By Mike Kosor, Founder of NVHOAReform
Originally inspired by my October 1, 2025 commentary in The Nevada Current, “Attorney Fees as Weapons.”
The Illusion of a Harmless Neighborhood Committee
If you think your HOA is just a harmless neighborhood committee, my story should make you think again.
That line opened my recent commentary in The Nevada Current — and it wasn’t rhetorical. It was a warning.
Nearly half of Nevadans now live in homeowners associations, placing more than $80 billion in assets under the control of volunteer boards guided by professional managers and lawyers. In theory, these entities are supposed to protect property values and foster community. In practice, they operate as mini-governments -importantly- without public safeguards, where those who question authority face a choice between silence or ruin.
A new framework for HOA dispute resolution is needed that puts owners first. (Read a detailed proposal by NVHOAReform in the post by the same name- Putting Owners First: A New Framework for HOA Dispute Resolution)
When Speaking Out Gets You Sued
As I wrote in The Nevada Current I never imagined that running for my community’s board—or asking why the developer still controlled it after twenty-five years—would make me subject to a lawsuit by my own HOA.
First came as a defamation action filed by the developer still in power. My “offense” was daring to ask questions. I fought back and won, establishing a Nevada Supreme Court precedent in Kosor v. Southern Highlands Development Corp. affirming that HOA governance is a matter of public concern and that homeowners are entitled to anti-SLAPP protections.
The developer was fined $10,000—a trivial sum to him. For me, “winning” cost hundreds of thousands in legal fees and left a target on my back.
When I ran again, my fellow homeowners elected me to stand up to the developer. But eighteen months later, the developer-appointed directors threw me off the board—no recall, no due process, no authority—with their attorney’s approval. The state regulator, the Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED), knew and did nothing. Years later, the case still drags on. (Read more here.)
A System Built to Intimidate
Attorney-fee provisions—originally meant to ensure fairness between contracting parties—have instead become weapons of intimidation. Those with deep pockets can outspend, out-litigate, and outlast anyone who dares to challenge them.
Fee-shifting is permitted in private contracts as a narrow exception to the American Rule - the default legal rule in the United States controlling assessment of attorneys' fees. It was intended to let parties of roughly equal bargaining power recover costs when forced to defend their rights. But HOAs are not equal bargaining environments. The governing declaration is an adhesion contract, drafted unilaterally by the developer and imposed on homeowners as a condition of purchase. Treating homeowners as though they freely negotiated those terms distorts the original rationale for fee-shifting and turns a protective tool into a punitive one.
In the HOA context, these clauses no longer balance the scales—they tip them. What began as a mechanism to deter unnecessary lawsuits now functions as a threat: challenge authority, and you could lose your home to legal fees even if you were right.
Power Without Accountability
That story isn’t about one HOA. It’s about a system. Nevada law enables private governments to act like public ones, but without the checks, transparency, or accountability we expect from public institutions. When courts and regulators allow “prevailing-party” clauses to stand unexamined, they effectively sanction economic coercion as a tool of governance.
What happened to me may be rare, but the system allows it — and that’s the problem. The same gaps in oversight and law make it possible anywhere.
Nevada’s HOA laws allow private attorneys to act as both enforcers and beneficiaries. Through one-sided “prevailing party” clauses, legal costs become a weapon—used not to defend fairness, but to silence those who dare to challenge it.
Developers, managers, and entrenched boards know this. Regulators know this. The courts know it, too. Yet the pattern persists because attorney-fee intimidation works.
One case says it all: my association and its developer demanded $120,000 in attorney fees for a single appellate answer—more than double Nevada’s median worker’s annual salary. My own attorney charged roughly a third of that to handle both sides of the argument. These are not “costs of justice”; they are deterrents designed to ensure no one ever asks hard questions again.
When Oversight Becomes Optional
NRED has the authority to investigate and regulate HOAs. Instead, it often avoids tough cases, conceals complaint outcomes, and shields its findings behind “confidentiality” provisions. The Commission for Common-Interest Communities—the supposed oversight body—sees the same failures and does nothing.
This abdication allows abuse to flourish. The result is a governance system where boards and HOA attorneys exercise public-like power without public accountability, backed by a legal framework that rewards aggression over fairness.
Why It Matters & Remains Unfinished
It’s about the rule of law that controls half of Nevada housing. Nearly twenty years ago, Nevada positioned itself as a leader in HOA reform, importing the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) and promising oversight that would protect homeowners from costly and unfair governance. The framework looks like oversight from the outside, but inside it is hollow. The HOA system is unfinished leaving homeowners governed by boards treated like corporate directors, but without the constitutional checks that protect citizens in public life.
Through NVHOAReform, I’ve filed multiple petitions urging the CICCH Commission and NRED to:
Define “compensation” and “personal profit” under NRS 116.31034 to stop eligibility manipulation;
Clarify due process in board disqualifications;
Restrict use of affiliated vendors and declarant-controlled management contracts; and
Eliminate one-sided attorney-fee provisions that chill participation and silence owners.
Without these reforms, anyone in any HOA can be targeted the same way I was. This isn’t theoretical—it’s happening across Nevada, quietly, case by case.
A Call to Homeowners and Lawmakers
If you’ve ever hesitated to question your HOA because you feared retaliation, you’re not alone.
If you’ve ever wondered why your HOA’s attorney seems untouchable, you’re seeing the same imbalance my commentary in The Nevada Current seeks to expose.
Homeownership should not come with a gag order.
HOA law should not function as a financial weapon.
And silence should never be the only safe option.
Until Nevada’s lawmakers act to restore fairness and accountability, every homeowner remains one legal invoice away from losing not just a case—but their voice.
