Nevada’s HOA system gives private actors the first move. Developers write declarations, associations exercise powers those declarations confer, and government often comes later—after owners are already bound. The result is a legislative game of HOA Whack-a-Mole.

Nevada law says HOA owners have a right to exhibit political signs. But it does not expressly define important boundaries such as minimum size or display period. That seemingly simple gap points to a much larger question: who decides how much authority an HOA may exercise in the first place?

Nevada has spent decades managing particular exercises of HOA authority. But it has done comparatively little to define the outer boundaries of that authority—what an HOA may be empowered to own, operate, regulate, or require its owners to do and finance through the declaration. What limits the scope of an association’s authority and obligations in the first place? Whatever the developer puts into the declaration?