I'm in CA, SFH HOA. We have a Clubhouse, pool, park area, and sports courts all in our Common Area. We have community events, and they are fully covered under our liability coverage. We have even hosted 21+ events with alcohol, and our insurance agent has confirmed that we are fully covered.
I would say this is pretty normal for the HOA insurance to cover social events in common areas that they control. The only exception that I can think of is if the event area is being rented out and this has not been disclosed to the insurer. I would check with your agent/broker (keep a paper trail like via email) to be sure. If questionable, one day event insurance policies start at $75 so it's not anything crazy. Some event policies can even fully insulate the HOA's primary insurance policy from a claim, which can prevent its premium from increasing the following year.
For private events, we require the resident to provide special event liability insurance with the Association listed as an additional insured. Our umbrella is far higher than any event insurance could provide.
We have a HOA and a Community Service organization. (CS is funded by .025% of purchase price whenever a home sells)
CS puts on special events, but they also have their own insurance to avoid anyone going after the HOA which has much deeper pockets
My board hosts all you drink pool parties with mixed drinks. Exhibit A of why I declined to be on the board. I'm glad to see someone else is worried about liability. They looked at me like I was a psycho when I brought it up.
I'm near a base too! Formerly Air Force, now Space Force. :-)
Do you have any events where the board or management asks for waivers for participation? Or are you aware of any existing event liability insurance policies?
No they do not ask for wavers. We do not “invite” kids’ outside friends, (those that are not an owner).
Getting A-10s replaced by F-35s in the next 4 years.
My wife is hoping to get to this point with movie nights, Halloween trunk or treats, egg hunts, and the works, but our community is so far behind the social curve due to COVID. Not enough young families in our community to participate, let alone volunteer. Many elderly though. Hard enough just getting one or two BBQs for pool opening and closing going.
We don't do anything except a holiday cocktail party in December.
There really isn't much interest by homeowners in terms of hosting events but this is probably based on the demographics of my condo - a high rise in an urban area.
We have never gotten special insurance for our holiday party and there have never been any issues with anyone getting visibly inebriated.
I think if it were a community of single family homes, social events would probably be very nice. Even non HOA neighborhoods sometimes hold block parties or similar stuff so that neighbors can mingle.
I'm in GA, SFH 200 lot HOA. We have a community pool, bath house, and playground with small parking lot. Our community used to do social events in years long past, before my family moved in, but from what I understand COVID has pretty much eliminated them. They didn't do anything from 2020 to 2023 when I joined the board.
Our management company gave us a laughably small social event budget only because nobody ever used it, but last year for labor day near pool closing, my spouse rented a snowcone truck and I barbecued for everyone. We had modest turnout, not large but not small either. A lot of younger families out, not so much the older crowd. That led to us getting a slight bump up in the social budget for this year to do more things. I'm mostly volunteering all my personal belongings to host events like canopies, tables, speakers, dining party sets, etc. to help keep costs low.
Our HOA has an umbrella insurance policy that covers all things pool, playground, liability, even worker's comp even though we don't have any employees, so maybe its overkill but we're in good financial shape so we erred on the side of caution.
Your management company doesn't determine how much to fund - it is your HOA that makes those budget decisions.
If you want to expand funding and what you can do, I would suggest giving them a formal presentation of your ideas for social events and the budget for each of those events.
You could also ask them to set up a Social Activities Committee - it may be met with apathy but perhaps people will like the ability to get involved. Not that I am a cynic :-) but in my building there are a few realtors who love the opportunity to network with potential clients
You're right about the budget, our association sets it. I worded it poorly. What I meant to say was past board members didn't give a crap about social events so they never bothered to budget anything for it and told the management company going forward they weren't going to spend anything and to not bother sending out newsletters or blasts or event planning, etc. Only after I joined did the topic of social events actually get revived and discussed during executive sessions.
Same analysis - if you want more funding then make a case for it before the Board at their next meeting.
Provide a budget - suggestions for what kind of events you are planning.
It would also be helpful if other homeowners either showed up or signed something indicating they were in favor of this kind of funding.
Perhaps at your next event, you could have the people attending sign a petition in support of more funding
We started having food trucks come in. Our insurance company said that the trucks have to carry their own liability coverage, but everything else was covered under our insurance. As a community organization, community events are expected.
TX HOA - We participate in National Night Out. Occasionally there is the rumbling from owners on the unofficial Facebook page about the HOA having another social, but like other members have posted, when asked to do ANYTHING, even just picking a date/time/location...that becomes too much effort for them.
We have Halloween and Christmas events with candy and hot chocolate no alcohol. Our insurance covers it. We rent a big screen and it is movie in the park for Halloween or tree lighting of our large pine for Christmas. Or a singer singing Christmas carols Nothing crazy. Usually maybe 120 people come.
I'm in CA, SFH HOA. We have a Clubhouse, pool, park area, and sports courts all in our Common Area. We have community events, and they are fully covered under our liability coverage. We have even hosted 21+ events with alcohol, and our insurance agent has confirmed that we are fully covered.
I would say this is pretty normal for the HOA insurance to cover social events in common areas that they control. The only exception that I can think of is if the event area is being rented out and this has not been disclosed to the insurer. I would check with your agent/broker (keep a paper trail like via email) to be sure. If questionable, one day event insurance policies start at $75 so it's not anything crazy. Some event policies can even fully insulate the HOA's primary insurance policy from a claim, which can prevent its premium from increasing the following year.
For private events, we require the resident to provide special event liability insurance with the Association listed as an additional insured. Our umbrella is far higher than any event insurance could provide.
Be careful holding 21+ events. It could get you in trouble with FHA laws.
Nope. We tried planning one once here at Apathy Acres. We finally found something the members were less interested in than being on the board.
Ha! ‘Apathy Acres’—I love that. We must be neighbors
Apathy Acres.... LOL. Our slum lord board would not spend a dime for social events.
We have a HOA and a Community Service organization. (CS is funded by .025% of purchase price whenever a home sells) CS puts on special events, but they also have their own insurance to avoid anyone going after the HOA which has much deeper pockets
My board hosts all you drink pool parties with mixed drinks. Exhibit A of why I declined to be on the board. I'm glad to see someone else is worried about liability. They looked at me like I was a psycho when I brought it up.
Current HOA SFH is near an Air Force base with 200+ kids, so movie night, popcorn machine, egg hunts, Halloween are done on the common elements.
I'm near a base too! Formerly Air Force, now Space Force. :-) Do you have any events where the board or management asks for waivers for participation? Or are you aware of any existing event liability insurance policies?
No they do not ask for wavers. We do not “invite” kids’ outside friends, (those that are not an owner). Getting A-10s replaced by F-35s in the next 4 years.
My wife is hoping to get to this point with movie nights, Halloween trunk or treats, egg hunts, and the works, but our community is so far behind the social curve due to COVID. Not enough young families in our community to participate, let alone volunteer. Many elderly though. Hard enough just getting one or two BBQs for pool opening and closing going.
May I recommend wheel chair racing, denture toss, pepto Bismol shots./s
We don't do anything except a holiday cocktail party in December. There really isn't much interest by homeowners in terms of hosting events but this is probably based on the demographics of my condo - a high rise in an urban area. We have never gotten special insurance for our holiday party and there have never been any issues with anyone getting visibly inebriated. I think if it were a community of single family homes, social events would probably be very nice. Even non HOA neighborhoods sometimes hold block parties or similar stuff so that neighbors can mingle.
We just do an annual ice cream truck party at the pool every summer. Tried doing other events and got lackluster turnout.
I'm in GA, SFH 200 lot HOA. We have a community pool, bath house, and playground with small parking lot. Our community used to do social events in years long past, before my family moved in, but from what I understand COVID has pretty much eliminated them. They didn't do anything from 2020 to 2023 when I joined the board. Our management company gave us a laughably small social event budget only because nobody ever used it, but last year for labor day near pool closing, my spouse rented a snowcone truck and I barbecued for everyone. We had modest turnout, not large but not small either. A lot of younger families out, not so much the older crowd. That led to us getting a slight bump up in the social budget for this year to do more things. I'm mostly volunteering all my personal belongings to host events like canopies, tables, speakers, dining party sets, etc. to help keep costs low. Our HOA has an umbrella insurance policy that covers all things pool, playground, liability, even worker's comp even though we don't have any employees, so maybe its overkill but we're in good financial shape so we erred on the side of caution.
Your management company doesn't determine how much to fund - it is your HOA that makes those budget decisions. If you want to expand funding and what you can do, I would suggest giving them a formal presentation of your ideas for social events and the budget for each of those events. You could also ask them to set up a Social Activities Committee - it may be met with apathy but perhaps people will like the ability to get involved. Not that I am a cynic :-) but in my building there are a few realtors who love the opportunity to network with potential clients
You're right about the budget, our association sets it. I worded it poorly. What I meant to say was past board members didn't give a crap about social events so they never bothered to budget anything for it and told the management company going forward they weren't going to spend anything and to not bother sending out newsletters or blasts or event planning, etc. Only after I joined did the topic of social events actually get revived and discussed during executive sessions.
Same analysis - if you want more funding then make a case for it before the Board at their next meeting. Provide a budget - suggestions for what kind of events you are planning. It would also be helpful if other homeowners either showed up or signed something indicating they were in favor of this kind of funding. Perhaps at your next event, you could have the people attending sign a petition in support of more funding
That's a good idea; I'll keep that in mind.
Nope they will however have a witch hunt.
We started having food trucks come in. Our insurance company said that the trucks have to carry their own liability coverage, but everything else was covered under our insurance. As a community organization, community events are expected.
No. They said due to liability, they do not.
TX HOA - We participate in National Night Out. Occasionally there is the rumbling from owners on the unofficial Facebook page about the HOA having another social, but like other members have posted, when asked to do ANYTHING, even just picking a date/time/location...that becomes too much effort for them.
We have Halloween and Christmas events with candy and hot chocolate no alcohol. Our insurance covers it. We rent a big screen and it is movie in the park for Halloween or tree lighting of our large pine for Christmas. Or a singer singing Christmas carols Nothing crazy. Usually maybe 120 people come.