Go ahead, share some HOA pizza with everyone

Q: At our homeowners association meetings we have pizza and drinks. The management company freely serves themselves without asking. I feel this is wrong because we are paying them. Have you witnessed management companies regularly eating their associations' food?

A: Generally speaking, most associations would not deny the community manager to partake in eating of food at an association meeting.

If this were a special function that all members had to pay some fee , then I would expect the manager to also pay the fee.

Q: We have a small community that consists mostly of cul-de-sacs. Our covenants, conditions and restrictions don't prohibit or limit parking on the street except in the case of multiple days and large recreational vehicles.

We have one homeowner who wants all street parking eliminated. When his attempts to do so via HOA rules failed, he went to the fire department.

He is a retired fireman from another state. He managed to get an inspector out to our community.

This inspector has stipulated in writing that we are to paint all our cul-de-sac curbs red and disallow any street parking in these areas.

In addition to this, the inspector has stipulated we draw bright yellow lines on our speed bumps and put signs up stating their existence.

The inspector referenced the codes requiring these changes. They are commercial codes. When asked why a residential area was required to go by commercial codes, his response was, "We use commercial codes for everything."

We also asked him why none of the other communities in our area, or any of the 83 communities our property manager manages, has to conform to this commercial code. He said he was just here to take care of this community .

I've spoken with many members of our community. None of them want this parking restriction, let alone the ugly red and yellow paint . What can we do?

A: The fire inspector may have overstepped his authority in his instructions to the association.

The association should contact the county's building or traffic management departments to confirm what codes apply to this community.

On a side note, most insurance companies would want the association to have reflective yellow paint on their speed bumps. There has been some personal injury lawsuits in Clark County where injured bike riders sued their associations.

Barbara Holland, certified property manager, broker and supervisory certified association manager, is president and owner of H&L Realty and Management Co. Questions may be sent to Association Q&A, P.O. Box 7440, Las Vegas, NV 89125. Fax is 385-3759, email is support@hlrealty.com.