Safe Responsable Driving on Private Streets

This seems more like an insurance matter to me, and a rather messy one. This man should have his own insurance- whether it'll be enough to pay every for the damage (the HOA, affected neighbors as well as damage to his own home is another matter. If the car was totaled. I hope he had comprehensive coverage.

If you haven't already done so, talk to your master insurance carrier and encourage the neighbors to contact their own companies as well. All the insurance companies will duke it out from there. It's OK to give your attorney a heads up, but that may be all that's needed for now. Be sure to contact the master insurance regularly for updates and try to be patient - this will take time to sort out.

If everyone's expenses aren't paid by insurance, prepare for legal action against the owner on the HOA's behalf. The individual owners can take their own legal action and if everyone winds up in the same court, the judge may combine all the cases. This may result in the man having to sell his house to satisfy everyone.

Aside from the damage to his interior wall, it's all common property. We are a common interest community, and all land aside from the footprint of the home is common property. Even the driveway exists on common property but is a limited common element. To refocus a bit, the money side of this equation isn't what causes me concern, and that will get worked out, or it doesn't by insurance. The HOA will just bill the owner directly. What bothers me is that we now know this man, by some means, was impaired, either in mental decline or some intoxication or whatever. We were lucky there were no personal injuries, but we could have had death or injury to a pedestrian. If the HOA takes no action and this person goes on to injure or kill a pedestrian in a future event, what then will be our liability?

There are things the association cannot control, including human behavior. Nwe are all adults and have to make our own decisions and be responsible for them. To wit, if you drive a car, you should know how to operate it, know the rules of the road - who do you think drivers education and driver's licenses exist? You should have car insurance (most states require it) and you should know 7ts not a good idea to drive f you've drank too much or taken other drugs (some prescription drugs warn about this on the label.

In this case, you've seen what's becoming an emerging issue - older drivers and their ability to continue driving safely. As you age, you might more vision or hearing issues and your reaction time-consuming slow down, making driving more challenging. At the same time, it's very difficult for some to admit they may have to make changes in their driving habits, such as no longer driving at night. If things escalate to where they have to give up driving altogether, all hell breaks loose, because for many, that's one of the last indicators they can still live independently.

You don't know (or haven't said) if this man has had near misses in the past - his family may have been dealing with this for some time but the man insisted on driving anyway. Has anyone talked to them? If not, I suspect they're having that conversation with his doctor on what happens next.

Once again, this isn't something the HOA can control. The best you can do 8s make sure tge common areas are maintain as far as the streets go. If lighting at night is an issue or there are blind spots in some areas,, you can address that. Maybe speed bumps may be necessary. We aren't insurance experts, so talk to your carrier if you have concerns.

Beyond that, it may be helpful to tell people about driver safety programs for older adults- I believe AARP has one and taking it can even help with reducing car insurance premiums. There are also articles on the web about talking to older drivers and perhaps their doctors about dangerous driving - Google it and post the links in your newsletter or community website. Good luck!

Since the roads are private, and aside from DUI, the police have zero role, the issue I have comes down to future liability. Since the HOA now knows of a person living and operating a motor vehicle on our private streets, he, at least in one instance, was not capable of safe vehicle operation. So if the HOA does nothing, and he goes on and has another accident with personal injury or death, has the HOA now become more liable since they had prior knowledge this man was a risk to others? IMO, the right path is an attorney consult.

To clarify, what I meant by enforcement was rulemaking that suspended driving privileges.

Oh, as an aside, it took him exactly one day to acquire a new car...

It depends on the amount of damage, it the operator actually has a license and insurance. I believe in Minnesota $10,000 is the minimum insurance for property damage, which doesn’t cover much in real dollars.

The quicker you file a claim against their insurance carrier the more likely you can recover damages from their auto insurance policy.
You might be able to recover damages from their homeowners policy providing they are the owner or the owners policy.
Ultimately the homeowner is responsible for damages to community property.

You are not the driving license issuer so nothing you can nor should do.

I don't think there is too much the HOA can do in terms of enforcing rules here. It was a very bad accident, but it's not something you could issue a violation for (not like speeding or blocking a driveway). The authorities would be the ones to issue penalties, and the driver may lose their license.

I would recommend consulting your attorney though just to see what, if any, steps the HOA should take.