BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — If you are relatively new to life in a homeowners association, know this: your HOA can (and likely will) cite you for setting of fireworks on New Year’s in your community. If there are rules that prohibit fireworks where you live, take it for what it’s worth: you will have no recourse if you receive a fine, citation, or sanction from the governing body of your community.
As we report each year, residents are often surprised to find out they have to pay up after setting off fireworks in the community. The State of Florida permits fireworks on several holidays each year, and New Year’s Eve is one of them. In theory, it should be legal everywhere. But HOA’s are more powerful than the State of Florida in some cases, and this is one of them. You can be fined, you can be sanctioned (banned from community amenities, for instance), or otherwise cited with a punishment to be determined by a Board of Directors. We’ve also heard over the years of HOA’s actually “trespassing” a homeowner setting off fireworks on community property. That involves the police issuing a trespass warning — something you don’t want.
We are unaware of any officially sanctioned fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve in South Palm Beach County. We are aware of a special event at Old School Square in Delray Beach for families and kids from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. We’ll post another story about that as we get closed to 12/31.
If you do decide to set off fireworks, please be careful. Rules aside, we seem to report stories each year — for July 4th and New Year’s Eve — about people in Palm Beach County critically injured while using fireworks. We would love it if we had no story like this to report as 2025 gets underway.
