NRS 116A: Nevada Community Manager Certification and Renewal

To work as a paid HOA or common-interest community manager in Nevada, you need a Nevada community manager certification issued by the Real Estate Division of the Department of Business and Industry. The rules sit in NRS Chapter 116A and its administrative code counterpart, NAC 116A. In short: complete at least 60 hours of approved instruction, submit fingerprints for a criminal background check, pass the Commission’s examination, and renew every two years with 18 hours of continuing education.¹

Who Needs a Certificate

NRS 116A.070 defines a community manager as anyone who provides for or engages in managing a common-interest community or condominium hotel association.² NRS 116A.110 defines “management” broadly to cover any physical, administrative, or financial maintenance of a common-interest community performed for a fee or other compensation.³

That means collecting assessments, coordinating maintenance, or handling an association’s finances for pay all trigger the certification requirement. NRS 116A.400 flatly prohibits acting as a community manager without a certificate.

Reserve study specialists, defined separately under NRS 116A.130, are a different credential and follow a separate registration track.⁴

Who Is Exempt

NRS 116A.400 exempts five categories from certification:

Volunteer board members and association officers acting within their board duties
Nevada-licensed attorneys performing management tasks in that professional capacity
Financial institutions engaged in activities already permitted by law
Trustees managing trust property
Court-appointed receivers handling property subject to receivership

The volunteer-director exemption ends the moment the association hires an outside person to do the same work for pay. That hire needs a certificate.¹

Education and Examination

Under NAC 116A.120, an applicant who does not hold a temporary certificate must complete at least 60 hours of approved instruction in common-interest community management. The breakdown:

At least 20 hours on federal, state, and local laws, with a minimum of 18 hours specifically on the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act
At least 40 hours on other management topics, including budgeting, maintenance, and operations⁵

NRS 116A.410 authorizes the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels to require an examination and to set exam fees covering the cost of administration. The Commission also sets the underlying education, experience, and examination standards by regulation rather than by the statute itself.

Application and Background Check

Every applicant applies to the Real Estate Division and must clear a criminal background check. NRS 116A.432 requires applicants to arrange fingerprinting at their own expense through a law enforcement agency or another entity the Division accepts. The prints go to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History and are then forwarded to the FBI.

An application is not considered complete until the Division has the fingerprints and the applicant’s written authorization on file. Budget the time for that step; the FBI response is often the slowest piece of the process.

Temporary Certificates

Nevada offers two ways to obtain a temporary certificate, each valid for one year.

The first path is for experienced professionals who hold a national designation in community management, have at least five years of full-time management experience, and have no disciplinary history in other states.

The second path is for someone who has an employment offer as a community manager from an association or its agent, provided the executive board determines the candidate has sufficient management experience.

During the one-year window, a temporary certificate holder must complete at least 18 hours of instruction on the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act. Finish those hours without any disciplinary action, and you become eligible for a full certificate at the end of the period. A temporary certificate issued through the employment-offer path expires immediately if you stop working for the association that offered the job.

Renewing Your Certificate

Certification is not a one-time achievement. To renew, a community manager must complete at least 18 hours of Commission-approved continuing education during the two years before the certificate expires. At least three of those hours must cover Nevada’s common-interest community statutes and regulations, with an emphasis on recent changes to NRS Chapters 116, 116A, and 116B and their administrative code counterparts.⁵

Miss the deadline and the certificate lapses. Practicing without a valid certificate exposes you to administrative fines described below. NAC 116A.355 also lets the Commission treat failure to keep current with statutes and regulations as evidence of professional incompetence in a disciplinary case, so falling behind on continuing education carries a second layer of risk beyond the lapse itself.⁶

Duties and Prohibited Conduct Once You Hold a Certificate

NRS 116A.630 makes every certified community manager a fiduciary to the client association and requires ordinary and reasonable care in performing duties.⁷ The association’s interests come before the manager’s own.

NRS 116A.640 spells out specific prohibitions. Among the most consequential:

Commingling a client’s funds with the manager’s own money or with funds of another association
Using client funds for personal expenses
Signing withdrawals from a reserve account
Accepting referral payments, gifts, or anything of value without full written disclosure to the client and the client’s written consent
Redirecting an owner’s assessment payment toward fines or other charges without authorization
Failing to produce documents the Division requests, providing false information to investigators, or concealing records
Collecting fees not specified in the management agreement⁸

Vendor kickbacks are the classic trap. A landscaping-company referral fee violates NRS 116A.640 unless the board consented in writing after full disclosure.

Discipline and Penalties

When a certified manager violates NRS 116A, Chapter 116, or any Commission regulation, the Commission or a hearing panel may impose conditions on the certificate, suspend it, or revoke it entirely after notice and a hearing. The Commission can also refuse to issue or renew a certificate if the applicant owes money to the Commission or Division.

Unlicensed activity carries its own penalty. NRS 116A.900 lets the Commission impose an administrative fine on anyone who knowingly acts as a community manager without a certificate, or who helps someone else do so. The fine can reach the greater of the person’s economic gain from the violation or $10,000. In setting the amount, the Commission looks at the severity of the violation, harm to others, the violator’s history, and the profit involved.

Walking away from the certificate does not end the exposure. NRS 116A.460 lets the Commission and Division start or continue an investigation and collect fines even after a certificate has been voluntarily surrendered, revoked, or allowed to lapse.¹

1
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 116A – Common-Interest Communities
2
Nevada Real Estate Division. Understanding the Role of the Community Manager
3
Nevada Public Law. Nevada Code NRS 116A.110 – Management of a Common-Interest Community Defined
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 116A.130 – Reserve Study Specialist Defined
5
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code Chapter 116A – Common-Interest Communities
6
Legal Information Institute. Nevada Administrative Code 116A.355 – Grounds for Disciplinary Action
7
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 116A.630 – Standards of Practice for Community Managers
8
Nevada Public Law. NRS 116A.640 – Community Manager Prohibited From Engaging in Certain Acts