HOA seeks possible fix in water crisis at Henderson townhouse complex

A homeowner’s association that has been told to fix a crumbling underground water distribution system at an east Henderson townhouse complex or face the possibility of the city shutting off the water and displacing residents said that it had identified a possible solution to the crisis.

CAMCO Homeowners Association Management had told the city that it didn’t have funds to repair the system, prompting Henderson officials to notify residents that it probably would have to shut the utility on Sept. 10.

“CAMCO has reached out to vendors and has a solution they are recommending to the HOA board,” company spokesperson Ruth Furman wrote in a statement Thursday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

While it wasn’t clear what the solution will entail, the company said that it plans to receive three contractor bids before the holiday weekend.

“Then we will prepare a budget with a special assessment and schedule an emergency meeting of the board,” Furman said.

The management company said Thursday that the “association essentially has no money to make the repairs with the regular assessments that come in. Therefore, the board has to impose an additional fee to pay for the repairs of the sinkhole and leaking.”

The board has to approve the proposal and establish a process to adopt and ratify the budget with input from homeowners before work can begin, Furman added.

Earlier in the day, Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero told reporters that communication between the city and the HOA had broken off, saying that “recently, they have stopped communicating.”

Multiple departments were working “night and day” to find a solution that would keep Somerset Park residents at home, Romero said.

Furman said CAMCO last communicated with city officials on Aug. 24, “when we cooperated with their request for the homeowners’ list.”

‘Apply some pressure’

“I want to make sure that we are able to help the residents — to the greatest extent possible — stay in their homes and work through this process with as little impact to them as possible, while at the same time being responsible with our resources,” Romero said. “It is private property, so we have to be responsible with our public dollars. It’s other people’s tax dollars also that we’re talking about, so we would need to ensure that there was a mechanism for us to recoup that money.”

The city had reached out to the state of Nevada for resources and to “apply some pressure” on the HOA, Romero said.

“The homeowner’s association has failed this community at every level, and that is unacceptable to us,” she said. “It infuriates me.”

Romero showed up to a nearby police station where officials organized resource sessions for residents. About 20 of them showed up on Wednesday, according to a city spokesperson.

The 85-unit complex is located near Sunset and Pabco roads.

Ongoing water leakage

Romero said that there have been water issues at the complex for “several years,” but that the city didn’t know about the extent until earlier this month when it made an emergency repair to a sinkhole that had partially swallowed a car.

The underground set of pipes that deliver water to each unit were “deteriorated to a point beyond repair,” city officials said Wednesday.

Water is seeping above ground, damaging asphalt, car ports and other infrastructure, posing an “imminent hazard to the health, safety, and welfare of the public,” the city told complex residents in notices taped to their doors Monday, adding that it was unknown if there was any water contamination.

Learning that the HOA wasn’t communicating the “dire” situation to residents, the city’s notices told the residents of the Sept. 10 ultimatum the city had issued to the HOA, which is responsible for maintaining the private water system.

CAMCO said that it had recently taken over the property after the previous management company was fined and dissolved by the Nevada Real Estate Division.

“Due to financial stressors based on the community’s budget shortfalls and past management, the board is facing some budget issues and CAMCO is efforting solutions,” it wrote Wednesday.

Ultimately, CAMCO is responsible for the fixes, Romero said.

“The issues they may have with the previous homeowner’s association is a legal matter between two different companies,” the mayor told reporters.

Romero said the city was implementing technology to monitor water waste that could flag a similar problem in the future before it gets worse.

Preventing similar issue

The City Council last week voted to introduce a 2025 measure in the Legislature that would allow local governments to step in for emergency repairs at HOA neighborhoods.

If enacted, the law would allow governments to create neighborhood improvement districts to allow fixes with a “mechanism to recoup cost,” Romero said.

The mayor acknowledged the uncertainty Somerset Park residents are confronting with the prospect of having to find a new home with short notice.

“It’s a terrible housing market right now. It’s difficult for anyone to find a home and the thought of having to find a new place to live on such short notice is stressful,” Romero said.

“Don’t lose hope,” she added. “We are partnering, we are working with you to try to solve these problems and we will continue to do so until there’s a solution that works for everybody.”

A previous version of this story misattributed a statement made by CAMCO Homeowners Association Management.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.