Any event on common property with potential liability, safety, or compliance implications is worth documenting — a slip-and-fall near the pool, a car accident in the parking area, storm damage to a shared structure, or a serious rule violation reported by a resident. The general rule is: if it could come up again later (an insurance claim, a legal dispute, a pattern of behavior), it belongs in a written record now rather than relying on memory months later.
A useful incident report typically includes:
Incident reports work well alongside a regular inspection checklist, since routine inspections often catch the kind of hazard that would otherwise turn into an incident report later.
A contemporaneous, factual record is far more credible than a recollection pieced together after a legal claim or insurance dispute arises — it shows the board acted promptly and documented what it knew at the time. This same discipline supports the board's broader grievance procedure, since consistent documentation across incidents and complaints makes it much easier to show the board treats similar situations fairly.
Boards without a habit of documenting incidents often find themselves at a real disadvantage months later, when a dispute surfaces and there's nothing on record but conflicting memories.
