By AtHomeNet

One or two signs here and there isn’t a big deal, but when you have hundreds of residents posting for-sale signs, signs promoting their businesses, signs about religion or politics, etc., it can become a nuisance fast. If you are sick of seeing signs all over your community, check out these four tips on creating a good signage posting policy.

Check the Governing Documents

Whenever you’re creating a policy, you need to check the Governing Documents first because you must follow them to the letter, and if your Governing Documents state anyone can post any sign they want in the common areas, you have to follow that policy or hold a vote to change the rule. If the Governing Documents don’t say anything specific to posting signs, the HOA has the right to control common areas, which may mean prohibiting signs completely.

Create a Place for Signs

Instead of prohibiting all signs, however, it may be better to just create a place for signs. This will keep residents happy because it gives them a place to post their fliers, but it also prevents the community from being overrun with signs. In one of the common areas, put up a bulletin board where residents can post their signs, but make sure they know posting signs anywhere else is not allowed.

Monitor the Signs

You’ll need someone to monitor the signs for two reasons. First, you’ll need someone to remove old signs to prevent a big, confusing mess of old and new signs. Second, and most importantly, you need someone to remove any inappropriate signs, such as signs with foul language, signs that bad-mouth other residents or signs that don’t follow the rules and regulations of the sign policy or the HOA policies in general.

Enforce the Rules Consistently

You’ll need to create rules for your signage policy, and whatever rules you choose, make sure to actually enforce them. Failing to do so can open a can of worms, and allow everyone the ability to post whatever they want. You also have to make sure to apply the rules equally to everyone. For example, if you decide to prohibit signs completely, but then you allow one person to post one sign, you’ll now have to allow every resident to post one sign.

Jeff and Susan Sanders started AtHomeNet in 1998, creating easy-to-use, multi-feature websites for homeowner communities and association management firms, condominium owner associations, and other community association organizations.