Nevada Litigation Continues To Escalate In Controversy Around Aggressive HOA Tactics When Filing Liens For Unpaid Assessments & Allegedly Inflated 'Collection Costs' On Foreclosed Homes

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Vegas Inc. reports:

• The Nevada Supreme Court may soon be asked to weigh in again on the issue of past-due homeowner association assessments and fees levied against buyers of foreclosed homes.
  
  Attorneys for the Southern Highlands Community Association, in a bid to short-circuit an existing class-action lawsuit over those fees, last week told Clark County District Court Judge Susan Scann that they will appeal one of her rulings in the suit.
  
  The ruling at issue was favorable to investors in foreclosed homes and homebuyers suing the HOA over the fees.
  
  The investors, represented by Las Vegas attorneys James Adams and Puoy Premsrirut, in recent years have sued hundreds of Nevada HOAs and their collection agencies in state and federal court and before the state Real Estate Division.
  
  The investors’ attorneys claim HOAs and their collection agencies regularly file inflated liens against foreclosed homes to recover not just excessive past-due monthly HOA assessments that accumulate while the homes sit vacant, but unauthorized collection costs for those assessments as well.
  
  The liens must be paid off for the investors and other buyers to obtain titles to the homes.
  
  The investors claim state law and sometimes HOA governing documents limit the liens to an amount equaling six or nine months of assessments depending on the circumstances.
  
  In one recent suit, for instance, the investors said a party purchased a home in Spring Mountain Ranch and was required to pay off an HOA lien against the home of $5,895. They said state law limited the HOA’s lien authority in that instance to $357, with the remainder representing an "unlawful lien amount."
  
  The investors say this pattern of alleged overcharging has been repeated thousands of times at scores of HOAs, potentially subjecting the HOAs to significant damages.

For more, see HOA fee issue likely headed back to Nevada Supreme Court.

In a related story, see B of A sues 28 Nevada HOAs, collection agencies in lien dispute:

• Bank of America is suing 28 Nevada homeowner associations and their collection agencies in the continuing dispute over charges that HOAs have been hitting homeowners and buyers of foreclosed homes with inflated bills for past-due assessments and collection costs.