Understanding Your Homeowners Association: What Are They Responsible For?

Written by Posted On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 10:04

 Are you a homeowner living in a planned development? You may know basic information about your homeowners’ association, but what are they really responsible for? Perhaps you’ve even considered serving on the board for the HOA. If so, do you find yourself having any reservations about joining, simply because of what they could potentially be held responsible for? When you move into a community governed by an HOA, it’s important to understand exactly what they do as well as what they may or may not be held responsible for if an injury were to occur within the development.

 

When you build or buy a home that’s governed by a homeowners’ association, you immediately become a member of the homeowners’ association. While specific rules may certainly differ based on your particular HOA, generally HOAs have similar ideas. The covenants, conditions and rules of your HOA might cover things like what color you can paint your house, how many cars you can own and park, whether or not you can own a pet, what you can plant in your yard, and whether or not you can rent the home out to other people.

 

Additionally, there is even more within the community that your homeowners’ association should be responsible for. Maintaining the development’s common ground is first and foremost. The areas that are used by all residents, such as the pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, and picnic areas are maintained by the HOA.

 

Owners are generally responsible for upholding anything they own within their own unit or home. This does not mean, however, that they would be responsible for any surrounding units.

 

So what happens if someone is running on the pool deck, trips and falls and ends up spraining an ankle? Unless negligence from the HOA in this situation can be proven, it’s not likely the homeowners’ association will be at fault. If, say, there was a large hole in the concrete of the pool deck that someone tripped over and got injured. If the HOA knew the hole was there but had not marked it or tended to it in any way, this could be considered negligence.

 

This also introduces the question of whether or not individual board members of the HOA can be held liable for injuries within common areas of the development. Typically, specific board members are not named. When they are, it often holds no merit unless it can be proven that they acted against the board’s authority.

 

According to New York City slip and fall lawyers at David Resnick & Associates, if a person hopes to file a lawsuit, he or she must be prepared to prove that negligence of the person who owns or controls the property was the cause of the injury.

 

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