HOA satellite dish deposit sounds reasonable
Q: I bought a town house in a homeowners association. To put up a satellite dish, I was required to pay a $300 refundable deposit. I get the money when I take the dish down. That's a lot of money. Is this legal? All of our town houses in this complex are built in pairs, so my home has an adjoining unit.
A: Because you live in a town house, I would assume that your covenants, conditions and restrictions state that the maintenance, repairs and replacement of the roofs are considered common area. If that is the case, the association could actually deny you opportunity of placing the dishes on the roof per Federal Communications Commission guidelines.
A security deposit, which is refundable, is a practical way in which the association has allowed the installation of dishes on the roofs and at the same time protect it by having funds held in case there is damage to the roof. As you know, the installation could cause leaks and some wear and tear when the servicemen repairs dishes. I think the deposit is a reasonable amount.
Q: Just was wondering if Nevada Revised Statutes 82 (concerning nonprofit groups) takes precedence over NRS 116.3901 (HOAs) when it comes to recalling board members?
A: No, NRS 116 always takes precedence when NRS 116 addresses a legal issue.
Q: I'm on my HOA's Landscape Committee. There are several homes in our complex for rent or sale, with a Realtor sign out front. They do not have power or water as required by law, so our landscape crew cannot properly maintain the lawns. And we have learned that many renters here have not been given copies of our CC&Rs.
We've provided the Realtors' information to our management company, with no results. The company told us, "they are too busy" to deal with that. Is it not the management company's responsibility to at least attempt to ensure that these Realtors comply with the law?
Seems to us a phone call to agencies should help a lot.
A: You need to send courtesy letters to the unit owners and the management companies. If they do not comply, send the hearing/fine violation notices. If they still don't comply, then start fining.
Q: I recently resigned from my HOA board because I felt it was heading in the wrong direction.
Our HOA has been self-managed for more than 30 years. The current board has decided to pay for the office employee to become a certified community manager. The class fees and fingerprinting costs were about $500. It will cost the HOA about $5,000 per year for the two years of supervisory management for the office person. Is this a misuse of HOA funds?
Is the money spent considered to be a "gift" to the employee or an education expense to the HOA? In my opinion, the homeowners gain no benefit from spending money for this purpose.
A: According to state law, anyone who manages an association, other than a director or officer of the association, must be licensed (see NRS 116A).
Either your association hires a certified community manager or you work with the office employee to become certified. If this employee is a competent one for your association, and you want to maintain that employee, then the association should pay for the program, as the association is now changing the requirements of the position in order to become compliant with the law.
Your association should contact the state ombudsman's office to see if the board can act as a supervisor, as opposed to hiring a supervisor during the provisional licensed period.
New HOA law manual
Finally, hot off the presses, the Indexed Version of NRS 116, which addresses the community association laws enacted by the 2011 Legislation. The material is now available at $8 per book (the state charges $20 per book). Contact Sara Barry of Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin LLP by email at Seblv@aol.com or call at 341-5200.
Barbara Holland, certified property manager, is president and owner of H&L Realty and Management Co. To ask her a question, email support@hlrealty.com.
