Friday, June 15, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.
As you drive to Bob Hall's home in Sun City Summerlin, you realize it is a special community. You notice little things like the sea-blue line that is hand-painted along the top of neighborhood walls. Sidewalks are less straight lines than curvy, Hobbitesque paths cooled in the shadows of lush foliage.
Front lawns of home after home are expertly manicured desert landscapes of trees, cactuses and flowers.
Hall's home is bright, spacious and immaculate. "You can eat off the floors," he says. The 2,500-square-foot manse is on a golf course with a far-away view of Las Vegas that few who live here will ever see.
"And when the sun sets, the shadows on the mountains," he says, pointing to Sunrise Mountain on the east side of the Las Vegas Valley - " just spectacular."
Then you notice the one thing slightly out of place. In the dining room sit stacks of documents, most of them letters fashioned in legalese and addressed to this or that member of the executive board of the homeowners association that governs the community.
The papers are piled neatly on the kitchen table, which is notable only by way of comparison: If Hall dared move the table and documents to his front lawn, he would violate any number of homeowners association rules - and Hall finds that highly irritating.
"If I knew then what I know now about homeowners associations," Hall says, "I'd have never moved into one."
His comments echo dozens of calls and e-mails received by the Sun after a story ran last week about changes in the laws governing homeowners associations. A bill that sailed through the Legislature now awaits the signature of Gov. Jim Gibbons, who has until midnight to decide whether he'll veto it. His office has fielded dozens of calls, e-mails and letters from those who oppose and support the bill.
The uproar stems from several of the bill's provisions. One would ban security guards from using radar guns to catch speeders. Another would allow HOA members to add exterior rolling shutters to their homes. A third - and the one drawing the most criticism - is a provision that would allow the associations to levy fees to boost their reserve funds without taking a vote of all members. Reserve funds are for capital projects and unexpected expenses, among other things.
Those issues might seem small to outsiders. But in Las Vegas, it takes only a whiff of HOA conversation to bring out complaints from people who live within what they see as nefarious dictatorial fiefdoms.
One woman who called the Sun said her daughter could lose her home if she does not put plants in a part of her yard that she believes should not have plants. Another caller said his association's executive board is misusing the money it collects each month from residents.
And on and on and on.
As of February, 411,334 housing units in Clark County were registered within HOAs - an increase of 48,469 from 2006 - so the din from even a minority of that group can be deafening.
But does that make their complaints legitimate?
"There's nothing wrong with homeowners associations," says state Sen. Mike Schneider, who has drafted most of the state laws that regulate them.
The problem in Las Vegas is that people move in who have never lived in an HOA-governed community and don't realize the rules are strict and the fees often rise as expenses increase. One result is that when fee increases are put to a community wide vote, they are often turned down - just as voters often refuse to vote themselves tax increases.
The fees can vary. Property owners in associations that can spread their expenses among hundreds of homes might pay as little as $15 per month. In some high rises, the monthly fees can reach into the thousands of dollars.
Attorney Michael Schulman's law firm represents about 500 associations in Las Vegas and about 3,000 in Los Angeles.
The push behind the associations, he says, is rooted in the reluctance of local governments to raise taxes. By letting communities establish associations, local governments effectively transfer responsibility for maintaining roads, curbs, landscaping and other public amenities. That responsibility increases if an HOA is enclosed behind gates.
So the HOA boards become the keepers of their kingdoms.
The fees that HOA members pay, then, are a form of taxes specific to that association. If they didn't have the association, they would likely pay more to the local government for the same services and maintenance.
Many homeowners don't realize that, Schulman said. That lack of knowledge breeds dissatisfaction that festers, underlying many complaints.
Hall is among the hundreds of people who have written the governor urging a veto. The new bill is unconstitutional because it violates deed restrictions requiring a vote of HOA members for large special assessments, said Hall, who files his own briefs and is respected by lawyers who know his work even if he never went to law school.
Schneider says Gibbons told him last week that he would sign the bill. But the governor has waited until these final hours to act. The delay has give opponents time to bombard his office, urging their new "no new taxes" governor to reject the right of HOA boards to impose fee increases that are tantamount to taxes.
Gibbons' office would not comment Thursday about the issue.
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