Academy/Common Rules & Restrictions
Nuisance
What turns ordinary annoyance into something a board can actually act on, and a second doctrine with the same name that means something completely different.
A nuisance rule lets your association act against behavior that unreasonably interferes with a neighbor's use and enjoyment of their home, even when no other rule covers it. What counts is fact-specific state common law layered on your CC&Rs, not a fixed test or number. A different doctrine, "attractive nuisance," covers liability for hazards that draw in trespassing children.
What makes something a nuisance
Most rule violations are easy to spot: you either put your trash out on the wrong day or you did not. Nuisance is different. It's the catch-all a board reaches for when a neighbor's behavior is genuinely disruptive but no specific rule addresses it: constant delivery traffic from a home business, persistent odors, a hobby that runs well past what neighbors can reasonably tolerate.
There is no fixed test. Whether conduct rises to a nuisance is fact-specific state common law, layered on top of whatever your Declaration or CC&Rs say. No decibel number, no set hour, and no universal definition decides it for you. What's disruptive on one lot line, at one hour, may be tolerable a few doors down.
How the board should approach it
Start with your own governing documents, not instinct. Many Declarations include a general nuisance clause, close to prohibiting anything that unreasonably interferes with another owner's use and enjoyment of their property. That clause is usually the board's actual authority to act here, not a separate power the board invents on the spot.
Because the underlying standard is state-controlled and fact-specific, resist setting a bright-line rule, like a decibel level or a curfew, unless your state or local ordinance already supplies one to point to. Document what the complaining owner actually experienced, check whether your state or municipality has its own nuisance ordinance, and loop in counsel before any enforcement action, especially before a fine.
A different "nuisance": liability for hazards that draw in children
A second, unrelated doctrine shares the name: attractive nuisance. It has nothing to do with annoying conduct and everything to do with physical hazards. Under this common-law doctrine, an association can be liable for a child's injury on an artificial condition, like an unfenced pool or exposed play equipment on a common area, if it knew or should have known children were likely to trespass, the hazard posed a risk children wouldn't recognize, and fixing it would have cost little next to the risk.
This exposure exists whether or not the community's rules say anything about it, and whether or not the injured child ever violated a rule. A board cannot rely on a "no trespassing" sign or a residents-only pool rule to eliminate it; the doctrine asks what the association reasonably should have secured, not what its paperwork says.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Owners keep complaining about a neighbor's daily incense burning that drifts across the fence line, but nothing in the rules mentions incense or scent. What should the board do first?
A child who does not live in the community climbs the fence around the pool after hours, uses the diving board, and is badly hurt. The board never violated any of its own rules. Under the attractive nuisance doctrine, is the association exposed to liability?
A board member says "nuisance" and "attractive nuisance" are just two names for the same enforcement tool. What's the accurate distinction?
Sources
- Attractive nuisance doctrine (Wex), Cornell Legal Information Institute
Common Rules & Restrictions
Getting complaints about noise specifically? See the Noise lesson next.
What counts as a nuisance, and whether any decibel or quiet-hours standard applies, varies by state common law and by your own CC&Rs. Whether and how attractive nuisance liability applies to a given hazard also depends on your state's version of the doctrine.