Wilkinson v. Chiwawa Communities Ass'n, 180 Wn. 2d 178

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court considered whether short-term vacation rentals violated covenants restricting property to single-family residential use and prohibiting commercial use. The court held that such rentals were residential uses and did not violate the preexisting covenants, and that the homeowners association lacked authority to amend the covenants by majority vote to prohibit rentals of less than 30 days. The court also upheld the trial court's evidentiary rulings and affirmed the judgment.

Holdings

1. The 1988/1992 covenants permitted rentals without a durational limitation because they expressly contemplated rentals through their regulation of rental signs and did not impose a duration restriction.
2. Short-term vacation rentals do not, without more, violate the covenants' prohibition on commercial use.
3. The single-family residential-use restriction limits the type and appearance of structures that may be built, not the identity or relationship of persons who may reside in them; therefore, short-term vacation rentals do not violate that restriction.
4. The Association exceeded its authority by adopting the 2011 amendment through a simple majority vote because the amendment imposed a new restriction unrelated to the existing covenants and inconsistent with the general plan of development.
5. The trial court properly excluded the 2007 survey comments as inadmissible hearsay.
6. The trial court properly struck portions of the declarations because they lacked personal knowledge, were not rationally based on the witnesses' perceptions, or were misleading.

Questions Presented

1. Whether short-term vacation rentals violate the pre-2011 covenants' restrictions on commercial use.
2. Whether short-term vacation rentals violate the covenants' restriction of lots to single-family residential use.
3. Whether the Association's majority could validly amend the covenants to prohibit rentals of less than 30 days.
4. Whether the trial court properly excluded comments from a 2007 homeowner survey and portions of declarations offered by the Association.

Disposition

affirmed