Overview

Parents and homeowners regularly ask whether their HOAs can force them, or their children, to wear a helmet while riding a bike, scooter, or skateboard within the common areas of their HOAs. The question usually surfaces when HOAs adopt helmet rules covering their streets, sidewalks, or recreational paths. Most parents don’t object to their HOAs’ helmet rules when the rules apply to their children because most parents already required their kids to wear helmets, and California law already requires it. The friction starts when HOAs extend that same requirement to the adults themselves and order grown homeowners to strap on a helmet before riding through their own neighborhood. Whether or not such rules are enforceable turns on ordinary principles of HOA rulemaking, not on any special helmet law aimed at HOAs.

Two questions decide whether a helmet rule holds up. The first is whether HOAs properly adopted the rule and whether it reaches an area they actually control. The second is whether the rule is reasonable, since that’s the primary standard all HOA rules must meet. A helmet rule that clears both questions is enforceable.

For children, a helmet rule draws its strength from two independent sources. Vehicle Code 21212 already requires everyone under 18 to wear a helmet while riding a bike, scooter, or skateboard on public property, so HOA rules that require the same thing for minors riding in the HOA’s common areas are mirroring an existing legal obligation, and will therefore satisfy the reasonableness standard on that basis alone. In addition, and quite separate from the statutory basis for such rules, HOAs face real liability exposure when residents and guests ride in areas the HOAs control, and a rule that reduces the risk of a serious head injury protects HOAs from such liability. Either rationale supports the rule as applied to children, and together they leave little room to challenge it.

For adults, no statute requires helmets, so the analysis rests entirely on the liability rationale. HOAs that require adults to wear helmets in the areas they control act to limit the injury claims and insurance exposure that follow a crash on their property, and that interest makes an adult helmet rule reasonable under Civil Code 4350 even without a statute behind it. The result is that HOAs can almost certainly enforce a helmet rule aimed at adults, not just children.

This Fact Sheet explains where HOAs get the authority to adopt a helmet rule, how the reasonableness standard applies to helmet requirements, why Vehicle Code 21212 makes the rule especially strong as applied to minors, how the liability exposure HOAs face independently supports the rule, and why that liability rationale almost certainly allows HOAs to extend a helmet requirement to adults.

Key Points

A helmet rule is an operating rule, so its enforceability depends on the same two questions that decide any HOA rule. Did the HOA adopt it properly? And is it reasonable under Civil Code 4350? Generally, helmet rules answer both questions in the HOA’s favor relatively easily because safety is an obvious legitimate purpose in terms of liability management, and when it comes to minors, a state statute already commands the very same conduct. The points below trace where the authority to require helmets comes from, how the reasonableness standard applies, why the rule is nearly unchallengeable as applied to children, and why it almost certainly reaches adults too. [If you’d like a refresher on determining the legality of an HOA’s rules, read my Fact Sheet “When Are HOA Rules Illegal in California?”]

• HOAs can require helmets only through a properly adopted rule that reaches an area they control. A helmet rule has to satisfy Civil Code 4350, which confines HOAs to rules within the authority their governing documents and California law grant. Two practical limits follow from that. First, the HOA has to have adopted the rule through the required process, so a helmet requirement announced informally or enforced before adoption binds no one. Second, the rule reaches only the areas the HOA actually controls, meaning its common areas (e.g., any private roads, sidewalks, or recreational paths the HOA owns). Where a community’s streets are public and dedicated to the city, the HOA generally can’t regulate how people ride on them, though the Vehicle Code still governs conduct there. A helmet rule that tries to control what a homeowner does inside their own separate interest or on public property, rather than in the common areas, would not be enforceable. [The mechanics of how HOAs must notice and adopt operating rules are covered in my Fact Sheet “HOA Rules in California: Legal Authority and Rulemaking Limits.”]
• Civil Code 4350 requires every helmet rule to be reasonable. Under Civil Code 4350, an operating rule has to rationally relate to a legitimate HOA purpose, stay consistent with the governing documents, and apply uniformly to everyone it covers. Rules must also be reasonable. Protecting residents and guests from head injuries is a textbook legitimate purpose, so a helmet rule satisfies the rational-relationship requirement on its face.
  • Vehicle Code 21212 makes a helmet rule nearly unassailable as applied to children. Vehicle Code 21212 already requires everyone under 18 to wear a properly fitted helmet while operating or riding as a passenger on a bicycle, scooter, skateboard (or while rollerblading/skating) on a public road or pathway. Because the law already provides for the same result, an HOA that wishes to close the public/private gap by requiring the same for the private roads and pathways it controls (i.e., the common area) won’t find it difficult to establish the rule’s reasonableness, at least as it relates to minors.
• The liability and insurance exposure HOAs face supports a helmet rule on its own, for children and adults alike. Separate from any statute, HOAs carry real exposure when residents and guests ride in the common areas. A single crash can generate a claim against the HOA, and the HOA’s insurer prices that risk into its coverage. The fact that head injuries are both foreseeable and potentially catastrophic just adds to the potential liability an HOA might face if someone riding a bike in the common area without a helmet were to make a claim. Countless studies have proven that helmets significantly reduce the severity of injuries, and that fact alone gives HOAs a legitimate, self-protective reason to impose helmet rules. And because that liability and insurance interest independently supports the reasonableness of a helmet rule, HOAs can easily justify such rule’s application to both children and adults.
• Homeowners who want to push back should target the rule’s scope and how the HOA adopted it, and not the helmet requirement itself. It should be clear by now that homeowners who object to helmet rules on the basis of reasonableness will almost certainly fail. The openings lie elsewhere. First, homeowners should confirm that their HOA adopted the rule through the process Civil Code 4360 requires because if not, regardless of the reasonableness of the rule, it won’t be enforceable. If the rule checks out in that regard, then homeowners should examine its scope. If the rule only applies to common areas that the HOA controls, it will be enforceable. If, however, the rule attempts to govern conduct on a homeowner’s separate interest or on public property, the rule will fail the reasonableness test and won’t be enforceable.
• If your California HOA is enforcing a helmet rule in a way that oversteps its authority, call the HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman. Most helmet rules are enforceable, but an HOA that never properly adopted its rule, or that extends the rule past the common areas it controls, is a different problem. The HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman represent California homeowners against HOAs that misuse their rulemaking power, and we can tell you quickly whether your HOA’s helmet rule holds up or whether it reaches past the authority the HOA actually has.

HOAs sit well within their rulemaking power when they require helmets, as long as they adopt the rule properly and keep it inside the areas they control. For children, Vehicle Code 21212 and the liability exposure HOAs face each independently justify the rule. For adults, that liability exposure justifies it without any statute in play. Homeowners who want to resist a helmet rule should look to how the HOA adopted it and how far the HOA is trying to stretch it, since those are the questions that decide whether a given helmet rule holds up.

FAQs

About Michael Kushner

Michael Kushner is a California attorney with over 30 years of experience representing homeowners in disputes with their HOAs. He is widely regarded as California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, and has built one of the state’s most prominent law practices dedicated to holding HOAs accountable under the Davis-Stirling Act and California law.

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