Sledding on HOA owned hills - liability?

Just be sure to make it a ban on sledding by anyone, regardless of age. Because the Fair Housing Act prohibits banning kids from playing in common areas.

Perhaps impose the ban under the authority of any clause in your Declaration that says no dangerous activity allowed on common areas.

Grinch.

Haven't you called your association's master insurance carrier about this? If not, do it.

In the meantime, getting rid of the boulders (as soon as the snow melts) and discussing the insurance options is where you start before issuing a ban on sledding. And of course, you should tell homeowners what the board is concerned about and ask for suggestions on how to reduce the risk - or if you should ban sledding due to the liability. People may howl, but the prospect of paying higher assessments to cover higher coverage will either shut them up - or they'll open their pocketbooks.

Off the sledding topic, but involves insurance. New carrier did an inspection of our 144 unit, 40 year old condo community. They sited that we didn't have the proper pool signs hung in November. We are a seasonal pool, May-Sept. Inspected by the local BofH. Our pool company takes the signs down, and puts rescue equipment in storage. They have for many years. The pool is chained and padlocked and not serviced other than weekly to keep the water clear, BOH requirement. Signs left up over the winter require replacement the next year, at HOA's $ expense.

Waiting to hear if we really need to put the no glass, no lifeguard, and pool rules signs back up.

Thankfully. That's all we were cited for.

This is a good point. Of the few law classes that I had, one similar example stood out. The professor discussed tort liability related to grocery store parking lots and how a party's action implies what would be seen as negligence. He said if Grocery store A had a strict policy about not leaving unattended shopping carts in its parking lot, and all carts were quickly gathered by employees if a customer did leave one out, then it would have a higher degree of liability if it missed a cart and that cart damaged someone's vehicle more so than Grocery Store B that had no such policy and routinely left cars unattended all over its lot. In the latter, customers should know they are not safe from unattended carts and therefore be more diligent themselves in looking out for carts.

Just called the insurance company. Answer was pretty simple. We want to do everything we can to avoid losses and claims, and if we get a couple claims, we'll likely get cancelled by our insurance company. With that said, there is no specific prohibition on sledding on the hills by the insurance company so we don't need to go run these kids off. My take on it is that sledding specifically we don't need to deal with as it's popular among kids and happens rarely, but likely we should post signage on the hills to keep people off because they are dangerously steep and not intended for pedestrian use.

Well then, get the signs and post them - from what I've seen of the snowfall in that part of the country, you might not have to worry about sledding for a while because it'll be too difficult to get on that hill! Your association attorney could also suggest some verbiage for the signs that state the HOA isn't responsible for injuries or accidents. In the meantime, post something on your community website saying sledding is prohibited and not intended for pedestrian use, explaining the association's liability. It probably won't keep everyone off (you can't always protect people from themselves), but at least you took all the steps you could.

On a related note, you said your insurance said it would cancel the policy if you didn't remove some of the play features in the community playground. You might not want to do it now, but I suggest you do so as soon as possible. Most HOAs get whatever playground equipment is on sale at the hardware store and think that's suitable, but when our community set out to replace our equipment, we found out about federal regulations regarding playgrounds. Things like they have to be a certain size, the ground has to be covered with certain material to help prevent injury when people fall on it - and your city or county likely has its requirements as well.

Part of the Board's job is to reduce the association's risk, which is why you have issues with sledding, retention ponds, swimming pools and anything else where a bunch of residents (and others) may use, whether it's appropriate or not. You may want to read this article for starters and then talk to your board about your next steps.

https://blog.realmanage.com/en-us/maintaining-community-association-hoa-playgrounds

(In fact, this would be a great research project for someone else on your board since you've had dozens of questions already. They're good questions, but it's past time for the rest of the board to make a contribution besides sitting there like potted plants.)

We used to go sled riding on a hill next to the Convent at school. The Nuns would make hot chocolate and cookies for us, good times.

hahaha.

yes, we are effecively a board of 1, while another board member is willing to step up a little. I wish I could get others to take on more projects and responsibilities. They have offered for a few that I haven't posted about here, but every one of them has failed to materialize. Not enough motivation, not enough knowledge, not enough project management skills. I've learned that any important project to me I just have to do it myself rather than rely on the team since they usually don't get done, and then hand out the other complex tasks that I don't care if they get done or not.

I did post a thread about trying to get others to volunteer more, but it's hard to motivate people to spend their free time on things.....

I say this respectfully from a snowbelt after managing ( between retirements ) in urban highrises and non-urban complexes.
Almost all bets may - MAY - be off if a child victim - even a trespassing child defying big warning signs like 'EXTREME DANGER' & locked gates - might win claims for some sorta injury with a credible aspect of allurement or "child-attractive" danger.

- CHILD SLEDDING DEATHS : Sledding deaths may not be statistically as common as skiing or hockey deaths & critical injuries, but my own Ontario jurisdiction ( population 14.8 M ) just recorded the death of a ten year old girl.

It's the latest of a typical annual death toll of Ontario sledding victims out of that almost 15 million population. ( The media dug those stats out ).

The child was killed last Monday while sledding at a centretown Ottawa municipal park where large signs warn EXTREME DANGER and NO SLEDDING. Despite the posted prohibitions the media next dug out photos of widespread by-law violations & detritus of sled damage, boozing, pedestrians walking up the slopes etc.

Some subsequent online commenters about the death of the trespassing child sledder : " . . . I stopped going there when my kids were younger because it was chaotic and too dangerous for them. There were small kids walking UP the MIDDLE of the hill at the same time as teenagers and adults were going down the hill. I saw some collisions between sliders and walkers - thankfully nobody suffered severe injuries....”

another : “ . . . What are they supposed to do? Blast the hill away ? All of the things you mentioned can't be magically "fixed" with a wand. Don't walk on thin ice. . . . . don't try to reach into a tiger enclosure, don't drink and drive, "Warning: Entering Thailand with drugs = Death penalty" . . ." ( but apparently ignores that the deceased was only ten years old )

- CHILD SUFFOCATION IN SNOWFORTS : A less obvious danger - where big snow ain't common - may be the risk of child suffocations while tunnelling where the snow doesn't get trucked away. How long can deep snowpiles can be left to melt before kids tunnel in ?

- What your attorney advises after an unusual snowfall should be interesting.

It's worth learning the express criteria of your jurisdiction's premises liability, and how they have been applied across a range of winter risks. That's whether or not a claimant or victim is a child or trespasser or simple guest etc . . .

- In one sledding injury dispute here a then-recent lawschool grad - in his twenties - suffered a critical spinal injury while winter-sledding on a Hamilton Ontario municipal reservoir. That disabled lawyer was awarded ( by a civil judge arbitrator ) a half-million dollars (Canadian ) and another $ 400 K for the next 9 years of successfully defending the award in civil court. ( Uggenti v. Hamilton https://canlii.ca/t/g0tqw ). Imagine how happy were the taxpayers . . .