Associations have the power to regulate some activities inside an owner's unit via the nuisance provision in the CC&Rs. Examples include nuisance noise and nuisance second-hand smoke. Unsafe conditions that represent a threat to other owners, whether insect infestations or fire hazards, can also be regulated. However, an association's intrusion must be reasonable.

In Fountain Valley Chateau v. Dept of VA, the HOA ordered an owner to “clear his bed of all papers and books, discard ‘outdated’ clothing, and remove the papers, cardboard boxes and books from the floor area around his bed and dresser.” When he refused, the association sued claiming his poor housekeeping represented a fire and safety hazard even though housing code and fire inspectors found no hazardous conditions on the property. The concluded this was overreaching by the association and made the following comments:

. . . it is virtually impossible to say the association acted reasonably. It is true the CC&Rs require "owners" to "maintain the interiors of their residential units and garages, including the interior wall, ceilings, floors and permanent fixtures and appurtenances in a clean, sanitary and attractive condition." It is also true that they provide for entry by the board "when necessary in connection with maintenance, landscaping or construction for which the board is responsible." But these sections of the CC&Rs cannot reasonably be read to allow an association to dictate the amount of clutter in which a person chooses to live; one man's old piece of junk is another man's objet d'art. The association's rather high-handed attempt to micromanage Cunningham's personal housekeeping-telling him how he could and could not use the interior rooms of his own house-clearly crossed the line and was beyond the purview of any legitimate interest it had in preventing undesirable external effects or maintaining property values.

Particularly galling to us-and clearly to the jury as well-was the presumptuous attempt to lecture Cunningham about getting rid of his old clothes, the way he kept his own bedroom, and the kind of "reading material" he could have. To obtain some perspective here, we have the spectacle of a homeowners association telling a senior citizen suffering from Hodgkin's disease that, in effect, he could not read in his own bed!