A homeowner’s association (HOA) is an organization with a board of members who oversees the common areas, rules, and compliance of condos, co-ops, townhouses, planned communities, and other living spaces. If you live in a property with an HOA, you pay regular fees to the organization and follow the community rules. In turn, the HOA maintains common areas in the community and creates a pleasant place to live.
HOAs have a duty of care to members, including the members of community who pay their fees and follow HOA rules. They also have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of members of the community.
Common Claims Against Cooper City HOAs
You may have a claim against your HOA if the organization breached its duty of care and failed to maintain common areas or keep them safe and you were injured as a result, suffering losses. You may also have a claim if the HOA failed in its fiduciary duty to you.
Common HOA-related claims in Cooper City often involve:
- Trip and fall or slip and fall accidents on common property
- Loss of property value because an HOA’s policies devalued the neighborhood
- Swimming pool injuries in the community pool
- A member of the HOA acted with willful misconduct, negligence, or bad faith, and their actions led to an injury
- Car accidents occur due to poor signage, poor road maintenance, or parking area issues in the community
- The HOA creates landscaping designs which limit visibility or pose other dangers and an injury occurs as a result
- Injuries occur in the community’s play area, theater room, fitness center, garden, biking trail, conference room, patio, or other amenities because these areas were unsafe
- Break-ins occur due to lack of correct security or lighting
- The HOA demands certain features or property changes as part of its rules, and these features cause an injury
- The HOA acts in a discriminatory way
- The HOA uses wrongful acts or dangerous actions in an effort to get homeowners to comply with community rules
HOAs are meant to maintain community standards. When they fail to do so and someone is injured as a result, the injured homeowner or visitor may have a claim.
While most claims against homeowner’s associations have to do with common areas, claims can occur if someone is injured in their own home. For example, if a car crashes into a house due to bad signage or if a break-in happens due to poor security, the homeowner may have a claim if they are injured and their injury stems from the negligence or wrongful act of the homeowner’s association.
Filing an HOA Injury Claim in Cooper City
HOAs usually have legal structures to limit liability and to protect the association and its members from legal claims. For example, many HOAs limit liability to situations where a hazard was known to them. These associations also have the financial means, from the gathered HOA fees, to work with skilled attorneys.
If you have been injured in a planned community and think you may have a claim against an HOA, contact Flaxman Law Group at 1-866-352-9626 (1-866-FLAXMAN) for a free accident consultation with a Cooper City HOA injury claims attorney. Our legal team has more than 60 years of experience and our principal worked for ten years in the insurance industry before dedicating his life to the law, so he knows how to negotiate with insurers.