Woman vows to keep her security shutters

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, July 15, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

After burglars ravaged Mae Roy's southeast Las Vegas home several years ago, she saved up her money to get security shutters installed over her back sliding glass door.

But her homeowners association is insisting that Roy remove the shutters immediately, despite a new law making it illegal for associations to keep residents from installing the shutters.

The impasse has resulted in controversy at Sunrise Villas IV, a quiet, 62-unit community near Desert Inn Road and the Pecos-McLeod Interconnect.

"I will not take them down until they take me with them," the 70-year-old Roy vowed.

Lacey Casagrande, president of the homeowners association, said: "We certainly don't want her not to feel safe. ... (But) these are the rules and if you don't abide by them, there are consequences."

Sitting at her kitchen table Monday afternoon, Roy leafed through the pages of notes she has taken and letters she has written and received, all in an effort to keep the foam-filled aluminum shutters that make her feel safe from crime that has been creeping into her neighborhood.

On a night in late November a few years ago, Roy came home from a show after midnight and found her house ransacked. Wrapped Christmas presents, clothing and any valuable they could find -- including a 500-pound safe containing important documents -- were stolen.

She called Metro Police, who investigated and determined the burglars entered after breaking glass on her rear sliding glass door. No arrests have ever been made. The burglars made off with between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of Roy's property, she said.

"They took everything that wasn't nailed down, and some things that I thought were," said Roy, a retired real estate broker from Southern California who bought her home in 1995. "It was very frightening. I felt so violated."

Other burglaries occurred, including one last Christmas day in which a resident's car was stolen from the garage while the resident was at home.

Christine Bakazan, who was president of the homeowner's association for 12 years before resigning earlier this year, said she announced in January at the association's annual meeting that due to the break-ins, she would not object to people taking whatever means necessary to secure their homes. That included installing iron bars and security shutters.

Bakazan stepped down shortly after that and, due to poor note-taking, she said, her statement never got documented. She did sign a statement April 6 attesting to what she said at the January meeting.

Thinking she had the green light, Roy arranged to have Rolladen security shutters installed in March. The shutters, which are raised and lowered with a motorized push-button, cost $3,000.

But, she said, the homeowner's association caught wind of her plans and denied her permission because they felt the shutters wouldn't fit with the architectural appearance of the 27-year-old complex.

Disappointed, Roy got her deposit back and shelled out $1,500 for a security system instead, along with interior plantation shutters over her sliding glass door. However, she still felt unsafe in her home, she said.

Senate Bill 100, sponsored by Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, came as a relief to Roy. The bill, signed by Gov. Kenny Guinn on June 9 and effective Oct. 1, addresses a myriad of homeowner's association issues.

Among the new provisions is a section that says "an association may not unreasonably restrict, prohibit or withhold approval for a unit's owner to add to a unit shutters to improve the security of the unit."

After the law passed, Rolladen put Roy in a new Rolladen commercial exclaiming, "Now that I can have them, I'm going to get them."

Roy got her shutters installed July 5. The company gave her a break on the cost, spokesman Mike Henle said.

Two days later she received a letter from the homeowner's association insisting that she "remove the shutters immediately to avoid being fined."

The letter also says that since the law doesn't go into effect until October, there may be changes to it before it becomes effective.

But Schneider, reached by phone Monday, said: "What's in black and white is in black and white. The law cannot change. The Legislature can't change it and not even the governor can change it."

Schneider said he thought that since Roy had gotten "good faith permission" from Bakazan to install the shutters that "she should probably be able to keep them up."

"(Roy's) option is to go to court," he said, adding that the homeowner's association "is bound to lose," based on the fact that Bakazan gave residents permission to secure their homes.

But Casagrande said any change to the outside of a home has to be approved by the architectural committee, then it goes before the board. One person cannot give sweeping permission to let residents do whatever they want to their property, she said.

According to Casagrande, Roy got the shutters installed while Casagrande was out of town, and before the board had a chance to study the new law and establish standards for Sunrise Villas, Casagrande said.

"She should have worked with us on it. We can't have homeowners willy-nilly putting up whatever they want," she said. Many homeowners think the shutters are unsightly, she added, and the shutters are white while the homes are cream-colored.

The issue will go before the homeowner's association board tonight.

Bakazan said she supports Roy's fight to keep her shutters up.

Security is a critical issue at Sunrise Villas, she said. The community is "surrounded by low-income housing and a high-crime area," she said.

"The association is opening a huge can of worms by telling people they can't take measures to protect their homes," Bakazan said.