In Henderson, homeowners in Sun City Anthem once got word that their board was weighing a special assessment near $11,000 per household to replace turf and trees across the community's common areas, one of the first concrete price tags anyone in the valley attached to Nevada's turf mandate. The reason wasn't optional landscaping preference. It was Nevada's Assembly Bill 356, the state law phasing out irrigation of nonfunctional turf, and the deadline for compliance lands on January 1, 2027.
That number made headlines because it was concrete. Most HOA boards facing the same deadline haven't landed on a number yet, and that's the part sellers in Centennial Hills need to understand. A board can spend months discussing a turf conversion, get bids, argue about scope, and never take a formal vote, right up until the week your home goes under contract. Nevada law doesn't require your HOA to tell a buyer about a plan. It only requires disclosure of an assessment the board has actually levied. Everything before that vote is invisible to the paperwork.
The Disclosure Gap Hiding in Plain Sight
Every HOA resale in Nevada runs through NRS 116.4109. The seller (through the association or its management company) has to hand the buyer a resale package that includes a statement of dues owed, current financials, the reserve fund balance, a summary of insurance coverage, any pending litigation involving the association, and a list of code or governing-document violations tied to the unit. As of July 1, 2026, a new requirement was added under AB 396: the package must also include proof of the insurance policies the HOA is required to carry. That brought Nevada's resale disclosure list to ten required items.
What's on that list matters less than what isn't. A special assessment only has to appear once the board has formally levied it. If your HOA has spent three board meetings debating whether to convert the entry medians and the front slope along the main boulevard to rock and desert planting, and the vote hasn't happened, none of that shows up in the package a buyer reviews before their five-day cancellation window starts running. The buyer waives that window, closes, and finds out about the vote at the next annual meeting, sometimes with their own new mailbox key still in the drawer.
Here's a simple way to see the split:
| Shows up on the required resale certificate | Doesn't have to show up yet |
|---|---|
| A special assessment the board has formally approved | A turf conversion the board has discussed but not voted on |
| Current reserve fund balance | Bids the HOA has requested but not accepted |
| Pending litigation the HOA is a party to | Informal cost estimates circulated at a board meeting |
| Known violations tied to the specific unit | A compliance plan the manager is drafting for the 2027 deadline |
Why This Matters More in Centennial Hills Right Now
Centennial Hills isn't one HOA. It's a corridor of master plans and sub-associations, each on its own timeline. Skye Canyon and Providence carry newer common-area landscaping, much of it planted with the desert palette that AB 356 was written to encourage in the first place. Elkhorn Ranch, Painted Desert, and older established subdivisions closer to the Town Center were built when cool-season turf and shade trees along entry boulevards were still the default. Centennial Hills HOA dues run a wide range, from lighter monthly fees around $75 in older, lower-amenity sections up toward the $90 to $165 range some of the newer sub-villages carry. That range exists because the amount of common-area turf, the size of the entry landscaping, and the age of the irrigation infrastructure vary block to block.
That range is also exactly where the 2027 deadline bites hardest. Single-family backyards are exempt from the irrigation ban. What isn't exempt is turf in medians, entryways, and other HOA-managed common areas that Nevada's definition of "nonfunctional" turf targets specifically. Boards in the older sections of Centennial Hills, the ones with mature trees lining entry drives, are the ones facing the harder version of this decision, because removing turf from under an established canopy is where the risk shows up most.
That risk isn't hypothetical anymore. A lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court accuses the Southern Nevada Water Authority of overreaching in how it has enforced the turf mandate, naming a Summerlin resident and a Henderson resident as plaintiffs and estimating roughly 100,000 mature trees have died as a result of turf removal, with total damages pegged near $300 million. A declaration attached to the filing, from Norm Schilling of Mojave Bloom Nursery, put survival rates for trees stripped of their surrounding turf under 10 percent. A judge issued a temporary limit on certain enforcement steps in late January 2026, but the underlying deadline hasn't moved. Boards now have to weigh water compliance against tree loss, and that argument is exactly the kind that drags a vote out for months while a house down the street quietly goes on the market.
The Five-Day Window Nobody Times Right
Nevada gives HOA boards a specific meeting cadence: quarterly board meetings on 10 days' notice, with an owner-comment period built in. It gives buyers a five-day right to cancel a purchase after receiving the resale package. Those two clocks were never designed to sync with each other, and in a fast-moving Centennial Hills sale, they usually don't.
A typical sequence looks like this. A seller lists a home. The buyer goes under contract. The resale package gets ordered from the management company, usually delivered within the statutory window, with a preparation fee capped around $185 (plus up to $100 for an expedited turnaround). The buyer's five-day cancellation clock starts. If the board's next quarterly meeting happens to fall during escrow, and a turf-assessment vote is on that agenda, the buyer may close before the vote happens, or the vote may happen while the resale package sitting in their file is already technically out of date. The Southern Nevada Water Authority's rebate for HOA-managed turf conversion currently runs $2 per square foot, which softens the number for boards but rarely covers the full cost of a common-area redesign in a mature community, which is exactly why special assessments are the mechanism boards reach for.
Before You List, Ask Your HOA These Questions
If you're planning to sell a home in a Centennial Hills HOA community in the next year, a few calls to the management company before you list can save a much harder conversation during escrow:
- Has the board discussed or budgeted for a turf conversion project tied to the 2027 deadline, even informally?
- Is there a scheduled board meeting or vote date that falls within the next 90 days?
- What's the current reserve fund balance, and does it cover any portion of an anticipated turf project?
- When was the association's last reserve study completed, since Nevada requires one on a five-year cycle?
- Has the HOA requested bids for common-area landscape conversion, even without a formal vote yet?
None of these questions are things a buyer's resale certificate will answer for you automatically. Getting ahead of them lets you either time your listing around a board's decision or prepare a straightforward, honest answer when a buyer's agent asks.
What This Means If You're Buying, Too
If you're the one making an offer in Centennial Hills, the lesson runs the other direction. A clean resale package doesn't mean nothing is coming. It means nothing has been formally voted on yet. Asking directly whether a turf conversion is under discussion, and requesting recent board meeting minutes rather than relying on the certificate alone, is a reasonable and normal step in due diligence for any HOA-governed home in the valley right now.
A Few Questions Before You Call a Landscaper
Does the turf ban apply to my own backyard? No. AB 356's irrigation restriction applies to HOA common areas, medians, entryways, and other nonfunctional turf on properties not zoned exclusively for single-family use. Private backyards on single-family lots are exempt.
What if my HOA already completed its turf conversion? Then the disclosure conversation is simpler. A completed project with no outstanding assessment is straightforward to document, and it can actually work in a seller's favor by showing buyers the community is ahead of the deadline rather than facing it.
Can I still list my home if my HOA has a vote scheduled? Yes. Nothing in Nevada law prevents a sale from moving forward around a pending board decision. It simply means being transparent with the buyer's agent about the timeline so nobody is surprised by what the meeting minutes eventually show.
Nevada's turf deadline was written as a water policy. In Centennial Hills right now, it's also quietly becoming a real estate timing question, and the sellers who ask about it before they list are the ones who won't be explaining it after an inspection period has already closed.
If you're weighing when to list a home in Providence, Skye Canyon, Elkhorn Ranch, or one of Centennial Hills' older established pockets, Stacy Peppley can help you get ahead of what your HOA is actually planning before it becomes a line item in someone else's closing. Let's Connect.
