Editorial: Homeowners junta needs to back off

Thursday, July 17, 2003 | 9:14 a.m.

Many writers are getting published by exposing incomprehensible edicts from homeowners associations. Anyone now working on an article or book should talk to Mae Roy, a 70-year-old resident of Sunrise Villas IV in southeast Las Vegas. A few years ago, burglars got away with many of her valuables by smashing the glass out of her sliding door. Afterward, her homeowners association refused to allow her to install a security shutter over the door. The members ruled that shutters would conflict with the architectural design of the 27-year-old complex. The 2003 Legislature passed a law (signed June 9 by Gov. Kenny Guinn), however, saying no homeowners association can deny a resident the right to install security shutters. Relieved, Roy had the expensive shutters installed by a well-known local company.

The association, however, is ordering that the shutters be removed immediately because the new Nevada law does not go into effect until Oct. 1. This is the kind of inane behavior, appearing to border on the malicious, that is giving homeowners associations a bad name.

We admire the fighting spirit of Roy, who told Sun reporter Jen Lawson: "I will not take (the shutters) down until they take me with them." Sadly, we can't be totally sure the homeowners association won't take her up on that challenge. What it should do, however, is leave her alone. She's been through enough.