President's Message - Reality Check

Recently a set of CC&R’s was sent out to each Home-owner with a ballot to approve or not.

A brief history of our CC&R’s; they were written by the first developer in 1991 and not by the Home-owner. The CC&R’s you now have are written by a Committee of Homeowners and reflect our wants with regard to how we want our community run. A vote against the CC&R’s reflects that you want the Golf Course and the Developer to run the way our HOA is going to be governed. The latest Developer changed the CC&R’s to benefit the Developer. They changed the vacant Lot dues to $5.00 per year. This does not cover our re-serve costs or even the cost of mailings to the Lot Owners. There is a question of the legality of the Developer’s actions. This was done because the Developer stated he was the Declarant and could do whatever he wanted because he had the votes. This was all done in 2000 or 2001. The actions cost our HOA approximately $300,000 + in lost revenue to our Reserve Fund, over the last nine years. An approval of the new CC&R’s will change this by making vacant Lot Owners pay fair dues to the Reserve Fund. I owned a vacant Lot here for approximately 5 years and never had a problem paying the $40.00 per month dues. The dues remained at $40.00 for seventeen years and only recently did they increase to $50.00. My research has shown that other HOA’s all pay the same for vacant Lots. It is unfortunate that we have a Developer that is not looking out for our interest.

Now the reality check, leaving the CC&R's as they are will result in the vacant Lot Owners paying $50.00 per month The Association will not be on firm legal ground to enforce the Developers to make this pay-ment. This is corrected in the new CC&R's. Doing nothing allows the Developers to still control how we manage our Association and the golf course having a say in how we operate. Here is the biggest kicker. NRS 116 states we have to fund our Reserves at what our Reserve Study states we need in our account. The future holds some major road repairs and any unforeseen repairs. If the CC&R’s remain the same, you could see an increase in the quarterly dues by as much as $150.00. This is not a threat but a reality; we are mandated by state law to fund our reserves to future needs. Approve and dues will remain the same do not approve and there will be increases in the very near future. The choice is yours. Vote however you want but please vote now. Do not wait till April. There have been some in-quires about snow removal. We have never budgeted for removal due to the extreme cost. Since we have private roads the cost would be $50,000 per snow event, like we just experienced. You will notice the county does not plow side streets, which is the norm in northern Nevada’s counties. 2010 will be a very important year for our HOA. It is time we take control of our HOA for the first time in our history.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

Charlie Duke,
President