Nevada Homeowner Association Issues

The Attempt to Suppress my Newsletter

As mentioned in another part of this site, soon after moving into Escondido Estates, I became aware that the people in control of the board were attempting to control their neighbors property to an extent that I thought was unreasonable. (I am willing to accept a modest amount of regulation as long as it is strictly in accordance with the governing documents.) Shortly after I successfully challenged the board on the location of my satellite dish, I found that I was again the target of enforcement efforts that were not supported by the governing documents, in other words enforcement that was not legitimate and that could be successfully challenged. One of these had to do with automobile registration. One of the residents decided he would give me trouble over automobile registration that happened to be overdue by a few days. So he persuaded the community manager to schedule a hearing on the issue of why my car registration was lapsed by a few days. I am sure that the person who did this is Joe Ervin, now on the board. Some weeks prior to this incident, he told me in conversation that he thought that the association should try to enforce automobile registration. I disagreed. But letting my registration lapse for a few days was an absent minded mistake on my part and not intended as a challange to this particular person or to the board.

I decided to try to inform residents on these various issues and so started a newsletter that put forth a considerably different opinion than the board ws used to hearing. Since the newsletter was critical of the board and the community manager, it is not surprising that they were annoyed by it. What is surprising is that the board with the aid of the community manager, attempted to discourage me, with a mild threat of legal action and with also the objection that I was "naming names" in the newletter. The idea that I should not "name names" is a real howler! I suppose they are not aware that the typical daily newspaper names thousands of names, often in contexts that are not flattering to the person named. Here is the letter that I received from the board, which was drafted by Laury Phelps, of Taylor Association Management. This letter is one reason why I have come to the conclusion that community managers have far less education than they need to do the rather sophisticated work that is expected of them. I believe most people, with education equal to that of a school teacher would know not to attempt to suppress a newsletter. Apparently Ms. Phelps and Taylor Property Management were ignorant of some basic rights of citizenship, which include the right to distribute a newsletter.

I was offended by this letter in more than one way. It either shows that the board and community manager have little awareness of some basic American rights or that they did have that awareness and thought that I did not. Maybe they thought that I fell off a turnip truck yesterday into Escondido Estates and that they could easily intimidate me. Whatever their exact thought process, they soon had a rude awakaning. I suspect that the board and the community manager were simply not aware of the strict limitations on their power and seriously overestimated what they could get away with. It seems that it is amateur hour for this board and this community manager. And I suspect that this situation is typical of boards in general.

July 5, 2005


Laury Phelps, 
Taylor Association Management

Dear Mr. Holloway:


I am writing on behalf of the Escondido Estates Board of Directors concerning issues within 
the association. 

The Association is concerned that the newsletter that you write and distribute to homeowners
may create some liability issues for you. It has come to our attention that your newsletter 
publishes the names of homeowners without their consent, and makes assertions about homeowners
that may not be true. 


The Board of Directors would like to respectfully request that you discontinue this practice.
The Association will soon be publishing and distributing their own newsletter.

[Some text omitted here on the subject of landscaping]


Sincerely,


Laury Phelps
Community Manager
Escondido Estates Homeowners Association

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I replied to the above letter expressing annoyance at their attempt to suppress the newsletter and I continued to publish the newsletter. In due course the board was required to defend their action along with other similar actions that were also outside the scope of the governing documents. The cost to the board in legal fees was $2,000. The cost to me was almost nothing. The letter was an expensive one for the board but the cost could have been 10 times greater, had I not wanted to avoid imposing severe financial hardship on the association. This is a prime example of a community manager and a board not understanding the legal landscape enough to stay out of trouble.

If the board and community manager had simply followed the common sense approach of not attempting to expand their authority beyond reasonable limits, they could have avoided this waste of association funds. It is not rocket science to recognize that an association is foolish in trying to suppress one of the most highly protected rights in America. I suppose they must have thought I just fell off a turnip truck into Escondido Estate.

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