HOA says garage cannot be used as gym

Q: My buyer would like to store and use his gym equipment in the garage to work out. While we are still in due diligence, he contacted the homeowners association to ask about this, and they said, no, he cannot do this and only garage stuff or a car can be stored in the garage. In your experience should this be allowed?

A: It would not surprise me. Many associations have specific regulations that the garage is to be use solely for residents’ vehicles. This is especially true where parking is limited in the common area

Q: I live in a guard-gated community. For the past two years a neighbor has allowed his dogs to bark for extended periods of time. When this occurs, I contact security, they witness the barking and submit an incident report to our HOA. As an example of the problem, from January 2020 until July 2020, there were 12 incident reports filed by security, and yet the disturbance continued.

Last summer, I sent two letters to the HOA compliance office. With each one I cited a covenants, conditions and restrictions rule that was violated along with proof and requested to know what action was planned to end the problem. Neither the compliance office nor the HOA board responded to my requests. A call to state ombudsman office was disappointing. The person I spoke to said that by law I do not have a right to know the action the HOA board was exercising. Therefore, action might have been taken. If that is the case, it did no good. The ombudsman did nothing further.

The only relief came when I filed a complaint with the city of Henderson’s Animal Control, which forwarded the complaint to the city attorney. A nuisance charge was filed against my neighbor. At a court hearing my neighbor pleaded no contest, agreed to a plea deal, and said there would be no more incidents. It took only one month for another incident to occur.

A: The ombudsman’s office was correct. Violations are considered confidential. I would send one final written complaint, and if possible with a recording of the dogs along with the time and date of the incident. I also would suggest you send the same information to Henderson’s Animal Control.

I am somewhat surprised that the ombudsman office did not offer to contact the association to see if any action had been or is being taken against the homeowner. If you think the association is not adhering to the governing documents, you could file an intervention affidavit form 530 from the Nevada Real Estate Division. The division can explain in detail about the intervention program.

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.