Elko County, NV HOA Rules: CC&R Enforcement (2026)

Elko County Code § 4-9-4 ties the Board of County Commissioners' permit process to private covenant enforcement. Subsection B covers building permits. Every applicant in a subdivision that has an active and duly authorized Architectural Review Committee, or the equivalent established under recorded declarations, restrictions, covenants or conditions, must certify on a form provided by the County that the application has been submitted to that committee. The certification is attached to the application. The Building or Zoning Department then sends the committee notice by mail and electronic mail and asks for a report. If no report arrives within ten (10) days of the notice, the application is deemed acceptable by the Committee. An application inside a covered area with no certification attached is rejected until one is completed and attached, and no permit is issued until the subsection is complied with.

Subsection A applies the same certification to zoning changes, zoning variances, conditional use permits and modifications of a lot boundary line or lot size, and gives the committee ten (10) days after receiving the certification to submit comments before the County approves. A committee counts as active and duly authorized only if it meets three tests: one or more persons are charged with enforcement of the subdivision covenants, conditions or restrictions; those covenants are recorded in the official records of the County Recorder; and the committee has filed written notice of its existence and operation with the County Manager. For this section, a building permit means one for a new structure or building, one that increases the square footage of an existing structure, or one that changes the use or occupancy of a building. The section was adopted by Ord. 1996-D and amended by Ord. 2021-04 on 11-17-2021.

CC&R terms also reach county traffic rules. Under § 8-2-3(C), homeowners' associations or committees recognized under § 4-9-4 can ban or further restrict off highway vehicles on county highways inside the subdivision by amending their CC&Rs or declarations, and those amendments must be recorded with the Elko County recorder. The city codes of Elko, Carlin, Wells and West Wendover are separate and do not govern here.