COLUMN: Some covenants lack enforcement

Q. I do not know of an association for our development, so there are no easy methods to file complaints about violations of covenants. Our declaration of covenants mentions an architectural committee, but I have never been notified about any meetings, nor has there been any filing with the Clark County recorder. We pay no dues of any kind.

I am concerned about the maintenance of landscaping along two streets. All of the owners adjacent to these streets signed agreements stating that they would be responsible for the maintenance and irrigation of the landscaping. The developer was to provide each lot owner with a manual irrigation control for their portion of the landscaping. After persistent telephone calls, the developer connected the irrigation to my home, but other homes along my street have not been connected to their portion of the parkway landscaping.

None of the owners do any maintenance on their landscaping. Cleaning, pruning and removal of dead plants is nonexistent. The neglect made our neighborhood look very unattractive, so I cleaned and pruned the area. It is ironic that the developer lives in one of the homes and is not watering his trees or performing any maintenance on the landscape. I am completely frustrated with my neighbors' lack of responsibility.

I am also concerned about a dilapidated boat with flat tires and tags that expired two years ago sitting in our neighbor's driveway, and that a few owners have painted their homes with colors inconsistent with the neighborhood.

I do not want to be an unreasonable neighbor, but with nonenforcement of the covenants, our neighborhood is deteriorating. I simply want them to comply with the guidelines they agreed upon when they purchased their homes. What are my options?

A. Many neighborhoods in Southern Nevada have a declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions recorded against their lots but do not provide for an administrative body, such as a board of directors, or provide for collecting revenues.

In many ways, these declarations serve more as architectural and landscape guidelines that one would find in a traditional association with a board.

Although the covenants for your neighborhood provide for an architectural committee, none appears to have been appointed by the developer. According to your covenants, at any time the owners of at least 75 percent of the lots may elect members to the architectural control committee. You could begin a door-to-door process to determine if you could obtain support from the owners to call for a meeting and elect the three-member committee.

Unfortunately, other than sending letters and possibly some peer pressure, the architectural committee does not have any real enforcement powers, such as the ability to fine or to place liens on individual lots. Unless 75 percent of the lot owners agree to pay assessments, there are would be no funds in which to enforce the covenants.

The only way that you could obtain support for the compliance of the covenants would be to file formal complaints in court against individual owners. Even if a court ruled in your favor, there would be the problem of who will ensure compliance of the court order, as well as future compliance by a nonobservant owner.

An article in your covenants allows for an amendment of the declaration by a majority of the record owners. This would require much work and possibly a monetary investment to hire an attorney to present the proposed covenant changes. These changes could include the creation of a board of directors, ability to collect dues, and ability to fine and place liens on the unit owners. There could be opposition from owners who do not recognize the board of directors as a body of authority. There also could be a legal battle to establish the legitimacy of the changes in the amendments and of the board's newly acquired enforcement powers.

As to the developer's responsibility of connecting the irrigation lines, there could be a statute of limitation problem. You could certainly discuss the matter with the Nevada State Contractors Board to determine if they could require the developer to complete his work.

Questions for Barbara Holland may be sent to Association Q. & A., P.O. Box 7440, Las Vegas, NV 89125. Her fax number is 385-3759.

Barbara Holland, Certified Property Manager, is president and co-owner of H&L Realty and Management Co. She is a member of the Institute of Real Estate Management and is the author of two books on the subject. Holland is a past president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

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