Liability of Golf Carts/Scooters on Private HOA Property

Our 55+ property is still under the declarants control, but nobody is quite sure how the HOA should handle the liability issue of golf carts and scooters being driven on our property. All the roads are private. We have one elderly gentleman that lives here and his caretaker has children under age 16 that drive him around on our roads with his golf cart. Our concern is that if somebody else were to hit them on our private roads, could the HOA be held liable? We're trying to come up with a policy to handle this...any suggestions. Thank you, Justine

it is possible the HOA could be liable, but not likely in a simple case of a car hitting someone on your road: the car at fault is liable. Everyone will try to shift blame, of course, but in general, the HOA owns no more liability than WalMart does if someone T-bones you in their parking lot.

Where you will be most liable is when you have rules, and fail to enforce them. then, you will have recognized an issue, legislated it, then failed to enforce it... a bad situation. So, when you do make rules, enforce them.

Oh, and one place that my liability arguement does NOT work: weather conditions; if you allow ice to stay on the roads, oil slicks, road damage from freezing, water floods, etc., the HOA will own liability if that can be determined a contributing factor.