Assessment fee after sale not timely, but may be justified

Q: We owned a home and transferred the deed into our family trust. We later rented the home and transferred the deed into our LLC name for insurance and liability reasons. We just sold the property and after I received our final statement, I noticed an additional association charge of $200 for a transfer fee.

I called the association which informed me that the fee was for when I transferred the title into my LLC. The association stated that it was under NRA 116, they never quoted a specific verse. So when I finally sold my home is when they noticed the name was under my LLC and snuck a fee in for closing. I still have never received a proper bill. I don't understand how they can charge a fee when there were no services rendered by the association nor did they spend any time or money on the transfer of my deed.

A: Neither NRS 116 nor NAC 116 addresses the transfer fee. NRS 116 and NAC 116 address the fee for the preparation of the certificate of resale. NAC 116.465 places a financial restriction on the amount of the fee, which is $160 for the certificate. If a homeowner wants it sooner than three days, an additional charge of $125 can be assessed. The statute states that in no way does this section of the law prohibit an association for charging other fees.

The transfer fee is one management companies may charge for the administrative work in changing the records when a change of ownership has occurred. In the reader's case, an ownership change actually did occur in transferring ownership to an LLC. The association may have not been diligent in charging the fee or may not have received a copy of the deed upon change of ownership from the Recorder's Office and became aware only at the time of sale.

Although it is disturbing that such a "late" fee would be charged, the reader states that he was unaware of the charge until after the fact. In preparing the disclosure package the association would have had to list this charge.

There were two points in time during the sales transaction that the reader should have been made aware of the transfer charge which would have allowed the reader an opportunity prior to the close of escrow to challenge the association's charge.

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 & A., P.O. Box 7440. Las Vegas, NV 89125. Her fax number is 385-3759 or she can be reached by email at support@hlrealty.com.