How should an HOA lend its folding tables, chairs and tools to owners?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 20, 2026

How an HOA board sets up a lending closet for folding tables, chairs, canopies and tools: what to lend, sign-out sheet, deposits, damage, insurance and wording.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Lending works when it runs like a library, not a favor. Decide by board vote what the association will lend, who may borrow it and for how long. Keep a numbered inventory and a sign-out sheet, and take a small deposit or none at all, but write the choice down. Lend things that are hard to hurt yourself with: folding tables, chairs, a pop-up canopy, a wagon, rakes and shovels. Do not lend ladders, chainsaws, pressure washers or anything with a blade and a motor. Call the insurance agent before the first item leaves the clubhouse. Rules vary by state and by your governing documents, and this guide is general education, not legal advice.

Decide what goes in the closet and what stays out

Start with what the association already owns. Many clubhouses already have a stack of folding tables and chairs bought for annual meetings, and they sit in a closet most of the year. Add a canopy, a hand truck, a couple of coolers and the hand tools left over from the last volunteer work day, and you have a lending closet. The hard line is equipment that injures people. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's 2024 injury report estimates about 273,000 emergency room visits that year involving ladders and stools. A borrowed extension ladder that slips on an owner's driveway is a claim with the association's name on the property tag. Power tools carry the same problem with blades added. The board can fix a broken table leg. It cannot check whether an owner knows how to run a borrowed chainsaw. Keep the closet to items a reasonable adult can use without training, and say in the policy that the list is complete. Before anything goes on the shelf, search it at cpsc.gov/Recalls. CPSC lets you filter recalls by product category and sign up for email alerts, and a recalled item comes off the list for good.

Who may borrow, for how long, and the deposit

Owners in the community should be the borrowers, plus tenants if your documents give tenants amenity rights. Do not lend to outside groups or friends of owners. The owner who signs the sheet is responsible for the item, and that has to mean someone the association can bill. Set a standard loan of 3 days, with a 7-day cap for tables and chairs around a holiday, and no more than one loan per household at a time when demand is high. On deposits, pick one approach and apply it to everyone. A refundable deposit of $25 per table or $50 for a canopy is easy to explain, and the treasurer returns it when the item comes back clean. Many small associations skip the deposit and rely on the damage section of the policy instead. Either works. What does not work is a deposit the president waives for friends. A word on charging fees. The IRS instructions for Form 1120-H treat payments from members for special use of association facilities, apart from use generally available to all members, as nonexempt function income. A per-item rental fee probably lands on that side of the line, so free loans with a deposit are simpler for the tax return. Ask the association's tax preparer before you charge anything.

Damage, late returns and owners who are behind

Write the damage rule before the first loan. A sensible version says the borrower pays the replacement cost of a lost item and the repair cost of a damaged one, up to the replacement cost, and the policy lists those prices so nobody argues later. Use what the association actually paid, or a current store price, and update the list when you replace things. If an owner refuses to pay, the association moves into its enforcement process, and state law controls the steps. In Texas, Property Code section 209.006(a) requires written notice by certified mail before the association charges an owner for property damage or suspends the owner's right to use a common area, and the notice must tell the owner about the right to request a hearing under section 209.007 on or before the 30th day after it was mailed. In Florida, section 720.305(2) lets an association suspend common area use for a rule violation only after 14 days' notice and a hearing before a committee of at least three members who are not directors or officers. Section 720.305(3) separately allows suspension of common area use when an owner is more than 90 days delinquent on money owed to the association, approved at a properly noticed board meeting and followed by written notice under subsection (5). Colorado's CCIOA does not give associations a general power to suspend amenity use. Section 38-33.3-302(1)(k) allows reasonable fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard, and 38-33.3-209.5 requires a written enforcement policy, so check your declaration before you write 'no loans to delinquent owners' into the rules.

Insurance questions to ask before the first loan

Lending moves association property off the premises, and a standard property policy is written around a location. Ask the agent three questions in writing. First, are the tables, chairs and canopy covered for theft or damage while they sit in an owner's backyard? Some property forms limit coverage away from the insured location, and that is the job of inland marine coverage, which the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes as covering movable property in transit or kept at different locations. For a closet worth $1,500, the answer may be that the association accepts the risk, which is fine as long as the board decided it. Second, does the general liability policy respond if a borrowed canopy blows into a neighbor's car at a private party? Third, does the agent want a signed release from borrowers, and will they review its wording? Put the answers in the board file. If the agent says power tools or ladders would change the premium or the coverage, that settles the question in the earlier section for good.

Run the closet with a sheet and a checklist

Number every item with a paint pen or a label: T1 to T10 for tables, C1 to C60 for chairs, CAN1 for the canopy. Keep an inventory list with the number, the purchase date and price, and the condition. The sign-out sheet, on paper or in a shared spreadsheet, needs the item numbers, the owner's name, lot number and phone, the checkout date, the due date, the deposit amount and a signature line under the release. One volunteer, usually the clubhouse or social committee chair, holds the key and does the handoff. Look at each item with the borrower at checkout and again at return, and note any damage on the sheet with a photo. Clean returned tables before they go back on the rack. Once a year, before the annual meeting, count everything against the inventory and report the missing items to the board. A closet nobody counts loses a few chairs a year without anyone noticing.

Wording the board can copy

Motion: 'I move that the association lend the items on the attached equipment list to owners in the community at no charge, for up to 3 days per loan, with a refundable deposit of $25 per table and $50 for the canopy; that borrowers sign the lending sheet and release; that the borrower pay the listed replacement cost of a lost item or the repair cost of a damaged one; that ladders, power tools and motorized equipment not be lent; and that the social committee chair manage the closet and report the inventory each year.' Release on the sign-out sheet: 'I borrow these items for my own use at my own risk. I have inspected them and they are in good condition. I will not lend them to anyone else. I will return them clean by the due date and pay the listed replacement or repair cost if they are lost or damaged.' Newsletter notice: 'Hosting a party? The association lends folding tables, chairs and a 10 by 10 canopy to owners for free. Text the social chair at least three days ahead to reserve, and bring them back clean within three days.'

Mistakes boards make

Lending the old extension ladder because someone asked nicely. Letting a director's neighbor keep the canopy all summer. Skipping the inventory, then discovering the week before the annual meeting that 14 chairs are missing. Charging a rental fee without telling the tax preparer. Waiving the damage charge for one owner and enforcing it against another, which hands the second owner a selective enforcement complaint. Putting chairs back on the rack that someone returned with a broken hinge, so the next borrower finds out the hard way. The OSHA rule for workplaces is a good habit here: its ladder guidance says a damaged ladder must be removed from service and tagged until it is repaired or thrown away. Do the same with any broken table or chair. When the closet outgrows its shelf, our guide on how to sell or give away surplus HOA equipment and furniture covers the other end of the life cycle, and our guide on how to write an HOA clubhouse rental policy covers renting the room the tables sit in.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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