Grills in pool area?

Started by JaredK1 • 7 replies • 84 views

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JaredK1 (New York)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Hi everyone -

I work for a town in NY and to make a very long story short, although I am the Director of Parks & Recreation for the town on a whole, because the HOA of a local condo complex went bankrupt, I am now the manager of the recreation area there too, including the pool (although it's still just limited to complex residents). I am trying to go through the mess of paperwork that was left to me, and there is an old stained document that gives residents permission to bring in their grills during normal pool operating hours. I can't tell if it's actually in effect, or it's something old and outdated, but the concept seemed strange to me. Thus I was wondering if any of y'all out there have heard of this and if so, have policies you'd recommend? On the contrary, if you think it's a bad idea, please let me know what too. I'm a newbie to all of this and appreciate any help you can provide.

BryonW (Massachusetts)
Posts: 55

Posted:

Hi JaredK1 - wow I have never heard of an HOA going bankrupt. I am curious: are the units still occupied? Are owners still paying their dues? (and to whom?). Are there still trustees / board of directors in office?

How to tell if the document is "in effect"? - Search local registry of deeds. Often condos legally record their rules and regulations. (although it isn't required). If nothing is recorded, then, it just falls to the authority of the current trustees/ board of directors. They have the authority to enact or amend rules.

I am in support of grills at the pool. People like to grill in the summer, and for safety, you want to keep the grills away from the building (I am assuming that your pool is away from the building, and therefore, is a good, safe spot).

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

By outdated, do you mean the document itself is just old or it listed an end date for the privilege? Personally, I think the bankruptcy and the association getting out of that is far more important than grilling burgers at a pool. As a practical matter, I wouldn’t allow it at all – besides fire risks (because adults aren’t always paying attention when a little kid wanders over to that tabletop grill and tips it over), the cleanup may be an issue with extinguished charcoal (which may wind up in the swimming pool) or half lit charcoal being tossed in the garbage, where there’s all sorts of paper to fire it up. Then you have the people who might bring in a gas grill and don’t know how to handle the canisters safely.

If these people want to grill, I might require a surcharge to cover the cleaning, limit the size of the grill. There’s no need to have 20 full size Weber or Big Green Eggs scattered all around the pool (because everyone wants to grill their own stuff). If If you want to do that, go home and do it there. I’d also mandate having a fire extinguisher nearby – these days, they’re small enough that homeowners can bring their own, be very strict on keeping children and pets away from them

By the way, where are the homeowners in this bankruptcy mess? Is there even a board of directors – even though the court will dictate where the money’s going, it seems there should be something somewhere regarding rule enforcement. If you have any names of current (or former) board members, see if you can talk to them about the backstory of this policy, how well it worked, etc.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,061

Posted:

I have heard of, and read news stories, about HOAs going bankrupt. It's not common but it does happen (usually due to legal fights)
Bankruptcy typically places an HOA/COA into receivership.
In receivership, there may or may not be a board of directors, but the receiver is in charge and is accountable to the courts.

Regarding the question at hand: Grills in pool areas.

I would personally be against it due to risks of the grill ending up in the pool.
However, I might change that opinion if there is a large concrete area and a section is set aside specifically for grills.
Ideally, I'd prefer them outside the safety fence of the pool.

You may want to do an internet search using the following phrase: condo allowing personal grills in pool area policy example

JaredK1 (New York)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BryonW on 05/11/2026, 12:52 PM

Hi JaredK1 - wow I have never heard of an HOA going bankrupt. I am curious: are the units still occupied? Are owners still paying their dues? (and to whom?). Are there still trustees / board of directors in office?

How to tell if the document is "in effect"? - Search local registry of deeds. Often condos legally record their rules and regulations. (although it isn't required). If nothing is recorded, then, it just falls to the authority of the current trustees/ board of directors. They have the authority to enact or amend rules.

I am in support of grills at the pool. People like to grill in the summer, and for safety, you want to keep the grills away from the building (I am assuming that your pool is away from the building, and therefore, is a good, safe spot).

Thanks ByronW. Yeah, I am not clear on what happened, but basically the residents are now paying a special "park district" tax to the town which covers the Parks & Recreation Department running and maintaining the facility for them. It's a source of a bit of controversy and I am not in favor of this, but it is what it is.

That being said, I appreciate your thoughts! I do believe we have enough space where people can bring their grills in and cook safely away from other guests. I just worry about how sanitary it all is, the mess people may make, etc. But I guess we can try it and if it's the wild west we can always revoke the privledge.

JaredK1 (New York)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SheliaH on 05/11/2026, 4:50 PM

By outdated, do you mean the document itself is just old or it listed an end date for the privilege? Personally, I think the bankruptcy and the association getting out of that is far more important than grilling burgers at a pool. As a practical matter, I wouldn’t allow it at all – besides fire risks (because adults aren’t always paying attention when a little kid wanders over to that tabletop grill and tips it over), the cleanup may be an issue with extinguished charcoal (which may wind up in the swimming pool) or half lit charcoal being tossed in the garbage, where there’s all sorts of paper to fire it up. Then you have the people who might bring in a gas grill and don’t know how to handle the canisters safely.

If these people want to grill, I might require a surcharge to cover the cleaning, limit the size of the grill. There’s no need to have 20 full size Weber or Big Green Eggs scattered all around the pool (because everyone wants to grill their own stuff). If If you want to do that, go home and do it there. I’d also mandate having a fire extinguisher nearby – these days, they’re small enough that homeowners can bring their own, be very strict on keeping children and pets away from them

By the way, where are the homeowners in this bankruptcy mess? Is there even a board of directors – even though the court will dictate where the money’s going, it seems there should be something somewhere regarding rule enforcement. If you have any names of current (or former) board members, see if you can talk to them about the backstory of this policy, how well it worked, etc.

By outdate I mean the document is ancient and given the mess of papers it was found with, I'm not sure it's an active policy. That being said, since it's now a Parks & Recreation facility managed by the town, I have discretion to implement or amend rules as I see fit, so I guess whether it's an active policy or not is irrelevant. I guess I just wanted to see what other HOAs do.

Regarding the HOA itself - it is in existence but is now limited to just the complex. The recreation facility is in the hands of the town and condo residents pay a special "park district" tax which allows them use of the facility and covers the costs incurred by the Parks & Rec department to maintain and staff the facility. It's a bit of a source of drama and other P&R professionals who I've spoken to about it are shocked that the town is now responsible for it, but I'm just rolling with the punches.

JaredK1 (New York)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By TimB4 on 05/11/2026, 5:42 PM

I have heard of, and read news stories, about HOAs going bankrupt. It's not common but it does happen (usually due to legal fights)
Bankruptcy typically places an HOA/COA into receivership.
In receivership, there may or may not be a board of directors, but the receiver is in charge and is accountable to the courts.

Regarding the question at hand: Grills in pool areas.

I would personally be against it due to risks of the grill ending up in the pool.
However, I might change that opinion if there is a large concrete area and a section is set aside specifically for grills.
Ideally, I'd prefer them outside the safety fence of the pool.

You may want to do an internet search using the following phrase: condo allowing personal grills in pool area policy example

Thanks TimB. Yeah, we do have a decent and flat area away from the pool where I think people could grill safely. It's still inside the pool gate, but far enough away from the pool. I'm gonna chew on it a bit more. I did do a search similar to yours and it didn't give me many responses. It's actually how I found this forum, haha.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

Tim's correct. If the "old" rules allow the grill, I would at least consider using the flat area away from the pool. If you can get that grill outside the pool gate, even better. The one time, in my community, where a guy "cheated" and brought his grill to our pool, we ended up cleaning grease off the pool deck. It was a pain.

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