Animal Control needs to be notified of dog attacks

Q: I have a question for you regarding my service dog being attacked on homeowners association property back in January 2021.

I’m a service-connected disabled veteran with a German shepherd service dog. We were attacked by a pit bull/boxer. I had my dog’s leash in one hand and my cane in the other trying to defend against the attack. My dog got some puncture wounds and the veterinarian patched him up. He was taken off training due to his depression and hyper-vigilance, post attack. The training company resumed training after about a month as those symptoms started to wane though he is still more vigilant than he was prior. He was rolled back to square one of training sessions, which is their standard practice with these circumstances. Our HOA has a policy that owners with dogs off leash are to be fined. I had four witnesses who saw the dog off-leash that night and two right when the attack ended. I reported it to the HOA president and the management company. I sent them my statement and statements from witnesses. Basically, the HOA said they had the required information. Strange, the HOA president said we don’t have a dog in our property that fits that description. Everyone on property knows that dog.

Around two weeks later, another neighbor and his two dogs were attacked by the same dog. He turned in his statements with the exact same description of the dog that I had turned in from my attack. He knew the dog from seeing it being walked here at HOA property daily with its owner.

I emailed HOA recently and asked if they had fined the owner of the dog but never heard back. I heard through another they didn’t fine the owner. And their reason was our HOA president said neither I nor the other neighbor took photos of the attack when it was happening and we didn’t call Animal Control.

I have multiple sclerosis. During attack I had a dog leash in one hand and my cane in another, no way I could have taken pictures. Too much going on during the attack, as you can imagine. The neighbor said the same. That it happened so quick and he was busy getting the dog off his dogs there is no time to take images.

I didn’t call Animal Control because I wanted the HOA behind me a bit before I called the agency on a member of our community. I figured the owner would just deny it. I’ve been told the owner, in fact, did deny the dog was ever off-leash, although we have witnesses. So HOA took their word over ours and our witnesses.

My question is: Is there any legal recourse? Is there a lawyer who could write a letter to the HOA asking if they fined the owner and if not, why, when we had witnesses? Do you know of such an attorney? Any advice for the disabled and his service dog in such a situation?

A: Dog attacks are very serious. The first step that you need to do is to contact Animal Control right away. Do not delay any further. If this is a dangerous dog, and it appears from your email to me that the dog is dangerous, only Animal Control can have the most immediate impact by removing the dog. As an FYI, Animal Control only accepts calls from those individuals that are directly impacted. Your association will not make a difference to them as to the seriousness of the events.

Because violations are considered confidential, the board would not be able to tell you what stage of the enforcement process they are in with the dog’s owner.

You need to seriously refocus your direction. The fining by the board will not necessarily resolve any issues, as the owner can just ignore the fines. If you want some meaningful action to take place, call Animal Control and push to have the dog removed.

Q: Over the past many months, our front access gate has not been working due to a multitude of problems. Our local neighborhood representative indicates that the latest problem is that the motherboard must be replaced and is on back order because of the worldwide chip issue. I have suggested that after all these months they should consider replacing the gate opening system with a new unit or perhaps even installing security cameras. But no other solutions have been considered.

Is there anything that the residents can do? Very concerned about the reduced security in our neighborhood. The gated community is one of the big reasons for our purchase. Please provide any solutions or options that we might have.

A: Obtaining parts has been an issue, regardless if it pertains to the swimming pools, vehicular gates or even parts to my gas dryer. (I have been waiting four weeks for a replacement part). Replacing the gate system with a new unit may not be feasible, as you may have the same delivery problem. Installing cameras will not significantly help in improving security.

Your board could consider having a security company help monitor the gate entry and patrol the community. This would not be an inexpensive temporary solution.

Stay in communication with your board or management company for the latest updates. Your board is probably just as unhappy and concerned as you are.

Q: I bought the home in 2018 and haven’t had any real problems, besides leaving my trash can at the curb till the next morning or a car in the street every so often. I got a violation letter stating that I am missing a tree in my front yard. This comes as a surprise because this is how I bought the home and this is how I was shown the home in 2018. I’ve come to learn that a tree is supposed to be there but I feel like this should have been brought to my attention when I bought the home or prior to purchase, not three years later.

A: Technically, under Nevada Revised Statutes 113.130, sellers are required to complete the sellers’ real property disclosure form. The seller should have included information about the tree violation.

Under NRS 116.4109, the list of items to be included in a resale package from the association does not explicitly state that the seller’s violations are required documents to be included in the package.

There are some case laws where associations lost their enforcement rights because the violations were not acted upon by the association until years later.

You have a choice to dispute the violation for failure of a timely notice or spend the money to plant the tree and enhance your landscape.

Barbara Holland is a certified property manager and holds the supervisory community manager certificate with the state of Nevada. She is an author and educator on real estate management. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.