With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s time for pumpkins, reindeer, snowmen, and other types of holiday décor to be displayed in communities! But is your community ready for all the décor and are your rules adequate to control it?
Below are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to rules addressing holiday décor:
Do’s:
- Do be reasonable when it comes to your rules; for example, it may not be reasonable to prohibit all holiday decorations in a single-family community;
- Do check your governing documents to ensure your rules comply with any restrictions on outdoor displays and decorations already contained in such documents;
- Do address components of décor that will impact neighboring residents in the community, such as illumination, size, and location of décor;
- Do provide instruction on how many days before a holiday décor may be displayed and how many days after the holiday it must be removed;
- Do make sure your owners and residents have copies of the pertinent rules or know where the rules are located;
- Do have legal counsel review proposed rules before formally adopting them.
Don’ts:
- Do not have different rules for your owners and non-owners as this may be considered discriminatory if demographically the non-owners fall into a protected class;
- Do not require approval of holiday decorations if they comply with all the restrictions contained in your rules, or the board/committee will be burdened with many requests for temporary displays before the holidays and will likely not be able to get to all the requests;
- Do not treat different holidays differently; for example, do not adopt a rule allowing holiday displays from November 10th through January 15th as this rule treats winter holidays differently than holidays during other times of the year and may be considered discriminatory.
Should you have any questions about your holiday display rules, please do not hesitate to contact an Altitude attorney at (303) 432-9999 or at [email protected].