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When people move to Sun City, they expect wide-open streets buzzing with golf carts, recreation centers for the retired and tranquil lake views.
They don’t picture a bunch of children running around on a pontoon boat out on the water, said Jim Hunter, president of the Sun City Homeowners Association.
“That’s not why people move here,” Hunter said.
That’s what he says the 55-and-over community is facing, though, as more people begin renting their houses to families and others under the age restriction for short stints through websites such as Airbnb.
Facing growing complaints from residents, a group of Sun City residents is taking a close look at the community’s conditions, covenants and restrictions — the rules governing the HOA community — to see whether rules are already in place to halt nuisance-causing short-term rentals.
If there aren’t, the homeowners association may try to take on the burdensome task of getting more than half of the about 17,500 single-family homeowners in the community to sign off on new rules.
Sun City: Vacation destination?
Although Sun City may not come to mind as the typical vacation destination, the community is surrounded by spring training locations in Glendale, Peoria, Maryvale and Surprise.
It has lakes, golf courses and other amenities that may be attractive to vacationers.
Sun City was the nation’s first retirement community. It opened in the 1960s on what was then the Valley’s western edge. Other Sun Cities and retirement communities, including Sun City West and Sun City Grand to the northwest, soon followed.
Sun City is now home to about 40,000 when all of the snowbirds are in town, Hunter said.
Airbnb and other rental websites that have popped up in recent years have made it easier for these snowbirds and other residents who don’t live in Sun City full-time to rent all or some of their homes.
Cities and towns can’t ban these short-term rentals, under a state law enacted in 2016.
But Sun City is not a city. It’s a glorified homeowners association.
Some rentals OK

Hunter said a majority of the group that is examining the issue of short-term rentals believes a provision of the association’s rules already bans them. The provision prohibits people from operating certain businesses out of their homes.
Some think Sun City’s age restriction itself, which states that at least one person over 55 must live in the house, is enough to prohibit homeowners from renting their place to people under 55 while they aren’t there.
But the rules specifically say it’s OK for homeowners to lease their space under certain conditions, and many do, especially snowbirds who leave for months at a time. The rules also state that leasing space is not a business.
There are rules for those who lease their homes, including one that requires a property owner to get a written agreement from a renter that they will abide by all community rules.
The homeowner’s association interprets this to mean that at least one of the renters residing in the home must be over 55.
Some Sun City residents say prohibiting Airbnbs and other short-term rentals, but not longer-term rentals, may be difficult. And enforcing the rules, when the renters come and go so quickly, will be tricky.
Hunter said they are still getting legal advice on the topic.
Sun City’s age restrictions likely its strongest argument
Jon Dessaules, a Phoenix real-estate attorney, said the strongest case the homeowner’s association may have against short-term rentals is its age restriction.
This argument is strongest, he said, when no one renting the property or residing there during its rental is over 55.
“They have a good argument that is an issue there,” he said.
Regarding the business restrictions, Dessaules said, that argument does not stand.
He pointed to the provision in the CC&Rs stating that leases aren’t businesses. He also brought up a 2009 state Court of Appeals decision that ruled that short-term rentals in Payson weren’t businesses.
While Sun City’s restrictions allow for leases, Hunter said that he does not think that an Airbnb rental agreement is a lease.
Dessaules said he disagrees.
“Every time you rent the property, you’re engaging in a lease,” he said.
Nuisance or benefit?
To be prohibited under the business restrictions, a business must be noticeable to others.
Dessaules said it’s not always apparent someone is leasing their unit.
One Sun City couple that rents a room of their lakefront property through Airbnb says most of their neighbors don’t know they rent out the space.
The Arizona Republic agreed not to publish the renters’ names because they said they are afraid the Sun City Homeowners Association would try to take legal action against them.
They live in the house full time, they said, so they are always there when renters are. They check the backgrounds all of their renters and are picky about who stays in their house.
Most of their renters come for the holidays, spring training or to visit relatives, they said.
They believe they are staying true to the community’s values and purpose, and even helping promote the community.
“What we do is a joyful thing,” one of them said.
The Airbnb rentals causing problems, they say, are rare, and are ruining it for the rest of the renters.
Investors are the problem

Hunter said that people who are living in their house while renting aren’t the type of renters people are complaining about.
He gave the example involving the pontoon boat. One lakefront property short-term rental includes the use of a pontoon boat, he said.
“It’s a retirement community,” he said, “not a vacation land for children.”
Bill Pearson, a member of the committee considering changes to Sun City’s restrictions, said he doesn’t believe the community would want to discourage longer-term rentals.
Sun City grew partly because of rentals, he said, and they’ve always been integral in the community.
Pearson is a Sun City historian of sorts, after serving as president of the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum and in other community leadership roles.
He said from 1968 to 1978, the community averaged about 2,000 home sales a year, and about half came from vacation rentals.
“Most people want to stay once they’re here,” he said. “They fall in love with it.”
Any new rules, he hopes, would protect long-term renters.
Somewhere between 18 to 20 percent of Sun City houses might be rentals, Hunter said.
The challenge would be crafting clear rules, Pearson said, and then enforcing them.
Most of the time, enforcement in Sun City is complaint-driven. By the time one of the association’s volunteers gets on site to address a complaint, he said, the short-term renters might be gone, and it might be hard to prove that no one over 55 was staying there.
Some complaints in Sun City West
In nearby Sun City West, short-term rental complaints are becoming more frequent, said Michael Whiting, general manager of the community’s recreation centers organization.
The concern isn’t widespread, though. And Whiting said he believes having rentals is a “good marketing ploy.”
“I see why people want to rent here,” he said. “There is so much to do. We have 109 clubs here. Everything under the sun is here to enjoy.”
In Sun City, the homeowners association may try to update its CC&Rs if it’s decided the current rules don’t restrict short-term rentals.
A committee is looking at this as it considers many other unrelated changes to its restrictions, Hunter said. If other changes proceed, he said, new restrictions on short-term rentals probably will, too.
If the committee does decide to change the document, it will be difficult. The association last formally updated its restrictions in the 1990s. It took years, Hunter said.
In Sun City West, there isn’t one main homeowner’s association for single-family homeowners like there is in Sun City, Whiting said. Instead, there are 220 separate homeowners associations with their own CC&Rs.
Updating all of those separately for this change would be “next to near impossible,” Whiting said.
The community could update its bylaws, but it’s unlikely, Whiting said.
“It has to do with the rights of owners to their own personal property,” he said.
Reach reporter Jen Fifield at [email protected] or 602-444-8763. Follow her on Twitter @JenAFifield.
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