeowners should not have to go through this," Janison said.

Townsend gave Hardy and Anderson a deadline of March 4 for getting the parties together.

Meanwhile, homeowners, former homeowner association board members, attorneys and others voiced their frustrations with what one man called the "despotic mentality" of homeowner associations.

Peppered through the hearing were repeated references to the arbitrary enforcement of rules and personal favoritism by associations.

"The key issue," said Dave Duritsa, a former board member of a homeowner association, "is solving problems, and you don't do that by fining and sending threatening letters, but by sitting people down and coming up with a solution."

"But these associations have this despotic mentality ... and that's plain wrong."

Hardy cited a survey his office did that showed 92 percent of homeowners who responded were satisfied with where they lived. Fewer than 8,000 owners of homes, condominiums and co-ops responded to the survey, he said.

Townsend said that legislation crafted in the coming months should help homeowners solve problems when associations fail.

"All homeowners have ever wanted is resolution, and not to be in some morass somewhere ... so this is not about creating another bureaucracy, another delay," he said.

It's hard to satisfy all of the parties involved, attorney Bruce I. Flammey, who helped craft an association bill for the 1999 Legislature, said.

"This may be the only state where a waiter can buy a house. And then there are millionaires also buying houses," Flammey said. "So we have all these people coming in from all over, and it's hard to make legislation to satisfy both ends of the spectrum."