Like it or not, HOA members must pay

Friday, June 8, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Members of homeowners associations may be assessed additional monthly fees without their approval to pay for long-term capital repairs such as new condo roofs, paint jobs or private street repairs, thanks to a state law that takes effect Oct. 1.

The legislation, which passed 42-0 in the Assembly and 19-2 in the Senate, also made it easier for pizza to be delivered hot to association members and for homeowners to stay cooler.

Lawmakers banned the use of radar guns by security guards who try to nab speeders driving on an association's private streets. If, say, a pizza delivery boy seems to be speeding inside the neighborhood's gates, the best security guards can do is drive behind him, estimate his speed and fine him, file a complaint to his employer or ban him from coming onto the property again.

Lawmakers also decided that homeowner boards, which frequently are derided for rigidly regulating property owners in matters of yard maintenance and exterior decor, cannot ban the installation of window shutters.

The new law also declares that homeowner association board members who are not current in paying their own monthly fees cannot vote to fine another association member.

HOAs cannot ban the use of motorcycles in their neighborhoods - but they can still ban the news media from coming onto association property.

About 500,000 Clark County residents are members of homeowners associations.

The most significant component of the new law addresses the collection of additional home- owner fees without the approval of association members.

The law, Assembly Bill 396, fixes an earlier problem, in which associations were required to set aside enough money to pay for five years of capital improvements - the kinds of communitywide projects and repairs that can cost tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of dollars. The earlier law that required such reserves did not allow association boards to raise those funds in a way other than how they do now - with approval of homeowners.

The new law allows boards to raise fees as much as necessary to fill the reserve, without having to seek or obtain the approval of association members.

The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Schneider, a Las Vegas Democrat, who has fought for more than a decade some of the perceived abuses of HOAs, including the still-infamous story of a woman who almost lost her home because her aged dog was 4 pounds over established weight limits.

Schneider said the no-vote-by-homeowners part of the bill was needed because many HOAs could not get homeowners to vote in favor of putting more money into a reserve fund.

"What's happened is, people just say no," Schneider said. "No, don't tax me, when the fact of the matter is, those repairs have to be done. It's almost like if you put a tax measure on the ballot. It's hard to pass taxes on the ballot."

The difference between public entities and HOAs is that HOAs are, in Schneider's words, like medieval fiefdoms. They are private entities, and if they don't pay for improvements, no governmental entity will be available to do it for them .

In two hearings on the bill in May, no one spoke against the measure.