Attorney Bruce Flammey: I knew HOA Situation was ‘Just Wrong’

March 15th, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Las Vegas attorney Bruce Flammey…

Attorney Bruce Flammey: “This…involved a colossal level of amount stupidity on a number of interlocking levels”

Bruce Flammey is definitely not a publicity hound—but several weeks ago, the straight shooting Nevada lawyer decided to jump into a local news story after heard about the Trueblood family and its dispute with a local home owners’ association (HOA) in Las Vegas.

“It offended my sense of right and wrong,” says Flammey.

In early December, just before the holidays began, the Tara Villas HOA ordered the water be cut off at Deena Trueblood’s home after she had bounced a check to a collection agency.

“I thought, this is crap,” says Flammey who once served on a HOA board and in fact now does legal work for HOA boards in Las Vegas.

Flammey immediately got in touch with the reporter working the story and offered to provide the family with free legal help. “I said if Deena Trueblood needed any help with this or wanted to talk to a lawyer about this, I would be happy to do so. And literally within hours I got a phone call back.”

The HOA had not only ordered the water cut off, it had ordered that the pipe be cut outside the Trueblood property line to discourage an attempt to have the water reconnected.

When Flammey connected with Deena Trueblood the facts of the case made him even more determined to get everything put right again. Deena and her son by this time had been weeks without water despite the fact that she made good on the bounced check way back in December.

“In fact, it was more like a clerical error than a bounced check,” explains Flammey.

“She was back on solid ground with the collection agency and as far as it was concerned everything was okay—and had been for weeks,” says Flammey.

One Call Does it All

Flammey picked up the phone and called the HOA’s lawyer. “He said he wasn’t actually their lawyer,” says Flammey, “but he would call the HOA and explain how asinine this was.”

And within 48 hours, after almost six weeks in dry-dock, the water was once again flowing in the Trueblood household.

It might seem like a small gesture, but to the family with no running water, fighting a bureaucracy—it was magic.

“This, in my opinion, involved a colossal level of amount stupidity on a number of interlocking levels,” says Flammey.

“I would have told this HOA under no conditions do we turn off the water to peoples’ homes,” says Flammey. “If I had been their lawyer they never would have ended up on the news.”

“It might have been legal, but in my view it wasn’t a good idea.”

Bruce Flammey is an attorney with a strong sense of justice. He is in solo practice at Flammey Law in Las Vegas, Nevada. He handles legal work for multi-family housing units and home owner association boards.

Tags: Attorney Bruce Flammey, HOA, Homeowners Association, Las Vegas, Lawyers Giving Back

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