Editorial: Your dues - or your home

Monday, Feb. 27, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

No one should ever lose their home because of unpaid dues to a homeowners' association. But that is what happened to a Las Vegas woman who stopped paying her $25-a-month dues in 1999 after a dispute over parked vehicles.

In 2001 the Pebble Creek Homeowners' Association foreclosed on her home and sold it at auction for $10,000. She was finally forced to move out in 2004 but continued a legal battle to regain possession of the property, which she had paid off and said was worth $250,000.

A three-judge panel of the Nevada Supreme Court this month upheld a lower-court ruling that the homeowners' association was within its rights to take the home to recover $2,100 in back dues, fines and penalties.

After paying $50,000 in legal costs, the woman says she cannot afford now to appeal her case to the full Nevada Supreme Court.

This is a case worthy of filing under the heading, "There ought to be a law." We do not condone the woman's actions. No matter how aggrieved people may feel, they should honor their contracts and pay their monthly association dues.

But under no circumstances should a homeowners' association be able to take the Draconian step of seizing a person's home.

Recent changes to state law provide homeowners with an adviser when disputes arrive and a special panel to hear the disputes. But seizures are still allowed. The 2007 Legislature should amend the law to strip homeowners' associations of such outrageous power.