Short-term renters may use Lake Arrowhead again, as San Bernardino Superior Judge Gilbert Ochoa placed a preliminary injunction Jan. 19 against the Arrowhead Lake Association’s aquatic ban.
Ochoa found that the Arrowhead Lake Association’s 2020 bylaw change, which prevented short-term renters from using the lake or the area’s reserve strips, is likely to be proved to violate the association’s 1964 Settlement Agreement.
The 1964 Agreement grants house owners, and their successors, the rights for themselves, their lessees and their house guests to use the reserve strips for recreation and foot travel, and Lake Arrowhead for recreation.
The Agreement provides that any breach of itself can be prevented by an injunction if sought by three owners of Arrowhead Woods’ property. Four plaintiffs are involved, including Vertical Web Ventures, a company which owns property in Arrowhead Woods, and two other Arrowhead Woods property owners.
Ochoa worded it as “owners of Arrowhead Woods’ property” due to the weirdness of the agreement
By definition, a short-term renter is a lessee covered under the 1964 Agreement, Ochoa found. By applied case law, short-term renters would be tenants, not lodgers, with exclusive legal possession of premises, Ochoa found.
Ochoa found that the association’s use of access cards, guest registrations, enforcement personnel and gates does not necessarily violate the 1964 Agreement.
The injunction comes with a $100,000 bond to cover damages the association might sustain if the injunction is later found to be erroneously granted, as required under Code of Civil Procedure Section 529.
Ochoa ordered to matter to remediation, which completes May 4, 2023. Trial is scheduled for May 8, 2023.
Arent Fox LLP represents the plaintiffs.
Gregory M. Garrison APC represents the Arrowhead Lake Association.
Case number CIVSB2120604.
