The holidays can be a magical time of year. However, when you run a common ownership community, holidays can also become a time of strife and conflict. The best way to get through the holidays with a happy community is to prepare and communicate your rules clearly.
Instituting fair and reasonable holiday rules is important for the success of your holiday season. Yet, another issue is compliance. How do you get your residents to follow your rules? In the rest of this article, we discuss common holiday rules and tips for getting your residents to follow them.
Common Community Holiday Rules
Holiday rules do not have to be elaborate or overwhelming to residents. Yet, the rules are important to keep residents safe and your community looking nice over the holiday season.
During the holidays, many of your rules will likely revolve around decorations. Some communities choose not to regulate holiday decorations, but many find these rules important. If you do decide to create rules around holiday decorations, common ones include:
- Only certain decorations are allowed in common areas.
- Periods when residents must put up their decorations.
- Brightness or noise limits.
- Limits on when the decorations can be turned on.
In addition to rules about holiday decorations, you may need to create other regulations during the holidays. These may include the following:
- Parking restrictions.
- Noise restrictions.
- Time limits for parties over a certain number of people.
Tips for Ensuring Residents Obey Your Holiday Community Rules
Once you have determined your community rules for the holiday season, you need to communicate those rules to your residents. You will have better luck with compliance if you follow these tips.
1) Keep the tone upbeat.
No one wants rules that focus on the negatives, especially during the holidays. It is best to keep the tone of your rules upbeat. You can still describe what is expected of your residents during the season. However, focus more on the activities that are allowed, and not only on the restrictions.
2) Make sure the rules are easily accessible.
Good communication is crucial when it comes to community rule compliance. Your residents cannot follow the rules if they do not know the rules. Therefore, you should ensure that fliers and/or emails are sent out with holiday rules. Additionally, adding the rules to the first page of your website will make them more visible.
3) Make consequences for rule violations clear.
While you do not want to focus on the negative when writing your holiday rules, you do need to make the consequences of violating the rules clear. These consequences may escalate in severity depending on the rule violation and how often it occurs. Including a section for these consequences in the written version of the rules is important. This ensures that your residents know exactly what to expect if they do not follow the rules.
For more holiday rule tips and other community management advice, contact D.H. Bader. We are your suburban Maryland source for top-notch community association management. Talk to us today or fill out our Request a Proposal form to get started.