Responsibilities of the HOA and Managing Company

First Off, I want to be totally anonymous. I live in an gated HOA in unincorporated Clark County Nevada. for four years now I have watched my HOA
do next to nothing. The HOA is fairly new, we purchased in the last of a few homes from the second of three builders in a less that 400 home HOA.
there are three issues dealing with broken in ground utility box and two sidewalk slabs that were never repaired by the builder.
Almost immediately after the last house sold and the home owner board took over, all the streetlights in the community was replaced at a cost of slightly over $20,000.00 after that, the dues went up.

then the year after that the pool was closed for nearly two months so the plaster could be replaced, mind you the community was started in 2008 and the budget reports said that this was expected to be done in ten years. again the dues went up. The landscapers do a poor job at plant upkeep, they keep lobbing off the fountain grass to the point it looks like a dried out divot on a golf course. The board spent nearly $20 grand again I expect our dues to go up.

Over the past four years, we have renters from HELL. their visitors or long time guest park in front of my garage sometimes blocking me 100%, 50% or 25% of the way, all the HOA says they will send them a pretty please with sugar on top letter to stop even though the CC&R say NO ON STREET PARKING.
The HOA dose NOT enforce any CC&R's they allow commercial vehicles to park and in front of fire hydrants.. vehicles leaking oil on the ground, we have a "party house" on the next block where they have 4 couches in the garage and 2 big screen TV's and they always cook on commercial grills in the driveway.. again the HOA does nothing
.
I have a house behind mine that for over a month windows were left open and all the smoke alarms was chirping 24/7 for over a month. again the HOA did nothing.
Now that same house, the renters abandoned it, it appears burglarized and the owner is out of state and the rental agent is MIA

Back to my neighbors from HELL, their children are constantly playing football on my property, they dented the $#!T out of the sides of my AC unit, throw balls and whatnot at the sides of my house, they play football in the street at 1am, they damaged our neighbors car and all the HOA says is eh, not our problem..

What is the responsibility of an HOA? of these creeps can take your home because you missed a dues payment or you have a weed in your front yard, certainly the HOA should be compelled to act in manners as I described.

Thank You in advance

Sorry for your neighborhood's troubles. Unfortunately, it seems to be a repeat of what I've read in conversations all over this website.

What probably happened here is that the developer built the community as fast as possible, not paying as much attention as it should have to the quality of materials and workmanship, and then set the assessments super super low so folks (like you) would buy. You don't how many homes are in your community, but even if the final number is less than 400, I'm certain the assessments aren't enough to pay the community's expenses and that's why they've increased. And they will keep increasing because home ownership isn't cheap (so get used to it). As you've also found out, there are people who buy homes and rent them out to anyone who can fog a mirror - some tenants are better than others.

You haven't said if you've spoken to your board about any of this, but you need to remember that (1) they're homeowners too and have to pay the fees like you do (2) the developer likely established the first board with homeowners who volunteered, but didn't give them any training on how to actually run one and (3) the board does have a life outside the association - there are some disputes between neighbors that really aren't association issues and the neighbors need to grow the hell up and act like adults instead of children.

Now, it seems you have two issues (1) rules enforcement and (2) the budget. The developer is history, so that leaves homeowners like you to make the community into what you want it to be. We'll start with the budget - you need to get a copy of the budget, last reserve study (if there is one) and the last few income/expense statements and do a deep dive into the numbers. Does your association have a reserve budget, as NpS asked? If so, how much is in it? Are regular deposits being made? Do you have a problem with delinquencies - you mentioned the house behind you is in poor repair and it may not be the only one. When some homeowners skip out on paying assessments, everyone else has to pay more to pick up the slack. It may be too low assessments and lack of reserves has forced the board to make some tough choices on what can be done. Take some notes, jot down some questions and go talk to the board. If the budget is completely unrealistic as to how much things really cost, it may be time for you to consider volunteering and taking a deep dive into the numbers to see what can be done.

Next, rules enforcement. It's not easy to enforce the rules on one's neighbors - some were truly unaware and fix the problem quickly, while others act as if the rules apply to everyone else except them. Review your Bylaws and CCRs to see what it says about rules enforcement - perhaps your board doesn't have one (it may not have had time to develop one because the budget is in bad shape). This may be an area where YOU can pitch in instead of just saying "why doesn't the HOA do X?" It's not a bad question, but remember the HOA is only as good as the homeowners - if they don't care and behave like it, you'll have what you have. Maybe the board needs a rules enforcement advisory committee where you and like minded homeowners can review the problems and poll the homeowners to see what's the most obnoxious problem or problems and come up with a strategy to address it. Check your documents again to see what you can and can't do - for example, if the board can assess fines, you could come up with a fining schedule.

Bottom line - it looks like your HOA has some growing pains to address and it will take EVERYONE to pitch in and help - it's ok to point out problems, but what's really needed are solutions and you can't expect the board to do all the heavy lifting by itself. Get some of your like minded neighbors together and talk to the board about lending a helping hand. Go to some of the meetings and LISTEN to the proceedings - they just might have some ideas in the works. If the board doesn't seem like it can't buy a clue and isn't interested in shopping, you'll need to vote them out and put in people who will do the work (you perhaps?)

In the meantime, there are a variety of topics all over this website on rules enforcement, reserves, budgeting and a lot more - I don't know if the search function is working so you may have to scroll through a bunch of pages. pick a few topics and read the conversations and take some notes on what your community may want to consider as well as avoid. You may also wish to check out the Community Association Institute website - I know some people don't like their approaches on some issues, but they have a lot of good brochures and books to help board members and community volunteers adopt best practices to their communities. Good luck!

Well yes, I would call the police, but I don't want to do that, they are some shady characters and I don't want to come home
to find my home burglarized, I would feel better if the situation was settled administratively.
3 I don't know and there might be a special assessment and if the board decides to do Y instead of D our dues can go up again, and they will.

You and several homeowners went to the board and were "blown off?" Well, you can't just stand there and fume - all of you need to rally the other homeowners and get them thinking about what's going on. Gather your facts and start walking around the community with a petition requesting a special meeting to discuss the finances - rather than go all over the place, start with asking why the reserve funds is being used to pay the security company. That's not what reserves are for - reserves should be used to cover future replacements or repairs of major community property, such as sidewalks.

As for "puppets" for the HOA company - I take it you mean the management company. The management company is supposed to be working for the Board, not the other way around, so if this board is sitting back and letting the property manager make all the decisions, they need to be replaced. Hence another reason for a recall (check your documents to see how that's done).

As for the nepotism business, I'd be a lot more concerned if the daughter and the boyfriend were both appointed to the board (most communities have one vote per household, so it's inappropriate to have two co-owners on the board at the same time. However, if the boyfriend is a legitimate homeowner, he has as much right as any other homeowner to sit on the board. That doesn't mean you can't ask whether others were considered and why he was picked over them, and it certainly shouldn't stop you from looking at what he DOES - you never know, he may turn out to be a decent board member. If not, appointed board members have to be re-elected at the end of their terms, so you can vote this one out at the appropriate time. Or recall him and the rest of the board if they're as incompetent as you imply.

It's interesting the assessments started at $75 then dropped to $66 - any idea as to why that happened? A $4 increase shouldn't kill you, but you need to start by considering what the assessments are supposed to cover - maybe that $9 cut was a mistake from the beginning.

Our next meeting is in August, I am going to ask the board to create a committee that would report to the BOD community issues.. We will see if
that suggestion is taken seriously or who and which board member or the MC rep says ah, no we don't need that