‘I just want this fixed:’ Henderson resident urging city to use new law to fix faulty water system

A Henderson homeowner’s association is hoping a new law will spur the city to replace water infrastructure that has already cost residents nearly a million dollars in ineffective patchwork over the last several years. If left untreated, one resident said, the damage could result in the community eventually being condemned.

Debbi Grim, one of three members of the Renaissance Townhomes HOA board, is urging Henderson City Council members to step in and provide financial relief so the community off Robindale Road near Green Valley Parkway can replace its private water system. At a June 17 council meeting, Grim said Assembly Bill 10, which was signed into law May 28 and took effect immediately, provides a legal pathway to do just that.

Decades of periodic pipe bursts cause water to rise to the surface, which have resulted in dozens of floods and sinkholes over the years, Grim said. Each situation is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, which Grim told the Las Vegas Review-Journal has depleted a reserve account that HOAs like hers are legally required to maintain.

Grim said HOA monthly dues recently increased to $450 a month on top of other assessments, but prior financial misgivings have made it hard for the HOA to keep up.

“We are way underfunded,” said Grim, who assumed her position earlier this year. “We do not have the funds to even get a loan.”

A known problem

State lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 10 with bipartisan support during this year’s legislative session. It established a formal process for local governments to intervene in situations like Somerset Park to repair or replace privately-owned water or sewer systems. In that case, the city ultimately fronted about $700,000 to allow the HOA, also plagued with financial woes, to replace its private water system with payments spread out over several years.

The bill gives local governments the authority to classify water infrastructure projects on private systems under so-called “Neighborhood Improvement Districts,” which Henderson officials said when presenting the bill gives locales flexibility when structuring assessments so that payments by property owners can be spread out over a multi-year period.

David Cherry, the city of Henderson’s government affairs manager, testified in May the bill does not require a city or county to act, but rather leaves intervention to the discretion of local elected leaders. It was written that way because not all local governments may be able to shoulder the cost of a water improvement project, particularly when repayment is stretched over a multi-year period, Cherry said.

Homeowners should try to fix their water systems through the tools at their disposal, including their respective HOA reserves, Cherry said, emphasizing the legislation was designed to be a fail-safe if no other recourse is available.

“We sincerely hope to never have to use the authority granted under AB10,” Cherry said. “But it is important that we have it available at a time when we know there are other aging common interest communities in Henderson and other parts of Nevada that need to act now to replace their water or sewer systems.”

New law ‘made for stuff like this’

Another Henderson official, assistant director of community development Ian Massy, testified to lawmakers during that same hearing the city has heard from at least five other common interest communities since the Somerset Park incident, detailing similar water issues. Massy did not identify those communities by name, but the city told the Review-Journal in a statement it is evaluating the situation at Renaissance Townhomes and will assist residents “as appropriate.”

“While we understand the challenges of aging infrastructure, repairing or replacing private water systems without an immediate safety risk is beyond the City’s current scope,” the statement read. “Councilman [Dan] Stewart and City staff have offered to meet with the Renaissance HOA board twice, but both meetings were canceled by the board. It is not the responsibility of the City to review the HOA’s financial matters.”

Grim contended that one of those meetings was cancelled by the city and that she is still trying to set up a meeting. But convincing Henderson leaders to treat the situation with same urgency as Grim has proven to be difficult, she said.

“[Our reserves] are being depleted day by day, leak by leak,” Grim said. “AB 10 was made for stuff like this. But they’re saying it’s not an emergency until we have no water, we can’t fix it, our buildings are condemned and we’re evicted. That’s their idea of an emergency. What happened to preventative instead of reactive?”

Colonial Property Management, the property management firm for Renaissance Townhomes, declined to comment.

‘In this for the long haul’

While walking the community’s perimeter last week, Grim pointed out nearly two dozen places where a mismatched patchwork of asphalt had filled the holes left by previous pipe repairs. Since 2020, there have been more than $800,000 in water bills and major plumbing repairs, according to previous HOA newsletters sent to residents provided to the Review-Journal. Grim says those costs are split between the community’s 81 homes.

“As a community we are going to have to face the facts that we have a long term plumbing issue that eventually needs to be addressed in a major way,” a 2020 newsletter to residents stated, noting each ruptured pipe can cost between $10,000 and $20,000 to fix. “All we are doing is placing a band aid on the issue, and as soon as we repair one leak, another leak two feet down the street springs up with realistically no end in sight.”

Those newsletters also detail a yearslong effort by the HOA to increase its reserve balance to the roughly $400,000 required by law. Despite efforts to raise HOA fees in order to replenish the reserve, the account as of this week was under $100,000, Grim said, noting the account has been decimated in recent months due to pipe ruptures.

Grim said residents are paying in other ways, too: each leak can block driveway or street access for days or weeks at a time. Renaissance Townhomes is also on a master meter, which means residents share water costs communally, and if a leak is not shut off immediately, it can lead to exorbitant water bills, according to Grim.

Since receiving the quote for a total water system replacement in 2022, Grim figures inflation and other factors have driven up that cost, which could be a lot for Renaissance residents to shoulder. The community is mainly seniors, meaning many residents are on a fixed income. But a new understanding of the HOA’s finances — coupled with the passage of AB10 — has left Grim with a renewed sense to take action.

“I’ll take out a second [mortgage] if I have to. I just want this fixed,” Grim said. “I’m in this for the long haul. My husband died here, and I plan to do the same thing.”

Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X. or @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky. Review-Journal staff writer Noble Brigham contributed to this report.