HOA boards can charge for copies of financial records

Q: A few years ago I got involved looking into the finances of our homeowners association. I requested copies of documents. Even though the charge for copies was posted as 5 cents per page, the board charged 25 cents per page.

After challenging the additional charge, the HOA attorney conceded to refund me $88. Shortly afterward and after several cases of harassments, which I needn’t go into, the board changed the rate to 25 cents per page. At this point I decided, at my wife’s insistence, not to get involved (stopped attending all board meetings) with the HOA. Here’s my question: According to state law the HOA board may charge a fee to cover the actual costs of preparing a copy, but not to exceed 25 cents per page.

Considering that our copy machine is funded by our budget; therefore, each copy that residents request do not demand an additional “actual cost” of 25 cents. Since these copies are made at the monitor’s check-in desk and processed during their spare (which is considerable) time, it is reasonable to assume that the “actual cost” is merely the cost of paper. How say you?

A: Nevada Revised Statutes 116.31175 states that the board shall provide a copy of any records pertaining to the financial statement of the association, the budget and the reserve account. The law states that any of these records that are provided in electronic format will be at no charge to the homeowner. The board may charge a fee to cover the actual costs of preparing a copy of 25 cents for the first 10 pages and 10 cents per page thereafter. In addition, the law states that the board may charge a $10-per-hour fee to a homeowner who wants to review any books, records, contracts or other papers of the association.

There are exceptions to what information is available to a homeowner’s review. The review or copies do not include personnel records of the employees of an association, records pertaining to other individual homeowners or any board minutes if the minutes are being developed for final consideration by the board and has not been placed on an agenda for final approval by the board.

Q: We have a situation in our HOA where some walls need repaired. Our manager is telling us the homeowners are responsible for the problem walls and we feel that the HOA is responsible. The walls I’m talking about are the ones separating the patio homes and facing the street.

The entrance gates to the homes are attached to these walls. They are settling and becoming skewed; the gates cannot be closed. There is nothing in our covenants, conditions and restrictions that exactly pertain to this situation. Is there a general rule that other HOAs follow that we can refer to? Is there anything in the state laws that might help us with this problem?

Also, who is responsible for the perimeter walls in our community? Can the HOA board make a resolution and define this problem for future boards? Again, this is also not defined in our CC&Rs.

A: The perimeter walls that surround and encompass your community would be considered security walls. According to the Nevada Revised Statutes 116.31073, the association would be responsible and not the individual homeowners unless there was explicit language in the governing documents that require the homeowner to maintain them.

This law was sponsored by Henderson and was passed by the 2009 Legislature. There are exceptions to the law such as in the cases of insurance claims or if the governing documents provide the homeowners or an entity other than the association is responsible for the maintenance, repair, restoration and replacement of the security wall. If the association was created before Oct. 1, 2009, the law would not have applied to the association until Jan. 1, 2013.

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 the Association Q&A, P.O. Box 7440, Las Vegas, Nev., 89125. Fax is 702-385-3759, email is support@hlrealty.com