HOA has responsibility and right to secure gated neighborhood

Editor's note: Barbara Holland's column, Association Q. & A., will continue to appear in our Saturday real estate section while the Sunday section is on hiatus.

Q: I live in a gated community in North Las Vegas. Our association members refuse to tell us the code for the vehicle gates. We had a code for about a month and the association said we abused it so they changed the code and will not tell us the new number.

They have given us the codes for several pedestrian gates. As a result, children have to be dropped off at a pedestrian gate after school and walk the rest of the way home. In addition, guests are not free to come and go unless we give them one of our operators or make sure that we are home to buzz them into the community. We feel that we are being denied access to our property. Is this legal?

A: NRS 116.2111 (2a) states that an association may not unreasonably restrict, prohibit or otherwise impede the lawful rights of a unit's owner to have reasonable access to his or her unit.

You acknowledge the association has provided gate operators to open the vehicle gates as well as a system by which residents and their guests can be buzzed into the community. In addition, codes to the pedestrian gates have been given to the homeowners.

This is an issue between individual rights and security of the association. Every time that I fly an airplane and I am frisked by the security officers, I feel not only violated but that my individual rights have been sacrificed as a result of the hijacking of airplanes and the use of airplanes as weapons. And yes, I certainly don't want to be a victim of an airplane that is either hijacked or used to crash into a building, so I accept the reality of the world that I am a resident in these troubled times.

Anyone involved in association management absolutely knows that the codes to the security vehicle gates are always being abused. It does not take long before the "whole world" knows the code to your community. Why even move into a gated community in the first place, just leave the gates opened. Guests are not supposed to be able to move freely to come and go from your community.

State law addresses the right of the unit owner to have reasonable access to his or her unit and it would appear that the association has complied with state law, as the owners do have access to the community.

Boards discuss this issue all the time. Some boards have even tried to change the code on a monthly or quarterly basis, which is a pain for both the homeowners and management companies.

Unfortunately, when you weigh individual rights against security, individual rights seem always on the losing side. Your board is probably just as unhappy as you are to have been forced to make this decision as a result of indiscriminate use of the gate code.

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. Her fax number is 385-3759.