Condo Media - December 2014 - 41

Meskin sees the risks of
property damage caused by
drones as "fairly small," mainly
because the drones themselves are so
small. It's possible that drones could
become much larger - if they are
delivering larger packages; and it's also
possible to envision a disaster scenario
involving a drone of any size, Meskin
says. "At some point, a drone may
drop a pizza on the hood of someone's car and the driver may have a
heart attack, veer off the road, and run
over three kids playing ball in a yard."
But absent some evidence that the association had reason to anticipate that
this might occur, Meskin doesn't think
the association could be found negligent and thus liable for any damages.
Associations may eventually want
to regulate the drones flying over and
landing in their communities - perhaps by requiring the entities owning them to be insured and bonded,
Meskin suggests. But he doesn't think
communities should take any action
now. "The technology is just way too
new," he believes. Boards that attempt
to address it now, he says, "will be fixing something that isn't broken." And
the fixes they create may not target the
problems they actually have to address
in the future.
Edmund Allcock, Esq.,
Partner, Marcus, Errico,
Emmer & Brooks, P.C.
Allcock is more concerned about drones
and the risks they pose
than Meskin, and he

sees a more
compelling argument for associations
to respond proactively, even though he
agrees that drones aren't likely to begin
buzzing around condominium communities or dropping packages in them
anytime soon.
Associations face the same potential
liability for drones they face for anything that harms community residents,
Allcock suggests. An owner sickened
by second-hand smoke will sue the
association for failing to ban or at
least restrict smoking, he notes, and
an owner injured by a drone will sue
the association along with the drone's
owner. Residents who claim a neighbor's drone is violating their privacy
rights will no doubt sue the association
as well. Associations may not lose these
suits, Allcock acknowledges, but they
will almost certainly incur the costs of
defending them.
Association boards have the authority to ban drones in common areas,
and Allcock thinks they would be
well-advised to do so now. There will
be millions of dollars at stake in the
technology, he notes. And he predicts
that Congress or the Federal Communications Commission (or both) will
act at some point to protect drones, by
prohibiting associations from banning
or significantly restricting them. "Once

drones are
up and running,
it will be very difficult for
associations to ban them completely,"
he expects. But bans already in place
might be grandfathered in by future
legislation or regulations - one reason
he thinks boards might want to deal
with them proactively.
If owners don't want to ban drones
- because they like the idea of drone
deliveries - boards might consider
regulations limiting the size of drones
or specifying where and during what
hours they will be allowed to fly over
or land in the community. But it will
be difficult to craft those regulations
now, Allcock says, because "we don't
know what the drones will look like.
Are we going to be talking about
drones that weigh 2 pounds or 200
pounds?" What kinds of packages
will they deliver? How noisy will they
be? How much space will they need
to land? Because there are so many
unanswered questions about drones,
Allcock thinks, it's a little too early
for boards to do anything other than
ban them. And an outright ban, in his
view, is a good idea. CM
Condo Media * December 2014

Condo Media - December 2014

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