Complex rules don’t benefit homeowners

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | 2:03 a.m.

Nevada Senate Bill 183, portions of which greatly affect common interest communities (homeowners associations), is an example of how the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. I cannot speak to all of the details, as I’ve only read a synopsis, but I will speak to the totality of this bill and others like it.

This continuous regulatory expansion of HOAs is an example of what happens when our state government decides to create thousands of independent governing “states.” Who really benefits more, the property managers, attorneys or politicians? Certainly it’s not the homeowners who must now live under additional complex rules of a governing association.

The creation of HOAs and their attendant rules may have been well-meaning in the beginning, but the unintended consequences are now getting out of hand. It’s not just the legal framework and enforcement obligations but also the growing financial imposition upon association members in support of these laws that has become so onerous. Private gated communities are heavily affected because they must also provide services that were once the exclusive domain of local government.

I can envision that somewhere in the near future, all associations will be required to have their own full-time resident ombudsman, attorney and property manager just for self-protection. Small centralized government is not always the best solution, but in this situation it is looking better all the time.

When does the Legislature intend to enact legislation that gives HOAs some relief? At some point if the Legislature doesn’t get a grip on the situation, homeowners will put forth constitutional legislation to take back control. For starters, how about the ability to “opt out” of the common interest community and back into ordinary citizenship at will?