HOA's and Swim Teams

We are having a serious issue with our community swim team. I had a long chat with the president of the swim team tonight and came to the realization that we are essentially letting an outside group use our pool for free with no contract in place to protect ourselves or set expectations.

It recently came to light that even though the swim team is running the pool for 3 hours before it opens to the community, they are not checking the chlorine levels, have no idea what to do if they are low or high, and are not checking the filter system to ensure it is flowing correctly. The feeling from the swim team is that even if they could learn how to run they pool, they are concerned about their liability if they damaged the equipment. They would prefer the closing manager from our pool company up the chlorine level before they leave, so it is high enough in the morning.

Here are some high level questions:

1. Do any HOA's sign contracts with their swim team?

2. Do any swim teams normally deal with the chemicals and filter equipment?

3. Do any swim teams test the chlorine levels on an hourly basis?

4. Do any swim teams pay to have the pool management company staff a pool operator during practices?

Thanks,
Rob

Forget that it's a swim team. You are allowing a non-member group to come in and use the pool for a certain amount of time (Free? or do they pay a fee?)

In any case, the pool is yours - with or without them being in the water - and it is your reponsibility to make sure it is up to code at all times. I agree, don't let anyone monitor or treat your pool, since you are the owner and liable at all times.

It really sounds like there is a little resentment on your part that they are using your pool and not taking "care" of it in any way. Perhaps if they had to pay for the time, in some way, it might justify a paid staff member being on duty when the team is there.

My sympathy goes out to you on having to deal with a swim team. "Our" swim team continues to think they own our pool and less than a third of the kids actually live in our neighborhood! They continue to have both morning and evening practices which prevent us from selling any appreciable number of outside memberships to offset our operating expenses. We finally got permission from "them" to let the residents use more than one lane of pool during their evening practices.

As to you questions. Our HOA does not have a contract with the swim team. Some of our Board tried to implement one a couple of years back but the swim team didn't want to do one so it never happened. I think we have major liability issues should something actually happen during a practice or meet! The Association is paying for their liability insurance.

The swim team does nothing as far as maintaining our pool. They don't think it's their responsibility since they're being generous enough to compensate us $60 for each out of neighborhood swimmer. (That money gets to be applied towards them purchasing a family membership if they want one) Sixty dollars doesn't come anywhere close to actually compensating us for what they're costing us in additional maintenance and lost memberships. They actually held a large swim meet at the pool one year and the chlorine level was ZERO! So who would be liable for that when someone got sick?

Swim team does not use any of our pool staff for practices or meets because they don't want to have to pay for them. The Association ends up picking up the costs for renting port-a-potties and auxiliary lighting under the pretense that those are sanitation and safety issues and the swim team shouldn't have to pay for that.

If your pool doesn't have a swim team now, make sure no one comes up with the stupid idea of starting one. It's an endless money pit.

Randall,

You need to elect BOD members with a backbone. They should send a letter notifying the swim team that they will need to secure a new place to practice before the 1st of August.

What you have described is a breach of the BODs fiduciary responsibility. the common properties of the HOA are for the enjoyment and benefit of any and all members. If your association has decided to open up pool access to offset the expenses then you could consider renting the pool to the swim team. But it should in fact be rented to them if they have exclusive use of any portion of the pool.

Further, the swim team contract should require that the team carry a minimum $1,000,000 policy and it should indemnify the HOA. Right now your HOA is open to a lawsuit not only from a member of the team who become injured, but from any and every member of the HOA.

Hi everyone,

I really appreciate all your feedback. I worked with our pool management company to come up with some guidelines we will work into a contract for next season with the swim team.

1. The swim team will employee at least 3 life guards and 3 pool operators. (These will be the 3 coaches).

2. The swim team will monitor and record the chemical and filter flow levels every hour as required by the health department.

3. The swim team will learn how to operate the automatic chlorinator to raise the chemical levels if they are too low.

4. The swim team will inform the pool management company immediately if any mechanical issues arise.

5. The swim team will maintain a minimum of $3,00,000 in insurance.

Hopefully these few requirements will help us set a better tone with the swim team. Unlike some of the people who responded to this message the swim team uses the pool before we open it to the public and we only close it three times during the Summer for afternoon meets.

Thanks!

-Rob