Are you having a problem with community members not following along with HOA guidelines when taking care of dog poop?
More than 10.6 million pounds of dog waste is produced every year in the United States. When dog waste isn’t properly cleaned up, it can leave a stench and a mess.
HOA Rules and Compliance
Unfortunately, not all dog owners practice responsibility when handling the waste that their furry friend leaves. Leaving uncollected feces around Your community can break HOA rules. Now, what do you do if people still aren’t cleaning up their dog waste?
Trying to find ways to solve the poop problem in your HOA community can be challenging. It doesn’t have to be impossible, and it does not have to put undue stress on the community. Down below, we have outlined some great ideas on how to take of our homeowner’s association’s dog poop problem.
1. Make the Problem Public
The first step that you need to take to solving your HOA dog poop problem is to make a note to resent and at the community newsletter. If you don’t make the issue public, some people may not be aware of their requirements to prevent this problem.
By addressing the problem in a public manner, you can educate residents about the current regulations. Also, you can make people aware of the proper way to clean up their dog’s waste. Bringing awareness to the issue may be the easiest and best way to have a communal effort be put in to stop this problem from happening.
2. Identify Problem Areas
If you find that there is dog waste left in a specific area, you can go about addressing this issue by posting signage within that particular area.
You can even take it as far as to have a doggie bag station, along with the trash can in that area. While this will come at some cost to your community, it will provide directions with an easy solution to follow if you’re unable to identify an offender.
3. Create Rules
If your HOA Community doesn’t have any rules in place regarding dog waste, you need to set some up immediately. The majority of HOA communities do have provisions regarding what the cleanup policies are for owning a pet.
In a situation where you do know who the offender of the pet waste problem is, you can leave them with a hefty fine for breaking the rules. If your community doesn’t have any rules about cleaning up after a pet, address your HOA board to propose fines and regulations in regards to pet waste cleanup.
4. Develop Boundaries
Another possible solution you can try is to create boundaries for where pets aren’t allowed.
If you notice that there is a problem area where there seems to be a collection of dog waste, create boundaries where pets aren’t allowed to enter. Areas that you can consider having this boundary include around your pool, playground, or near the community’s entrance.
5. Send a Formal Letter
In some situations, you may know who the dog poop offender is. If you have seen what the resident is responsible for not collecting their dog waste, you can send a formal letter to your HOA management.
Some communities may offer a warning letter for first-time offenders. However, suppose there is an individual in your community that is a repeat offender. In that case, your HOA may want to include consequences any letter from not following along with their strict HOA guidelines.
6. Consider Hiring a Scooping Service
If you’re still unable to find a solution to your pet waste problem in your HOA Community, you may want to consider hiring a company to scour your property to find dog waste. While this may cause an increase in HOA fees for your community, it may be necessary to keep your neighborhood and check with EPA guidelines.
Sometimes, stray pets and other wildlife may use the property in your community as their bathroom. This will leave you without a resident responsible for the problem, resulting in a continuation of the problem.
There isn’t one way that you can solve this problem, which may lead to you having to recruit volunteers to search your community for pet waste. The simpler alternative is to hire a team of professionals to scoop your property.
7. Add a Dog Park to Your Property
Another alternative that you can consider is adding a dog park onto your property. This park will be specially set aside for pets, including pet-friendly amenities inside the park.
For an additional price, pet owners can bring their pets inside of this fenced-in area for their pets to play. Pets will also be allowed to go to the bathroom inside this area, significantly reducing the likelihood of you finding waste around the rest of your community.
Plus, being around other dog owners can encourage possible offenders to dispose of their dog waste properly. It would help if you were sure to include a weigh station with plastic bags and a trash can inside of this pet area so that you don’t find bags filled with dog waste around your community.
Understanding How to Manage HOA Rules and Compliance for Pet Waste
Not managing your dog waste problem in your HOA community and turn off future residents and leave abiding owners unhappy. Finding ways to inform residents of their responsibilities as a pet owner. By doing so, this will help educate your community on what expectations are in place as a pet owner.
Is your community still having difficulties managing the pet waste problem even after following these above-listed tips? You may need the help of an HOA manager to enforce the regulations instead of you taking on the responsibility. Click here to learn how you can get help today.
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