door mats

Can an HOA prohibit owners from placing door mats in front of their units in an indoor hallway? I've been told they are considered a hazard in case of a fire in California, but cannot find any documentation. The HOA has has provided built in door many at the two main entries to the building.

We're a condo high rise HOA and our CC&Rs prohibit ANY Items in our interior common area hallways*. There's a list in the CC&Rs which includes door mats. The list is repeated in our Rules & Regulations. Both of these document are available to prospective buyers. The reason is prevent any itms that might cause emergency personnel to trip or that makes getting into the unit harder. Our understanding is that this is by order of the fire marshall.

So even if your HOA does not have it in your governing documents that you may not have a door mat, your local fire dept. has authority to forbid them. You might contact them.

*Or on the exterior of the door to our units, which also is common area.

Condo or apartment building makes no difference - fire / tripping / obstruction hazards are the same.

The 'contract' is a moot point.

Local code and the A/H/J prevail.

Your HOA still can make a rule against anything in the common area hallway. But the t rule has to be in writing. If not in writing, there IS n rule and the Board would have to make a rule that no items may be in the common area hallways and follow the procedure in CA HOAs for making or changing rules. See Davis-stirling.com, Main Index, rules.

Even if our fire dept didn't have statutes forbidding items that the & other emergency personnel could trip over, I wouldn't want any items in the interior hallways. Our custodians vacuum them 1-2 X a week and I d would want them toast their time moving stuff out of the way, etc.

Me too.