COLUMN: Carmel Hopkins

When Mae Roy's home was burglarized and damaged extensively, she called on the folks at Rolladen Rolling Shutters to secure her home.

As workers were measuring the windows, homeowner association members ordered them off the property and she had to settle for a burglar alarm and interior shutters.

"These were unhappy solutions," Roy said. "I suffered thousands of dollars in losses, including a 500-pound safe filled with family treasures."

On Jan. 21, the president of the association gave Roy written permission to install shutters, and she had the job done July 5.

A letter dated July 7 to Roy from the newly installed president of the association, Lacey Casagrande, warned Roy that the shutters were put up illegally. Roy believes she has been ostracized from the association.

"They never send me notices of the meetings. There was a meeting July 15, where my situation was discussed, but I never received notice," she said. "Not only that, they said they were going to have a special meeting afterwards only among the board members."

Roy said she feels as though she is being discriminated against by Casagrande and Jill Reilly, the secretary-treasurer of the association.

"They bad-mouth me and I've had so many people call to say they support me and tell me about the things Lacey and Reilly have said about me," she said. "They're trying to find something illegal they can get against me. They passed out keys to all the other residents; I never received them. They're discriminating against me."

State Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said although SB 100 doesn't take effect until Oct. 1, making it illegal for homeowner associations to prevent residents from making reasonable changes, he believes Roy has recourse.

"She does have that letter dated in January from the president of the association giving her permission to install the shutters," he said.

Schneider said many associ- ations are self-governing -- that is, they have no property manager -- and that the letter would hold up in court.

Things will change once SB 100 and a commission is given authority over associations.

"They will have the author- ity to fine board members $1,000 personally. They also can remove members from office or a whole board," Schneider said. "A receiver would run the association until the books are in order."

He said a lot of associations do have something to hide.

"They have deals going with a brother-in-law to do the painting or landscaping -- or are just taking money. A lot of these board members are drunk on power and get off on the power trip."

Roy said the board has established an architectural committee, which has permit- ted owners to put wrought- iron bars on windows.

"Those make you look like you're in jail," she said. "Can you imagine them approving bars but not the shutters?"

Roy, a former Realtor, is not a newcomer to homeowner associations, as she established one at her former home in California.

"I was in real estate all my life and came here to live my life and have a little fun," she said. "Now every time I turn around, there's a problem."

In the interest of fairness, I attempted to contact Casagrande for comment. She had her attorney, Michael Schulman, call me. Schulman said the association will "take the temperature of the community" for changes such as allowing the shutters. He added they (association officers) probably will ultimately allow rolling shutters to be installed. He also doubted that the Jan. 21 letter would hold up in court.

Meantime, Roy has the shutters in place on her patio doors, where the burglars gained entry, and feels much more secure. In fact, she's getting the shutters installed on other windows in her home.

The bottom line: don't make a little old lady angry, because she'll fight back.

Carmel Hopkins, real estate product manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is Carmel_Hopkins@ lasvegasnewspapers.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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