Subdivision living legalities

May 28, 2008
St. Charles County
by Kris Kolk

*Disclaimer—this column is not to be perceived as legal advice.

It was Ask-A-Lawyer night at one of the local news stations. I hurriedly dialed the number, but the line was busy. I persistently redialed for I had two questions nagging me for years.

I finally did break through the telephone traffic and a pleasant attorney’s voice answered. I laid my first subdivision living question on her…

If a ball (or other item) goes into someone else’s yard, does the item become their property?

Her answer: No, it does not become their property.

On one specific occasion in our neighborhood, a ball rolled into the neighbor’s back yard. The neighbor bolted out his back door, grabbed the ball and squirreled it away inside his house. Our neighbor, the attorney told me, stole that ball.

However, since it is not OK to trespass, the ball players should not enter the neighbor’s property to retrieve their ball, anyway. They first should make contact with the homeowner and ask permission to retrieve it.

I was so glad to have an answer to that question. But I still had one more…

If a kid gets hurt in our yard, when we are unaware they are in our yard, are we responsible?

The attorney told me that this was the “million dollar question.” She said that while it is possible for parents to sue in such a situation, it would not be wise. She said the next natural step would be for the homeowner to counter-sue because of lack of parental supervision.

A few years ago, our neighborhood had quite a few occasions when parents would send their kids out to play, apparently assuming that other mothers were home and on backyard supervision duty. It would worry me sick that a little one may turn up missing one day all because one parent just assumed another one would be watching their child.

Without a phone call, other parents can’t possibly know when a child is headed to their home and wouldn’t realize if they didn’t arrive when expected. Even walking a short distance, a child could get lost or taken.

The attorney told me that in this situation, the parents of the wandering child should be told, in no uncertain terms, that unless their child is invited to visit, other parents will not be watching them.

I was so thankful to get these issues resolved and thought I would pass them on to the rest of the subdivision dwellers here in St. Charles County. It’s backyard and cul-de-sac time—Happy Summer!

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