Defining “guest”

Our HOA is having problems with an owner who is using our tennis courts as a public facility, meaning that he is bringing in numerous guests from the outside to play on a daily basis, running an informal league. Currently he’s allowed to do this as he can bring in up to three guests. I would like to know if anyone defines “guest”. We are considering limiting guest to mean an owner, renter of the property, or someone staying in the property with the owner or renter, but not just someone who wants to use the facilities because they live nearby. Has anyone ever done something similar and specifically defined who a guest can be?

I think it's reasonable to expect those who are not actually staying on the property (such as renters or overnight visitors) would need to be accompanied by the person who invited them. Rationale: members are usually held responsible for the behavior of their guests, and they can't be responsible if they're nowhere around. For those that complain that this is too much of a burden, remind them that your amenities are not a public facility and that as members of an association, they have obligations to other members to see that the amenities are used properly.

Example: you can bring a friend to go swimming with you, but you can't just hand them your pool pass to use as they chose.

One question about the tennis courts: do people have to pay to use them? If they do, and if the courts are just sitting there, I have less of an issue with the league. If you don't have to pay, then I would have an issue since the amount of wear and tear will likely exceed whatever has been projected into a reserve study.

The other issue I have is that the tennis league is similar to a business that invites clients onto the property - this is often prohibited in HOAs and COAs. A tennis league has more in common with a business than it does with an occasional friendly game with a buddy. It affects the amount of traffic in the community. It invites strangers onto the property, which can (and often does) lead to increased crime rates. It can affect insurance rates as a result of both of these things.

So... I could go either way on this, depending on some of the details. If we were facing a similar issue in my community, we'd run it past our attorney to see if there is something we're overlooking.

Lisa

If the league is informal and he is always there (as in # of guests at one time), he could well be playing by the rules.

Now let us dissect # of guests at one time. Let us say the rules say 3 guests and in tennis there is a foursome playing and he is not one playing, that is one guest to many.

Also does no more than 3 guests mean on the property at once as opposed to some playing and some waiting?

Additionally, are you the locale busybody and no one else sees the issue?

Some tennis courts that are unused, people are asking to concert to picklelball courts... word of caution, pickleball is many times louder than racquetball.

I agree with that, too. We have 2 tennis courts that get very little use. We're happy when we see people playing tennis, even though it's usually a homeowner and his/her guests from out of town.

Agree with your Cathy that insurance needs to be well understood before any decision is reached.