Vacation rentals win first legal bout

Friday, May 4, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

A vacation rental business won a reprieve when a state arbitrator rejected a cease-and-desist request from the Las Vegas Country Club Estates, where the company owns 25 residences.

But Real Estate Division arbitrator William Turner also ruled that an amended regulation adopted by the country club's umbrella homeowners association in 1999 "clearly appears to ban" Vacation Homes Las Vegas' activities. That's because the amended rule prohibits residential rentals of less than 30 days.

Turner's non-binding decision, dated April 26 but released this week, remands the dispute back to Clark County District Court, where the country club association filed a lawsuit against company owner Kyle Waugh. Turner recommended mediation or a settlement conference overseen by the court.

Waugh said Thursday that he was pleased with the ruling and would welcome mediation.

"I've always recommended mediation or some type of settlement," Waugh said. "I feel like I am one of the most proactive landlords in the Las Vegas Country Club and it has always been my opinion that we should all work together to make the country club more pleasant."

Country club homeowners' attorney William Coulthard expressed disappointment that the cease and desist request was rejected. But he and Dawn Cica, president of the country club's master homeowners association, said they were otherwise pleased with Turner's ruling and plan to proceed in court in their efforts to stop Waugh's vacation rentals.

"We were happy that the arbitrator ruled that he was in violation of the current CC&Rs," Cica said of Waugh. "The fact that the arbitrator didn't approve a cease and desist order is really irrelevant."

Country club residents have complained that Waugh's rentals to convention goers and tourists have created a transient atmosphere that has created excess noise and traffic in the gated community directly east of the Las Vegas Hilton.

But Waugh, a 30-year-old Las Vegas native, has argued that the complaints are untrue and that he has actually enhanced the neighborhood by spending more than $1.5 million to renovate his properties.

Turner declined to issue a cease and desist order in part because he found no evidence that Waugh's activities posed "immediate danger of irreparable harm to the community." The arbitrator found that the country club's original 1969 regulations permitted not only mixed residential uses such as apartments and condominiums but commercial businesses as well.

But Turner also ruled that "the community has the inherent right to establish the character of the community, and should they elect to ban all renting of homes or residences for less than 30 days, the same should be enforced."

The arbitrator left that decision to the court, however.

Waugh said he is prepared to argue that proper procedures were not followed by the country club master association when it banned short-term rentals.

In addition to the country club lawsuit, Waugh has been sued by Clark County, which alleged that his vacation rental business violates a 1998 county ordinance that outlaws rentals of less than 30 days in residential communities.