Articles

Client Alert: Ensuring the Best Care for Your Association's Pool

Date: May 24, 2022
Community pools require an extensive amount of attention and care.  In order to achieve the high level of care all pools require, community association often employ professional companies to operate and perform the day-to-day upkeep such as cleaning the amenities, treating the pool, staffing lifeguards, and ensuring the pool is closed and secured at the end of each day.  Just as the association’s members trust their community association to keep the pool safe for use, community associations entrust their pool-related responsibilities to professional pool companies.  This entrustment is embodied by the terms of the service contract between the association and the pool company of choice. 
 
While the association may vet both their choice of pool companies and the terms of the service contract, an association may end up responsible for any failure on the part of the pool company where the service contract does not contain terms that consider potential issues.  For instance, many pool service contracts do not permit an association to have input on whether a pool company employee who acts inappropriately may be let go or otherwise provide for continued pool services when the pool company does not provide adequate services.
 
Pool companies often employ teenagers and young adults to serve as lifeguards and pool employees during their summer break from school.  While these teenagers typically receive the necessary training to keep pool-goers safe, they are not often trained on the requisite customer service etiquette or the limits of their authority outside of the water.  When an issue arises between a pool-goer and a pool company employee, community associations rarely have a say in whether the pool company employee may continue to service the association’s pool unless the terms of the service contract consider this circumstance.
 
Naturally, members of the community association would be greatly concerned about a pool company employee who curses while within earshot of children, and equally so if lifeguards enter the changing facilities or restrooms without announcing their entry.  These actions are not always considered a fire-able offense but can result in significant uproar by affected community members and those affected community members must resort to submitting their complaints to their association. 
 
Without terms in the service contract that control how an association’s complaints or concerns are addressed by the pool company, the only remedy an association has at its disposal is to reconsider its contract with the pool company as a whole.  Escalating an issue with a pool company employee into an issue with the pool company may leave the association without a company to operate the pool.
 
Additionally, in the summer season, pool companies provide a highly demanded service.  When an association or its community is not satisfied with the services actually provided by the pool company, it must rely on the terms of its service contract to redress issues.  Terminating the service contract with the association’s selected pool company well into the summer season may leave the association unable to find another pool company to operate the pool for the remainder of the season.  Alternatively, withholding payment on the grounds of inadequate service may cause what started out as small issues to balloon into costly, extensive legal battles.
 
Ultimately, community associations place a great amount of trust in their choice of a pool company and must rely on the terms of their service contract to protect the interests and safety of their members.  If your association would like legal counsel to review the terms of your community associations service contract with a pool company, please do not hesitate to contact counsel at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, LLP. 
The information contained here is not intended to provide legal advice or opinion and should not be acted upon without consulting an attorney. Counsel should not be selected based on advertising materials, and we recommend that you conduct further investigation when seeking legal representation.