HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - August 26, 2016
Published: Fri, 08/26/16
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HOA Pool Rules: When Urine Trouble with Fair Housing Regulators
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In this week’s tip, we tell you why your pool rule requiring children to wear swim diapers is probably unwise.
Under the federal Fair Housing Act, associations can’t treat families with children differently than other residents by unreasonably limiting their use of privileges, services, or facilities associated with a dwelling, states Kelly Morrow, an associate attorney at Orten Cavanagh & Holmes LLC in Denver.
The problem with pool rules, according to Robert E. Ducharme, founder of Ducharme Law in Stratham, N.H., who specializes in representing community associations, is that like most things in the law, you have to handle issues fairly and equitably among everybody.
“Everybody has the right to use the common areas, and the pool is one,” he explains. “It’s not a limited common area designed for the use of a few people. That’s the problem. As soon as boards start dividing pool time and space up onto slots by saying, ‘This is going to be lap swimming and not for children,’ they’ve tried to convert a common area into limited common area. Courts take a dim view of that.”
Morrow says associations may unintentionally violate familial status protections by implementing rules or restrictions that deny families with children equal use of common areas, such as pools.
First, you have to ensure there’s a compelling reason to implement a rule or restriction, she says, such as to protect health and safety. Then you have to be sure your rule does that with the least restrictive impact on families with children.
“The best way to do this is to draft rules that apply to everyone and not to a specific class of people,” she says. “However, when an association decides to implement rules that limit or restrict the use by children of certain ages, make sure the rule is reasonably related to the health, safety, and welfare of the child.”
If at all possible, Matt D. Ober, senior partner at Richardson Harman Ober, a Pasadena, Calif., law firm with a significant community association practice, recommends against using the term “children” in any rule.
“That’s my rule of thumb,” he says. “So you change the language to, ‘All incontinent swimmers must wear a swim diaper.’ You’re taking out the protected category from the rule. Just keep the rule as neutral as possible. The same is true with skateboards and ridiculous things like that. Don’t say, ‘Children can’t ride bikes in common areas.’ Say, ‘No bike riding in common areas.’”
We’ve got three great examples of how not to get in trouble with pool rules. Read them in our new article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/1422.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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How Could This Pool Rule Draw a Fair Housing Complaint?
Have you heard that a pool rule requiring all children to wear swim diapers may trigger a fair housing complaint? Here's the back story, along with information on other possible pool rules that could also be troublesome.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/How-Could-This-Pool-Rule-Draw-Fair-Housing-Complaint.cfm
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When to Make Exceptions to Your Maintenance Plan
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "We have a number of trees in our community in the common area. These are common elements the association is required to maintain. We've established a schedule for trimming the trees based on a three-to-four-year cycle.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/When-Make-Exceptions-Your-Maintenance-Plan.cfm
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An Embarrassment of Riches: Who Gets an HOA's Special Assessment Refund?
In this week's tip, we answer a reader's question about where to send a refund of a special assessment that turned out to be too big to cover the work needed--the new or old owner. We, however, think the reader should back up and ask another question first: Should the HOA do a refund at all?
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/public/Embarrassment-Riches-Who-Gets-HOAs-Special-Assessment-Refund.cfm
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Refunding An HOA Special Assessment? Wise? Who Gets It?
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "We recently passed a special assessment to repair the dam protecting our association property. We assessed each property (30 lot owners) $3,550 for our anticipated $106,500 project.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Refunding-HOA-Special-Assessment-Wise-Who-Gets-It.cfm
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The SMART Way to Decide If an Idea Is Right for Your HOA
Do you have a lot of ideas for your HOA but also have a hard time determining which are right for your particular community? Use the long-time management acronym SMART to sort out the ones that are a good fit and that you can actually achieve. That was the advice at a recent HOAleader.com webinar on what it means to run your HOA like a business. It came from one of the panelists, Jane Bolin, the founding member and chief marketing officer of PeytonBolin, a Florida-based law firm focused on community association law.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/SMART-Way-Decide-Idea-Right-for-Your-HOA.cfm
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