California Civil Code § 1354 allows an HOA or homeowners subject to an HOA’s CC&Rs to enforce provisions of the CC&Rs when those provisions are being violated by an HOA member. In an enforcement action, the party seeking enforcement has the burden to demonstrate that the particular provision to be enforced is not unreasonable. Thus, the question then becomes, what is the legal standard in determining the reasonableness of a CC&R provision. California cases have held that arbitrary provisions would be deemed unreasonable and thus unenforceable. See Dolan-King v. Rancho Santa Fe Assn., (2000) 81 Cal. App. 4th 965, 976 (A restriction is unreasonable or arbitrary when it bears no rational relationship to the protection, purpose or preservation of the affected land.).
However, whether a provision is arbitrary or unreasonable is not determined by its application to a specific homeowner affected, but rather by reference to the common interest development as a whole. See Nahrstedt v. Lakeside Village Condominium Assn., (1994) 8 Cal. 4th 361, 386 (“Under the holding we adopt today, the reasonableness or unreasonableness of a condominium use restriction that the Legislature has made subject to section 1354 is to be determined not by reference to facts that are specific to the objecting homeowner, but by reference to the common interest development as a whole.”)