Community Association Institute offers HOA information

Q: Ms. Holland, I recently was elected to my homeowners association board. I faithfully read your articles in the Las Vegas Review-Journal every Sunday and appreciate the information you provide to the community.

Since I have become a board member, I have downloaded both the Nevada Revised Statutes and Nevada Administration Code rules on HOAs, and I also have been going through the training slide decks provided by the Department of Business and Industry Nevada Real Estate Division — specifically the CICCH/HOA Training Presentations.

Do you know/recommend any other material that would be useful to HOA board members? Is there a company that sells a manual of all the rules, analysis of any issues and maybe citation to any pertinent court cases?

My HOA needs to have its five-year reserve study updated. The management company submitted a bid proposal by the company that did the reserve study five years ago. Depending upon what level of study we wanted and how fast we wanted it, the price could have exceeded the 3 percent threshold for our HOA (101 units and more than 3 percent of annual budget). When I asked about it, the management company implied that since we used the same company five years ago we were good to go, no matter the cost. Ultimately, not an issue as the study we are getting and the time frame we are getting it allows for the purchase to be under the 3 percent threshold. Was I missing something?

One last comment a recent question regarding whether board members could have access to the name and address of HOA violators as well as knowledge of the specific violations. As a board member we have a fiduciary duty to ensure the management company is appropriately applying the rules standards to the community. How can they preform that duty without having knowledge of what is going on? It seems to be that in order to carry out our duties as board members, we would need to have that information to ensure that no one is being over penalized/held to a higher standard, or that others are not being giving breaks. Your thoughts?

A: As to your first question about obtaining information on HOAs: Contact Christina Snow at info@cainevada.org. CAI, Community Association Institute, is a professional organization consisting of community managers, community management companies, board of directors and vendors whose mission is to empower Nevada community leadership for successful operation of communit associations through information and education. The CAI chapter in Las Vegas offers monthly meetings with speakers. In addition, seminars and classes are offered on a regular basis. Published materials can be found on the national CAI webstite at caionline.org.

As to your question about the reserve study, generally speaking the cost of the reserve study is already included in the reserve study report. You should be able to pay for the study from your reserves.

Unless the board was unhappy with the services of your last reserve specialist, it is often advantageous to use the previous company that would have much of the specific information concerning your amenities other than the new ones that your association may have added over the last five years.

Your last question about access to information is a good one. Board members are supposed to perform their duties as fiduciaries and act on an informed basis, in good faith and in honest belief that their actions are in the best interest of their associations. (NRS 116.3103). In obtaining confidential information, such as the copies of violation letters, that information is not to be used as “gossip” to your friends or family members. Unfortunately, I have seen some board members use this information to harass homeowners and to provide inappropriate information of the violations to non-board members.

Barbara Holland, CPM, CMCA, is an author, educator and expert witness on real estate issues pertaining to management and brokerage. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.