HOA Rights Lab

Home / HOA Topics / HOA Pool Rules

Pools

HOA Pool Rules

Who can use the pool, guest limits, and what a safety rule is allowed to do.

Reviewed October 1, 20261 min read

This is general information for homeowners in the United States. It is not legal advice and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Your CC&Rs and your state's current statute control. Read both, and talk with a lawyer licensed in your state before you rely on any of this.

The pool is common area. The association can set hours, guest limits, and safety rules, and it can spend assessment money to run it. Those rules still have to come from the declaration’s grant of power and, where the state requires it, from a properly adopted rule.

Safety rules are the easiest to defend. Glass containers, unsupervised small children, and a broken gate are not aesthetic preferences. Guest caps and “no one under 18 after 6” are preferences, and they are enforceable when they were adopted correctly and applied to everyone.

Suspending your access because you owe money is a different power. Florida section 720.305, for example, allows suspension of common-area use rights when a member is more than 90 days delinquent, and it says the suspension cannot block ingress and egress or utility service. Other states are stricter or silent. Do not export the 90 days. If your fob stopped working, ask whether this is a rules suspension, which may need a hearing, or a delinquency suspension, which needs a balance that is actually that old. Get the ledger. Pay undisputed assessments. Dispute the rest in writing.

Common questions

Can the HOA close the pool to punish one owner?

Suspending common-area use is something many statutes allow only after a delinquency of a stated length, or after a hearing. A manager pulling a key fob over a disputed $40 fine may be ahead of the statute. Read the suspension section before you assume the fob is gone for good.

Sources