CIC Task Force

Can an association impose restrictions on statutory records-access rights that the Legislature did not impose? And how does violating those restrictions become grounds for threatening some of Nevada's most severe HOA enforcement penalties?

Evidence continues to come to NVHOAReform from owners across Nevada showing that the Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED) is exercising authority lawmakers did not give it. It is my assessment, this not merely aggressive regulatory discretion. It is the exercise of authority outside the jurisdiction Nevada law established

Nevada’s HOA system gives private actors the first move. Developers write declarations, associations exercise powers those declarations confer, and government often comes later—after owners are already bound. The result is a legislative game of HOA Whack-a-Mole.

Nevada has spent decades managing particular exercises of HOA authority. But it has done comparatively little to define the outer boundaries of that authority—what an HOA may be empowered to own, operate, regulate, or require its owners to do and finance through the declaration. What limits the scope of an association’s authority and obligations in the first place? Whatever the developer puts into the declaration?

Nevada specifically prohibits harassment in homeowners associations. But the way the law is enforced creates a striking imbalance: owners may have little regulatory recourse, while boards can pursue alleged owner misconduct through increasingly powerful enforcement avenues.

Nevada may have some of the nation’s strongest HOA laws. But knowing what the law says is only the beginning. Fine limits, hearings, NRED complaints, mediation and even “you can sue” come with realities owners need to understand.

Can a board take speech that is harsh, persistent, even insulting or upsetting, characterize it as “harassment,” and then bootstrap it into a health, safety and welfare violation carrying fines with no statutory limit? If the owner disagrees, the only remaining response can become: Sue us. That Is a Powerful Disincentive. Moving the dispute into civil litigation gives an HOA board an enormous practical advantage.

If that theory holds, almost any unresolved dispute with an association — including one created by the board itself — can become a potential basis for exclusion. An owner challenges an assessment, enforcement action, architectural decision, records denial, maintenance failure, litigation position, or other board action. If the matter remains unresolved, counsel can argue that the owner might later influence it as a director and might benefit from the outcome.

Boards should seek legal advice. But advice of counsel does not create statutory authority—and it should not become a reason for Nevada’s HOA regulator to avoid deciding what Chapter 116 actually requires.

HOA boards should seek legal advice. But advice of counsel does not create statutory authority, and it should not become de facto Nevada HOA law simply because no regulator or court tests it.

Nevada lawmakers directed regulators to establish criteria, severity standards and limits governing extraordinary HOA health, safety and welfare fines. After years of delay, the CIC Commission approved R091-25. The result gives HOA boards substantial discretion—and removes protections owners had every reason to expect.

Nevada HOA boards can avoid competitive bidding by never soliciting bids at all. NRED has acknowledged the loophole, the Commission has authority to address the fiduciary gap, and neither has solved a problem known for years.

Nevada HOA boards may rely on legal counsel, but fiduciary duty remains with the directors. A recent NRED determination shows why that distinction matters.

Nevada homeowners often assume the state’s HOA system works like other regulated industries. It does not. This post explains who does what in Nevada’s HOA structure and why understanding that structure matters before a dispute becomes your own.

Nevada HOA owners may have rights on paper, but weak enforcement, secrecy, and regulatory capture often make those rights difficult to use in practice.

Most HOA disputes are not about money damages, but about interpretation and compliance with governing documents—CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules that bind homeowners as servitudes on their property. Yet Nevada’s dispute-resolution framework forces these governance disputes into forums that cannot resolve them, ultimately destined for civil litigation so costly and risky that most owners rationally abandon their claims before a neutral ever examines the issue.

Nevada homeowners lack real ways to challenge HOA governance abuses. Here’s what the CIC Task Force should fix — and why it matters now.

Nevada HOA boards are eliminating physical meetings and going fully virtual. State law still requires a “place.” Regulators haven’t clearly authorized the change.

The recent rise in corporate ownership of residential homes—and the governance influence it carries within HOAs, even at relatively small concentrations—places new strain on the assumptions underlying the HOA equity bargain. Common-interest community (CIC) laws rest on a foundational compromise: homeowners and the law tolerate extraordinary intrusions on traditional property rights only so long as governance remains aligned with resident interests rather than external profit

Nevada’s HOA dispute resolution system was built on a well-intentioned premise: most conflicts between homeowners and associations are ill-suited for civil litigation- but it fails to deliver.