Property Owners of Whispering Palms, Inc. v. Newport Pacific, Inc.

*670 Opinion

An association of residents in two standard subdivisions (i.e., those not having any areas of common ownership) sued the developer that retained control over the architectural committees responsible for enforcing the subdivisions’ declarations of restriction (CC&R’s), seeking in part to validate its attempts to wrest that control away from the developer. This appeal from a judgment in favor of the developer, the architectural committees and certain others raises two primary issues: (1) whether the association lacks standing to sue because its membership included residents of another subdivision that would not have standing to assert such claims in their own right, and (2) whether the requirements of California Code of Regulations, title 10, section 2792.28 (Regulation 2792.28) relating to a developer’s obligation to turn over control of an architectural committee to subdivision homeowners are inapplicable to standard subdivisions. We hold that the association’s membership does not preclude its standing to sue, but that the association cannot assert causes of action based on Regulation 2792.28 because the regulation is inapplicable in the context of a standard…