Halloween Safety Tips for Your HOA

Halloween is coming up fast! It may be the most wonderful time of the year for many of your residents but it can be a difficult time to be on the HOA board. Between disputes over what constitutes an appropriate decoration to conflicts over noise and problems with too many pedestrians, it can be hard to navigate this season. Here’s how your board can make things go as smoothly as possible.

Educate Your Community About Rules, Etc.

Post flyers, send out emails, post in your neighborhood’s Facebook group, and more. Make sure everyone knows what your neighborhood polices are about Halloween, including guidelines for decorations and what to expect that night. If, for instance, homes giving out candy need to have their lights on, make sure everyone knows it. If certain streets are cordoned off for the safety of trick-or-treaters, send out maps outlining that area.

Make Sure Decorations are Safe

Drive through your neighborhood to make sure everyone has safe decorations. Do your best to ascertain that lighting has been appropriately done, that cords are out of the way, and that no one is invading anyone else’s space with their decorations. If residents complain about each others’ decorations, go out to make sure everyone is in compliance. Try to highlight the difference between not liking the way someone chooses to decorate and safety hazards.

Implement Neighborhood Watch Procedures

You may want to up the Neighborhood Watch presence as Halloween approaches. After all, this can be a time for mischief and shenanigans and it’s much easier to stop this kind of thing if you can catch people in the act. You may even need to call the police if you witness something that is particularly nefarious. Many times, though, simply having people out and about or knowing their watching will deter these actions. Notify everyone to watch out for one another, too. If neighbors notice something wrong at another’s house, they should definitely know who to call!

Have a Halloween Party

Some neighborhood decide to forego Halloween trick-or-treating entirely and hold a party instead. While you can’t stop everyone from going out in search of candy, you can make it easy to find and obtain. You can hold a trunk-or-treat in a parking lot, have a harvest party, or open your clubhouse for candy, drinks, and more. This allows everyone to dress up, get candy, and enjoy the holiday without having to deal with as many pedestrian-auto incidents and without nearly as much worry for you.

If you don’t want to handle Halloween as a member of your HOA board again, call us at AMI Florida. We’ll help you implement policies and procedures that will keep everyone safe and make your life so much easier! We can also put together a package of services that might help you out year-round. We’ll work with you to make your HOA a great place to live for everyone involved and we’ll take the stress out of being a member of the HOA board. Call us today!