One Community - One Keystone
Hi Folks;
At Tenderfoot, we were not given an option last year, so we banned gas grills.
I am quite sure even is we were given a choice, we would still not allow gas grills on decks. First of all, most electric grills cook quicker and hotter than gas grills at our altitude of 9,300 ft.
In addition, the HOA provides 4 gas grills on our courtyard desk, which were okayed by our insurance.
Our HOA, Cabin in the Pines, has banned all flame grills. We did offer a price to pick them up via our management company to make it easier to get rid of. The issue is not only the higher insurance rates , but the liability if a fire was caused by one.
Why risk for an entire building, or surrounding forest and property for open fire grills ? The potential of having to rebuild/abandon only to be able to have a meal cooked the way one wishes is not worth it...
Very surprised you were given the option. A few years ago a representative came out for an insurance inspection and flagged our building for having flame based grills, (among some other unrelated concerns) and basically told us that we needed to have an HOA policy established, and sent in to them ASAP. Policy would ban the use of flame based devices of any kind (patio heaters or firepits included) or else we would likely not be renewed. It should be noted that the local fire department has discussed (not sure if implemented yet) local fire code not allowing flame based devices on decks that don't have some sort of suppression system (sprinkler head) on the deck. All in all it's probably best to just to eliminate this now to avoid issues with the ever watchful eye of the (mountain) insurance industry as well as be in compliance with possible future fire/municipal code(s).
We do allow (with insurance approval like you mentioned) electric grills that use a standard 15A/20A outlet. Note that we had a few owners who opted to go with a smoker (Traeger) type unit that proved to be quite a nuisance because of the amount of smoke produced. We had to add language for the removal of those as well. Technically speaking I learned that those smoker devices while "electric" actually have a small flame/combustion via wood chips or pellets anyway so it made it easier to fight the fight with stubborn owners.
Jeramy Rath Expedition Station
Not sure if I'm getting the full picture correctly, I'm guessing this is all or nothing for the HOA and the figures mentioned are yearly insurance costs for one representative owner?
If my assumptions are correct, I would push for the cheaper option because its required to be uniform and you already have the electric grills in place. With this summer, there could be insurance impacting fires in the west and the perspective could change again. Then people with open flames would need to switch again.
We opted to allow the gas grills back and pay the extra premium. The cost difference per owner for the whole year was less than one burger meal out for two at Kickapoo. This issue had caused the first major division in our community since I've been on the board since 2012, so it seemed foolish to not jump at the opportunity to allow gas grill fans to have their gas grills back.
However, we cautioned our owners that this was a year to year decision, and could change, based on insurance pricing and options.
from Curt Audin - Frey Gulch
Return of Grills/Open Flame Devices. Our HOA insurance is due for renewal. As part of the renewal proposal, we were given options but categorized under two different headings: Pricing with grills/open flame devices ALLOWED, or pricing with grills/open flame devices NOT ALLOWED. There was a difference in our premiums ranging from $1,392 to $1,824 increase if we chose to allow grills to come back.
What options would other HOAs choose when given that option; allow or not allow the grills open/flame devices to return. Electric grills have been the solution and still remain an option without any increase in premiums.
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