Editorial: Complaints stacking up

Friday, June 9, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

The state office charged with resolving complaints about the conduct of homeowners associations has been vacant since April, and the complaints are piling up.

According to a Las Vegas Sun story Wednesday, the ombudsman's office in the state Real Estate Division is taking months to resolve issues between residents and homeowners associations - if the cases are resolved at all. As the Sun reported, 36 cases remain open in Northern Nevada; in Clark County 100 cases remain open, three-quarters of which have been pending for at least four months.

The state ombudsman mediates complaints on a variety of issues, such as associations failing to maintain common areas and grounds or homeowners' objections to the rules or fines that association boards have imposed. While the ombudsman has no authority to enforce rulings, he or she helps resolve conflicts by interpreting the law for the parties concerned.

While it is unknown how many of the pending cases involve legitimate complaints - some homeowner and association conflicts can be more personal than substantive in nature - it is impossible to discern which cases are justified if no ombudsman exists to examine them. The state's most recent ombudsman retired in April and has not been replaced.

Nevada Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said the "backlog is unacceptable," adding that complaints should be resolved in weeks, rather than months.

The state says it is expediting the hiring of a new ombudsman. It also should consider the possibility of hiring two ombudsmen - one for Northern Nevada and another to handle disputes in Southern Nevada. Nevada has more than 2,600 homeowners associations that represent more than 367,000 residences, the Sun reports. It would seem to be a big job for one person, and residents may be better served regionally as Southern Nevada continues to dramatically outpace the growth found elsewhere in the state.