MOUNT HELIX, Calif. — A short-term vacation rental on Mount Helix has neighbors up in arms. Lawsuits have been filed and nobody’s backing down.
The neighbors said they're living with a $2 million party house in their backyard.
“You can hear people screaming, cars racing, yelling, domestic violence, drug transactions, all that stuff. If you just step outside you can hear it or see it,” said Randy, a next-door neighbor who did not want his last name published.
“It started with the COVID violations, having multiple people coming and going. Meanwhile, you have huge parties going on here with non-family groups that are gathering 10, 15, 20, even 30 people,” Randy said.
Neighbors on Alzeda Drive have put up signs showing their displeasure with the five-bedroom, five-bath home, which was listed for rent online for between $1,200 and $2,000 per night.
The man managing the short-term vacation rental, Jason Bales, is in a lease-to-own agreement with the property owner, who lives in Morocco.
“It’s a beautiful property. It's an entertainment home. It was built that way,” Bales said during a Zoom interview from Miami, Florida.
“There is no question that there are bad actors out there that are trying to have parties, and they're taking advantage of the Airbnb platform to do so,” Bales continued.
The manager said he limits the rental property to 10 people and he's installed noise monitors on the property.
“We had people that we didn't have any reviews on, that lied to us and said they were just going to have a few people over. Then, you look on the camera and there are 40 people showing up at the door,” he said.
Bales believes it’s the neighbors who are harassing his guests.
“The sheriffs are being called nightly, on every guest, and the sheriffs are like, ‘We drove down there but there's no noise,’” Bales said.
He said the real issue in the neighborhood is that people living there want to keep Mount Helix exclusive.
“Mount Helix – which is a predominately white, affluent neighborhood – they have stated that they don't want these 'types of people' coming to their neighborhood. It’s a race issue and it's unfortunate,” Bales said.
Rancho Santa Fe attorney Paul Jonna represents next door neighbors, Naseem and Sonia Salem, who has filed a lawsuit against Bales over the noise coming from the rental home.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that anybody's racist. The issue is dangerous parties where fights break out, where there's drug deals in a residential neighborhood. It doesn't matter if they're white, black, yellow, brown,” said Jonna.
The attorney said Bales is in violation of noise restrictions spelled out in a legally-binding covenant signed years ago by the property owners.
“The noise violations have been documented in video, audio, large parties. I mean, it is basically Jason Bales word versus all the neighbors,” said Jonna.
Currently, the County of San Diego does not have any short-term vacation rental ordinance on the books.
“More needs to be done to regulate it and, like in the case of our clients, it's terrorizing the neighborhood,” said Jonna.
In July, the California Department of Public Health issued 15 pages of new, COVID-19 guidelines applying to hotels and short-term rental units statewide.