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It likely depends on the number of people the pool/facility can accommodate and the number of people who live in the neighborhood. If those numbers are close, the HOA will have to be strict on who can enter the pool. Otherwise, guests will cause paying members to lose enjoyment of amenities. If those numbers are not close, the HOA can afford to be much more lax with guest restrictions.
Our HOA provides a certain number of free visits each season (12 on a card, I think), and additional cards must be purchased.
Rules are usually put into effect, because people abused the privileges. You get a "family" of 23 people at the pool every day, and real residents don't get to use a pool they paid for!
We are in a pretty small neighborhood with about 160 homes. There were a couple of similar sized or slightly smaller neighborhoods nearby that had no pool. Our gate was just the standard required safety latch, which could be locked, but no one did because you needed to unlock with a key to get back out and it was a pain.
We had some people that wanted a card access system put in, but we did not for a while due to the cost. The pool did not seem that bad when I was there, but people were complaining it was overrun with outsiders. Finally put in the card access and man, the next year was an amazing difference. Maybe half the people there than previous years on any given day. Evidently, kids know which pools are easy to get in and they tell their friends.
So, I can see why your has restrictions, especially if it is a large neighborhood, but it does seem like they are a bit toward the draconian side.
You can almost set your watch by the amount of time between someone mentioning an HOA and the first user to chime in with a rant against HOAs.
There's a fun new show on IDHD called Fear Thy Neighbor, true stories about nutty neighbors. The episode I watched last night ended with one of the homeowners of adjacent upscale lakefront properties being busted for taking out a contract on his next door neighbors' life (which he tried to handle covertly by procuring a hired hitman through a referral from his real estate agent). Even included the video surveillance footage of the guy getting busted.
There's a fun new show on IDHD called Fear Thy Neighbor, true stories about nutty neighbors. The episode I watched last night ended with one of the homeowners of adjacent upscale lakefront properties being busted for taking out a contract on his next door neighbors' life (which he tried to handle covertly by procuring a hired hitman through a referral from his real estate agent).
Wait, that's a service real estate agents offer? Who knew. MikeJaquish, I'll be in touch.
Wait, that's a service real estate agents offer? Who knew. MikeJaquish, I'll be in touch.
Yeah, it was unfortunate that the homeowner in that particular episode didn't opt for the FSBO route, because it was the real estate agent that set him up with the cops.
Meanwhile, I do have one neighbor near one of my properties that's a little bit of a pain. I might check AngiesList to see if there's anyone that's running any coupon specials on "mild intimidation".
It is very common to have some kind of secure access at most of the neighborhood pools here. Restricted Pool access is considered a plus for the neighborhood, otherwise you will have bunch of teens hanging out at odd times and causing problems for nearby homeowners.
I think adult children and their spouses are usually not considered part of the 'family plan'. It is meant for typical household of parents and their minor kids.
Even if your neighborhood has multi-generational families, I highly doubt they are allowed Pool access. I have a neighbor with 3 generations living in the same house, but the parents live in the basement apartment and they are co-owners, so am sure they have club privileges. OTOH, another neighbor with adult children who moved back home, will not be allowed at the club without guest passes.
I would be really ticked if my adult daughter who drives 8 hours from Atlanta several times a year to visit us was not welcomed in the pool without paying for a guest pass. She always times her visit in the summer to be here for her little sister's birthday and they go every day for 4 days straight to play at the pool.
So if somebody wanted to hire a sitter to take their kids to the pool you would be expected to pay the cost of the sitter plus the guest pass? Crazy. Glad my neighborhood is small and not so regulated to turn people off.
Our pool offers a babysitter pass for around $50.00 for the whole summer (can be used daily). Otherwise if they just had a sitter for a week or something, then they would pay the $5.00 guest fee.
We also do not charge for out of state guests who are here visiting for a short time.
It totally seems overkill to me. At our little pool we just tell our names to the member working the desk and they check us in. Most folks know each other by sight anyway. If we have guests we pay our two dollars. Pretty low tech, but it works. Our pool is usually pretty popular, but it's definitely not overrun with folks who don't belong. It's a very friendly pool, though, so we do have lots of kids and their guests.
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