Basketball Hoop on Front of House

[AdoptADog]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hey all!! Liability question.

We have a basketball hoop over our garage door that we seldom use, in fact haven't used in probably 10 years or more. Our neighborhood demographics have changed and we now have many young children around. I recently caught several of them playing in our driveway trying to make baskets.

Yes, I became THAT neighbor..."get off my lawn!"....it's quite noisy in the house when this is happening. Now, as we have a pool our homeowners liability is quite high, but I am curious about children playing on your property without permission. Is a hoop considered an attractive nuisance? The obvious is to remove the hoop, which we are considering, but we do love the look of the home with it. Are we liable for injuries that might occur while they are playing here uninvited?

Thank you, oh wise ones!

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hey all!! Liability question.

We have a basketball hoop over our garage door that we seldom use, in fact haven't used in probably 10 years or more. Our neighborhood demographics have changed and we now have many young children around. I recently caught several of them playing in our driveway trying to make baskets.

Yes, I became THAT neighbor..."get off my lawn!"....it's quite noisy in the house when this is happening. Now, as we have a pool our homeowners liability is quite high, but I am curious about children playing on your property without permission. Is a hoop considered an attractive nuisance? The obvious is to remove the hoop, which we are considering, but we do love the look of the home with it. Are we liable for injuries that might occur while they are playing here uninvited?

Thank you, oh wise ones!

If I were you I would just take it down.

 

[STEPHAN]

Take it down and donate it to them. I am sure they will find a place where they are allowed to install it and will have fun.

 

[FlyingRon]

You have what is known as an attractive nuisance. Despite your protestations, if a kid injures himself shooting hoops on your driveway, you can be held liable.
Remove it.

 

[AdoptADog]

Thanks all! It is coming down soon. I had to smile at the children when I was told that the five year old neighbor said they could!

I sure wish we didn't have to worry about these things, but we do.

 

[tranquility]

You have what is known as an attractive nuisance. Despite your protestations, if a kid injures himself shooting hoops on your driveway, you can be held liable.
Remove it.

I disagree in theory and reality. First, the doctrine requires the object to be BOTH attractive to children (Hoop may qualify.) and dangerous. We could go into how (absent specific facts not in our facts) an object on many playgrounds for children is not inherently dangerous, but will not. Why? Because there is no such doctrine in CA since the 70s. California is a pure negligence state.

Of course, that does not remove potential liability. It's just that the determination will be under negligence and not attractive nuisance theory. As to negligence, I would consider the differences between the hoop on a child's playground and the hoop in the OP's instance. I suspect, absent spiked picket fences on both sides of a highly sloped driveway, this is going to be a thing basic homeowner's insurance would cover just fine. The millions of homes in the U.S. with such an arraignment leads me to think this is not something to fear because of high levels of liability.

That being said, it costs nearly nothing to take it down. If you find those dang kids playing on your lawn bothers you, remove the reason they play there. But, do it because that's what you want. Not out of great fear of liability.

 

[TigerD]

I would normally say you can solve the problem with a motion sensor and a sprinkler, but California.

Take it down. Or put up a fence.

TD

 

[AdoptADog]

I would normally say you can solve the problem with a motion sensor and a sprinkler, but California.

Take it down. Or put up a fence.

TD

I personally LOVE this solution, except the fact that our cars would get wet trying to get into the garage! So down it comes. We ought to make the lil boogers repaint the garage door after putting all the ball marks on it. We have a sloped driveway making the hoop pretty darned high, but we are happy with the quieter times of nothing hitting the house.

 

[AdoptADog]

UPDATE!! The hoop is gone..and hubs did not kill himself falling off the ladder or anything!

 

[quincy]

You chose the easiest and smartest solution. Now you might want to take STEPHAN's suggestion and donate it to the children who have shown an interest in it.

 

[AdoptADog]

You chose the easiest and smartest solution. Now you might want to take STEPHAN's suggestion and donate it to the children who have shown an interest in it.

With our luck the one we hand it to would cut himself on the rusty bit, and we'd be hit with a huge lawsuit!

 

[quincy]

With our luck the one we hand it to would cut himself on the rusty bit, and we'd be hit with a huge lawsuit!

Haha. Yes, after your husband's successful trip up and down the ladder, you might be pushing your luck a bit handing over a rusty basketball hoop to a kid.

I would just throw it in the trash then and leave it at that.