The holiday season brings a whole host of problems for HOA boards and managers. Parking becomes more difficult, there are more noise complaints, crime increases, and there’s always someone who breaks HOA rules and regulations with their excessive decorating. However, the festive period can be enjoyed and celebrated without any complaints, or lawsuits, being filed. The key to reducing problems and making sure that residents and management have a happy HOA Christmas is communication, communication, communication!
1. Holiday Decorations:
There is a big difference between a few fairy lights and a full nativity scene with real sheep. While it is inadvisable to completely ban decorations, it’s a good idea to impose a few basic rules. You should consider the following questions:
- Until what time can residents leave their lights on?
- Should the HOA allow lights on fences, roofs, balconies?
- How should they be attached?
- What about lights that flash or have sound?
- How much decoration is allowed, should there be a limit?
- How long can decorations be left up for?
A couple of simple rules are that any lights & decorations that make noise have to be off by 10pm. And that decorations are allowed from the day after Thanksgiving until the second week of January.
Solution:
It’s a good idea to send a reminder with your HOA restrictions just after Thanksgiving. There are a few different communication tools you can use. They include, adding it in your newsletter, you can send out a special holiday season email with all the reminders you need and post it on your website.
2. Holiday Noise:
The holiday season brings extra noise to HOAs with decorations, Christmas parties and general merriment everywhere. This often leads to an increase in noise complaints and violations, which are always difficult to deal with.
Solution:
The best thing to do is to send out a reminder before Thanksgiving with the HOA rules on noise. With noise, it’s better to send that reminder early so that residents aren’t bombarded with too much information, and so they bear it in mind during Thanksgiving. You can upload the documents onto Neigbrs by Vinteum platform and notify residents all in one place. This way you don’t waste paper printing out the rules to put in everyone’s mailboxes. However, if your community association has a lot of older residents it may be worth printing them out as well.
3. Parking in the HOA:
Parking can become challenging during the holiday season, as more people come to visit. The rules laid out in your governing documents need to be respected and followed, even during this time of year.
Solution:
If your HOA has dedicated parking for residents, remind everyone to park in their assigned space. Be clear about where guests parking is if you have designated parking for them. That way you don’t have to deal with an angry call when someone finds their driveway blocked. Try to up parking checks around the HOA and enforce the rules. Again, communicate that you will be doing this with your residents so that they’re not caught by surprise by any tightened regulations, and remind them that you’re working for their safety and peace of mind.
You can also suggest that residents let their neighbors know when they’re hosting a party, so that they’re prepared for some extra noise and cars.
4. Parcels:
Everyone has a lot of parcels being delivered during the holiday season and thieves know this so it’s important to stay on top of what they’ve ordered and when it’s going to arrive. The HOA shouldn’t accept responsibility for parcels unless there’s a system to receive packages already set up. But you can help your residents to avoid their presents being stolen. This makes the HOA safer over the holiday season.
Solution:
Encourage residents to have their presents delivered to work or to a neighbor’s house if they know they’re not going to be in. They can also leave a note for the delivery man who normally do place (or throw, so be careful) parcels behind a gate or shrub if they’re asked to. Finally, remind residents that they can track packages so they shouldn’t be caught by surprise.
5. Going away:
A lot of residents go away during the holiday period to visit friends and family. Empty houses attract thieves, so do encourage residents to communicate with their neighbors when they’re going away so that someone can keep an eye on their house.
Solution:
Using HOA software, residents can send each other, and the management, private messages. Another good idea is to ask people to give their key to someone they trust so they can keep an eye on the plants, mail and also look out for any leaks, or to be able to get in in case of an emergency (frozen pipes, fire, suspected gas leaks, etc).
Conclusion: Have a Happy Holiday Season in your HOA
With these 5 simple steps, your HOA can have a stress-free and enjoyable holiday season. By communicating clearly and consistently, residents will be more aware of the HOA’s rules around decorations, parking, and noise. When the board encourages residents to talk to each other when they go away, have a party or have a delivery, this creates more a sense of community.
If you’d like a tool that encourages a sense of community both on & offline by improving communication and making management more effortless, try Neigbrs by Vinteum. We provide award-winning customer support to give you a true partnership to improve your HOA.
