With summer here, children’s outside activities will be increasing dramatically. This can create several issues in shared communities – ranging from residential complaints about noise, as well as a rise in the number of accidents; everything from scraped knees and small cuts, to more larger problems that can happen in swimming pools and around parking lots.
Families with small children are an increasing demographic, and are renting more frequently This makes it extremely important that safety issues are quickly addressed at your property. You should spend time walking the property and checking for anything that young adventurous minds wills want to explore. Here are some good places to start to determine just how safe your apartment community is for your smallest residents:
- Examine the grounds carefully for anything that can be potentially dangerous for small children and remove or repair them. This can include fallen tree branches, loose tree limbs, and gopher holes.
- Make sure you have posted speed limits throughout the property. Remember that not all children will be property supervised – even if they should be. That’s why it’s important to have posted speed limits within the property. The addition of speed bumps can also effectively deter speeding residents, and possibly prevent a tragic accident as well.
- Check and double check pool access. It’s imperative that the pool area remain secure and inaccessible to small children. This means having the proper locks and fencing around the area. Children are curious, and a sparkling pool can be enticing on a hot summer day.
- If you don’t have a dedicated playground area, you may want to consider creating one. A dedicated playground facility will help your property attract families with small children; typically a very stable group of renters. It will also reduce the amount of noise around the community. No one can fault children for wanting to play outside in warm weather, but the fact is that the noise level can become a nuisance to other tenants.
- If you do create a dedicated playground area for children, or already have one, make sure that there are posted rules for children visible in the playground area. In addition, if your playground is for very small children, they should always be accompanied by an adult when playing.
While it may be a bit more work up front, preventing accidents by creating a safe play zone for children should be a priority for all property managers.