Skateboarding

Our HOA (located in California) consists of private (HOA maintained) streets and sidewalks. The board has recently become concerned about the prevalence of skateboarding within the community, some of it acrobatic on ramps. They have asked two separate attorneys for legal opinions about the HOA's liability in case of injury or death during skateboarding activity. We have some very sharp curves in our streets, and it is entirely possible that a car could speed around a curve and hit someone skateboarding in the street.

It is very frustrating that we are not able to get a legal opinion about whether or not the HOA can be held liable. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Roger, would a release form be advisable? The board is looking into having the homeowners with skateboarding children to sign a form releasing the HOA from liability. Would this be something worth pursuing?

if your HOA maintains the streets and sidewalks entirely, you can legislate allowable behaviors and activities there. Ban the boards, roller skates, roller blades, scooters, etc. (and don't forget those shoes with the wheels in the heels) if you want to lower the risks of lawsuits for accidents.

How about cars? They have wheels too!

and remember, courts do not always uphold release forms as valid proof against lawsuit, so don't just blindly accept them and think you are golden.

Brian, we know that a release form does not make us golden, but it certainly cannot hurt.

Exactly Brian! A release form is a defense for the HOA against lawsuits. At the very least, I should think it would be a mitigating factor in determination of the HOA's financial liability.

Since this HOA owns the streets (they are private) the HOA can place any type of restriction upon skateboarding. If the HOA banned it and placed reminders in newsletters, as well as sent a "Ban" to all homeowners (saving the documentation)then the HOA did it duty to safeguard the children by telling the parents that it is strictly prohibited.

An example of a swimming pool, posting all the right signage, locks the gate, has a 6ft fence around the pool, has the right flood lights, pool closes at 9:00PM. At 4:30 a bunch of kids get high and climb the fence and go swimming and get hurt or God forbid worse. Who's fault is it?

These kids would be proscuted for trespassing and charged for this misdemeanor. Of course in our day and age when a burgular goes into a store to rob it and breaks his leg during his robbery; goes to sue the store for his injury.

In the end it all comes down to the court and judge, did the HOA take all of the precautions to prevent such an injury?

Susan:

If they are private roads the local police could care less about something such as skateboarding. You can't post signs for everything that is prohibited and police won't be of any help. That is the downside of having private streets.

You are probably more of the exception that the norm. That is great that they are so eager to help. We have public roads and have a hard time getting them here.

Our complex is near a Skateboard Park!! Protective gear is required and if the kids didn’t want to wear any, they came here. We called the police. There hasn’t been any problems lately.

Check the CA vehicle Code and your local city ordinances, you may find that these limit skateboarding. It may not apply to private property, but might give the board more ‘stomach’ to adopt some rules or a ban.

SusanW1’s suggestion of working with the local police is a good one, the Police would know the Vehicle Codes and local ordinances.
Jane

No matter how inclusive the prohibition is in naming the kind of activities and vehicles (human powered or motorized) somebody will test the limits, coming up with something that is not included.

You might consider wording the prohibition in the positive, restricting streets only to properly and currently licensed/registered vehicles.

I think the PatrickH approach is a good model to consider in this situation.

With that said, then comes the need to enforce the rule, reliably and consistently.

Responding to Dwight. We do NOT speed through that area of the driveway and parking area - if we DID speed we would crash our cars because there is not room enough to speed. I do not speed anyway because I do not want to hit someone or something - whether they are there LEGITIMATELY or are encroaching by playing sports in an area that is NOT adjacent to where they live.

I Do NOT consider a child that plays unsupervised in the driveway or parking area where I live and park my car and who crashes his skateboards and fall where my car is parked as a victim - unless he would be considered a victim of his parent's lack of supervision and his own immaturity and irresponsibility.

But you bring up a good point about the child being a victim: If he WOULD be considered a victim in a court of law if he careens over the sidewalk and crashes his head into the lampost in my yard when skateboarding into my yard, and especially if it could appear that he HAD PERMISSION TO SKATEBOARD IN MY YARD, then that is MORE reason to prohibit skateboarding. Again, if he wants to skateboard in his own portion of the driveway, in the parking spaces allotted to his own home, I have no problem. But these kids obviously do NOT live in the section of the townhomes where they are skateboarding.

And not only could they end up getting injured in the yard of someone who does not even know them and has not invited them to visit, but they could also destroy property.

Dwight, thanks for the response. I agree that items used for transportation - and even for exercise - should be allowed when used properly for that purpose within reason in driveways and on streets. I too like to ride a bike but do so very carefully as to avoid hitting or being hit by cars, etc. I get off and "walk the bike" thru any area where bikes are not permitted or where I might fall or hit something. And yes you do need to be able to get from your house to the road on whatever means of transportation you are using.

What these kids are doing is riding their skateboards repeatedly down the hill, crashing, and doing it again. They are NOT using the skateboards for transportation in so doing. And they have no reason to go by my place to get from their house to the main road- the driveway dead ends right beside my townhouse.

I re-iterate that if they want to ride their skateboards in THEIR OWN PARKING PLACES IN THE COMPLEX then that is fine with me. They are NOT welcome to use my parking place to ride their skateboards and I do NOT want to make it seem like they are welcome, because in so doing I may make myself somehow liable for whatever happens to them when they fall off their skateboards - which seems to happen frequently with them.

Very sad that so many children are so poorly supervised by their parents. When I was a child, if I was in someone's driveway, parking place, yard, etc, it was because I was INVITED there by the folks that lived there. That is the way it should be today. My parents knew where I was and there was agreement between my parents and the parents of the friends I was visiting as to when the visit would end and I would return home.

Sadly, it appears that many parents today do not seem to be concerned with where their children are or what they are doing. It then becomes the responsibility of other folks who do not even know the kids to dodge the kids that are hanging out in the streets and driveways and to deal with any damage that those kids cause to their property. Ultimately rules have to be made and enforced across the board because of kids that tend to go beyond the limits.

Thanks, Dwight. Actually I am trying to handle this situation right now as a one-off: I informed the boys yesterday that IF they are going to skateboard here, then they must supply us with their names, addresses and phone numbers for their parents so that if there is any damage that their parents can be notified to pay for repairs. They took their skateboards and left. I am hoping that will be enough. I have sent a question to the management company regarding the skateboard policy- I know they have a sign up at the parking lot at the clubhouse that no skateboarding is allowed, so that indicates to me that this is NOT an isolated incident. It will ultimately be up to the HOA as to whether or not they need to make a policy - or they may already HAVE a policy. IF as you suggest the problem is limited to a few isolated groups of kids and they can be controlled, then no property-wide rules may be needed. Whatever works is fine with me

I am not a great lover of unneccessary hoa rules and regulations, either, but since we have all kinds of rules about how high the homeowners' grass can be and homeowners have to go through approvals to even put up a shed, then I think that it is also appropriate to have rules that protect the homeowners from destruction of their property and from having children that they cannot even identify as residents of the property roughhousing in the driveway in front of their homes.

Our HOA is very particular and for sure if these kids break something like my imitation gas light on my front lawn, I will be sent a notice whereby I am given 2 weeks to fix it. IF they break it, then their parents need to pay for the repairs. But even if I SEE them break it, it will be hard to prove or collect. Better to avoid the situation to begin with.