Woman sues as homeowners association tries to sell her condo over unpaid fines

Jennifer Shubinski

Monday, Sept. 27, 2004 | 10:39 a.m.

A woman has sued her homeowners association after receiving notice it planned to sell her condo -- which she owns free and clear -- for alleged nonpayment of $1,785 in fines.

Shaun Haydon and her attorney Orin Grossman will go before a Clark County District Court judge today and argue that her Henderson property should not be sold.

Haydon alleges that she was assessed more than $1,700 in fines because of broken lights and items left out on the back porch of the condo, in the 500 block of Sellers Place. Haydon rents out the 20-year-old condo that she bought in 1987 for $43,000 and that she said is now worth about $80,000.

She alleges that when she tried to pay the fines, the Summerfield Homeowners Association and its management company, American Family Real Estate Inc., refused to accept the payments.

The lawsuit also alleges that Haydon requested a formal hearing to resolve the disputes but was denied.

The association's property manager referred phone calls to Charlotte Yakubik, owner and broker of American Family Real Estate. Yakubik declined comment.

Grossman said the homeowners association can't sell the property for nonpayment of fines unless the fines were for a health and safety issue.

"This happens a lot in this county, except Ms. Haydon had a bellyful of these people," Grossman said.

But Steve Urbanetti, program officer in the state's ombudsman office for common interest communities, said homeowners associations can foreclose upon a house for nonpayment of assessments or for a health or safety issue.

Urbanetti said the ombudsman's recommendation is to pay any monthly or yearly assessments and fines levied against homeowners, even if the homeowner thinks the association is wrong.

"I've had homeowners with $62 problems, and I recommend they pay it with a letter of protest," he said. "One homeowner didn't and nine months later got a $1,700 bill."

He said if homeowners feel they are not getting the response they want from the association or its management company, homeowners can ask the state's ombudsman's office for intervention.

"If it's a fee and a fine for something, tell them you want to get together and try to work it out. If it's for nonpayment of assessments and you receive a notice that your house is for sale, it actually is," Urbanetti said. "You need to either pay or settle this or contact an attorney."

He said the ombudsman's office will contact homeowners if the office is notified that a foreclosure is taking place, but he said many management companies do not notify the ombudsman.

Urbanetti said to his knowledge very few people actually lose their houses over disputes regarding fines, but he said people have lost their homes because of nonpayment of the association's monthly or yearly dues.

"Please always pay your assessment. You will always lose," he said.

A case that received a lot of local attention last year regarded another Henderson woman, Judi Burns, whose two-story, three-bedroom home near Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215 was sold by the association for $10,100 after she failed to pay her monthly dues and fines. Burns bought the house in 1994 for $130,000 and paid it off in June 2002.

Burns had stopped paying her association dues because she wanted her association to pay attention to several fines she was disputing. In total, she had $1,145 in past-due association fees, unpaid fines and late charges.

Her attorney, Hal Taylor, argued that it was improper for the association to lump the unpaid dues and fines together in the lien against Burns' house, and therefore the foreclosure was not legal.

A Clark County District Court judge did not agree.

The case is now pending in the state's Supreme Court. Burns was forced to leave her home after she decided not to post a $40,000 bond that would have allowed her to stay. She now lives in a rental house, Taylor said.

Taylor said the two sides have had four settlement meetings but have not been able to reach a settlement. He said it could be at least another year until the Supreme Court hears the case.

"In a couple areas, there is a conflict in the law and there needs to be some clarification," Taylor said.