State law never asks if an HOA should own it — only if the developer wants it to.
By Mike Kosor, Founder of NVHOAReform
When people picture a homeowners association, they usually think of pools, parks, and tennis courts — the kinds of neighborhood amenities you can see and touch.
But tucked into Nevada’s common-interest community law is something most buyers - and even most homeowners - have never noticed:
there are essentially no limits on what an HOA can be made to own.
State law defines “common elements” broadly (NRS 116.070):
In a planned community, any real estate within the community which is owned or leased by the association.
That’s it.
No qualifiers. No guardrails. If a developer builds it and writes it into the CC&Rs, it becomes the homeowners’ collective responsibility?
More Than Just Pools and Parks
Developers have used this flexibility to place all kinds of things under HOA ownership:
clubhouses, private streets, pools, golf courses, fitness centers, even restaurants.
Some of these require operating permits. Some carry financial risk. A few even generate
outside revenue.
All of them become the legal property of the association - and the ongoing obligation of whoever buys into it.
And the law never stops to ask whether they make sense for volunteer boards to operate- or oversee others to be operatedd. It was simply a contract every buyer agreed to. Read more: CC&Rs and "constructive consent".
If Sewers- What Next?
For years in Clark County Nevada, developers were allowed to place neighborhood-scale sewer connector systems into HOA ownership, classifying them as “common elements.”
That practice has since been halted for new development, but the older (“legacy”) sewer systems remain, still treated as private property on paper and still legally owned, maintained, and shouldered as liability by the homeowners who may have unknowingly inherited them.
Do HOA insurance underwriters even consider this possibility?
How does a HOA estimate underground sewers in it reserves studies?
If sewer connectors can be labeled “common elements,” it raises a larger question:
what else could be assigned to future HOAs?
That’s where the question starts to get uncomfortable.
Because if anything owned or leased by the association can become a “common element,” what would stop a developer from assigning something far more complex — or far more consequential?
A medical clinic? A child care center? An electric vehicle charging hub? A data center?
Nothing in current law appears to forbid it.
If it can be deeded or leased, it can be dropped into the HOA’s lap.
A Strange Double Standard
If a developer builds a private airport inside a community, the state requires approvals from the FAA and the Nevada Department of Transportation before it can operate — even if it’s only for use by the residents.
But if a developer builds a private sewer connector system serving hundreds of homes, there is no equivalent review at all? It can be recorded into the CC&Rs as an HOA “common element” without any licensing, permitting, or regulatory oversight?
What am I missing?
A Missing Line — And a Missing Referee
Maybe HOA law shouldn’t set hard limits on what can be included as a “common element.” Who knows what creative new shared amenities developers may dream up — or what future owners may genuinely want.
But here’s the problem: there is no referee.
Developers can embed virtually anything- if not illegal- into the CC&Rs, and once it’s recorded as a “common element,” it becomes the legal responsibility of the association.
No state or local agency reviews CC&Rs much less asks:
Is this safe for volunteer boards to manage?
Does it function more like public infrastructure or a public service?
Would this create risks homeowners don’t understand or can’t control?
Right now, unless I have it wrong (please let me know if you have the answer), if something can be deeded or leased to an association and written into the CC&Rs, it becomes the homeowners’ problem - and it appears Nevada’s HOA regulator has no authority to even ask if it makes sense.
That gap rests on an outdated legal fiction: that HOAs are just arms-length contracts between equal parties.
They’re not. They govern real neighborhoods and affect real lives — and the law should at least recognize when a line might be getting crossed.
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This post is part of the NVHOAReform.com series exploring how Nevada’s HOA system drifts further from public accountability — and how it can be fixed.
Readers may also be interested in:
Nevada Supreme Court Ignores the Law on HOA Disputes—Become Policy Makers In Robes
Nevada Knows Fee-Shifting Is Dangerous — But Uses It In HOAs
The Secrecy Wall: Regulator’s “Confidentiality” Undermines HOA Accountability and Trust
Nevada’s HOA System Remains “Unfinished”
Dispute resolution (ADR) reform must be a Legislative priority
For a complete list of our posts go here.
Go here for NVHOAReoform's current list of HOA Law Changes – Remedies for Consideration.
