HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 3, 2025
Published: Fri, 10/03/25
Updated: Tue, 10/07/25
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 3, 2025
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In this week's tip, we explain why a case brought by two owners in a Florida HOA community who've sued their board for failing to address noise issues from the community's pickleball courts is a warning to condos and HOAs nationwide.
The fight over pickleball is taking place at The Parkside At Boca Trail Community Association, which converted tennis courts to pickleball courts. Several owners say the community wasn't asked if it wanted that conversion of common area to take place—which their documents allegedly require—and that the noise from the new courts is much different than that from tennis courts.
This type of argument isn't surprising to Gregory R. Eisinger, a partner at Eisinger Law who represents condos and HOAs throughout the state and who also teaches a course on condo law at Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad College of Law, in addition to Florida state-approved condominium and HOA board certification courses.
“I have personal experience with this,” he explains. “I live in a community that transformed two of the six tennis courts to pickleball courts. Ours is an HOA, which in Florida is unlike a condo. For condos, this change would be considered a material alteration that would require membership approval. Sometimes, HOA documents might say a project needs owner approval if the work is more than a certain price. But for my HOA, this project didn't require membership approval.
“I love pickleball, so I was in favor of it in my community,” says Eisinger. “But it turned into World War III between the tennis and pickleball folks. I live close to the courts, and I can hear it. But I have hurricane windows and can hear the pickleball play only when I'm outside. If I heard that ping, ping, ping in my home all day, I think there would be a valid argument that it's a nuisance the association may be sued for.
“Our community used to say that tennis could start at something like 7 a.m. and must end at 10 p.m.,” he explains. “Now, to appease some of the homeowners around the pickleball courts, the rules are something like pickleball can't be played until 8 a.m. and must stop at 9 p.m. Our board reduced the hours.
“This type of fight is happening all over,” says Eisinger. “I got a call this morning from a client that's putting pickleball courts to a vote in their community. I also just finished a lawsuit involving a large HOA community where an owner built a full-court basketball court with lines that also allowed them to play pickleball. The basketball noise was a problem. But the complaint was really about pickleball noise.
“All the neighbors complained,” he notes. “The HOA filed a lawsuit saying the owner never got approval to build the court, and a judge ruled that owner had to remove that court.”
Read our new article, Pickleball Is All the Rage and Enraging for Some Condo/HOA Owners, to find out how you can avoid hitting the courts—and we don't mean pickleball courts—over the sport: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5183.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Pickleball Is All the Rage and Enraging for Some Condo/HOA Owners
Two owners in a Florida HOA community have sued their board for failing to address noise issues from the community’s pickleball courts. They also claim the board’s process for converting HOA property to a pickleball court wasn’t sufficient. One lawyer’s update says this is part of a growing trend of disputes over pickleball. Our experts agree that the sport can serve up controversy if you’re not careful as you add it to your amenities...
Click here to read the full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Pickleball-All-Rage-Enraging-for-Some-Condo-HOA-Owners.cfm
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Condo/HOA Project Is Reserved and Budgeted: Any Further Action Needed Before It Begins?
An HOAleader.com reader asks: “It has been the past practice of the board to forego any specific approval of projects that are included in the reserve study and are within the annual budget for the relevant category. Is this an acceptable way to approve expenses?
Click here to read the full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Condo-HOA-Project-Reserved-Budgeted-Any-Further-Action-Needed-Before-It-Begins.cfm
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Lawmakers Are Targeting Condos and HOAs: What To Know About This Growing Trend
In this week’s tip, we give you a heads up: You may need to keep a watchful eye on your state legislators and step in to educate them if they get crazy ideas. We say this because state legislators across the country often don’t understand how condos and HOAs work, yet they plow through with legislation that makes your job harder...
Click here to read the full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Lawmakers-Are-Targeting-Condos-HOAs-What-Know-About-This-Growing-Trend.cfm
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Did This Condo Board Fail to Accept a Win and Create a Bigger Problem?
We received a copy of a lawsuit an owner in Massachusetts filed against their condo. Our thought: This board didn’t know when to accept victory and move on. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before we ask our experts if they think the same, here’s the skinny that led to this lawsuit...
Click here to read the full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Did-This-Condo-Board-Fail-Accept-Win-Create-Bigger-Problem.cfm
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A Worrisome Trend for Condo/HOA Boards Is Emerging in State Legislatures
Have you been watching news from state legislators across the country? You should be because they often don’t understand how condos and HOAs work, yet they plow through with legislation that makes your job harder...
Click here to read the full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Worrisome-Trend-for-Condo-HOA-Boards-Emerging-in-State-Legislatures.cfm
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