Mobile Home Parks Owned by K&S Companies

2018 Jan – On Tue, Dec 12, 2017, residents from Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park and Knolls Manor filed a Civil Lawsuit (Case No: YC072532, YC072533) against the Kort & Scott companies that own their parks including Sierra Corporate Management. James C. Allen of ASK Law Group is the attorney/law firm representing the residents.

Complaint Summary: Nuisance, Breach of Contract, Breach of Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing (Contract), Intentional Interference with Property Rights, Negligence, Breach of Statutes, Breach of Warranty of Habitability, Breach of Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment, Breach of Unfair Competition Law, Rescission Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.

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2017 Sep – Ah, trailer park living! There's nothing like it – animals running wild, trash all over the place, and hillbillies everywhere. I've had the pleasure of living here with my family since I was 2 years old. This is definitely not the place to raise a family of any kind or even to live in general.
Sierra M.

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2016 Oct – As of this date, it appears that Drita Bronkey, Abraham Arrigotti’s Personal Assistant, is no longer employed by Sierra Corporate Management (SCM). We’ve confirmed this with multiple sources including a visual inspection of Drita’s mobile home located at Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park in Torrance, California – it is now vacant.
Sierra Corporate Management – Reorganization in Progress?

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2016 Sep – All of you that have been stolen from by management and/or owners should sue them either in small claims court or get an attorney to represent all of you. You should be able to get your money and homes back. It sounds like they are illegally giving notice, stealing homes, evicting people, and collecting monies. Please take time to look into their claims/notices and/or get legal advice. Do not let them steal from you and do not leave your home without a court order. Let them go through the eviction process where both parties go in front of a judge. California Legislature has enacted a special set of laws to protect you, known as the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) and Recreational Vehicle Occupancy Law. Residents must first be served with the appropriate notices meaning they are required to serve notices in a specific way. FYI, there are legal plans out there that you can pay a small amount monthly, and then when you need an attorney, you have one at your disposal.
Reviews Feedback

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2016 Jul – Where do I start? Place is a joke to live. Management changes every year. Cannot hold steady employees possibly because they know how the tenants are treated. It's so hard to sell your mobile home here, you have to go through 50 channels just to get denied, yet you see the same people have no problem buying park owned mobile homes. They walk around and take pictures of furniture/toys/weeds/trash that's not supposed to be there and then give you a notice. So many reasons not to move here.

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2015 Nov – We were asked to send you how many mobile homes were for sale in our park. I went out today and counted. We have 19 RV spaces, 8 have RVs for sale, 11 are empty. We have 26 park owned homes and 8 resident owned homes for a total of 34 mobile homes for sale. Altogether, there are 53 spaces up for grabs in Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park – that's 20% of our 257 spaces. I noticed there are still Eviction Notices on some of the park owned homes, I guess they haven't gotten around to preparing those for new buyers, that's if they ever sell. Most of these mobile homes have been up for sale for a long time. All but a handful of the original mobile home owners from 2005 remain, they're stuck here.

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2015 Oct – I moved from there on Jul 24, 2015, with notice, have requested refund of security deposit of $499 5 times over the last 2 months, nothing as of yet. On Jun 25, 2015, I gave written notice to vacate RV space 179 IAW rental agreement signed Jun 2012. I have requested status of refund 5 times via phone call with office staff, each time the staff says that I should be receiving it any time and that they will follow up with corporate. Each time they state that they will call me back, this has not happened once. I have a signed rental agreement/refundable security deposit agreement stating that "Refund the amount of the security deposit within 30 days". This has not happened. I keep getting blown off by their office staff and there is no follow up. This is unacceptable. I fully understand that utility costs for the month of July 2015 will be deducted from the original amount of $499, which should be no more than $75 for the month. Desired Settlement: Send my Security deposit back of an estimated amount of $424. Business Response: We did not receive proper 30 day notice from Mr. *******. Consumer Response: I hand delivered written notification on Jun 26, 2015 in letter form to the front office, the employee said that was all she needed.
BBB Business Review

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2015 Oct – By the time I found this late notice, which was obscured by being placed under a box on my porch, the allotted time to pay it had come and gone so we had to pay over $3,000 or face a 5 day eviction and lose our $30,000 home. We begrudgingly paid it. This whole ordeal was over a $65 late fee which should NOT have been there in the first place as we got their check to their office in time. When asked, they refused to tell me where and when they found this check. The date on the check was for the day it was supposed to be there.
Dennis J.

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2015 Aug – Needless to say I didn't end up buying the mobile home because I couldn't see myself having to deal with the rude staff if I encountered any issues. I felt bad for the owner of the mobile home because it seems like they had a lot of issues with the staff. And the space rent was high compared to other nicer mobile home parks.
Lorraine F.

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2015 Jul – The park staff let the other staff members and neighbors steal from the homes that they locked the families out of. The homes were trashed and broken into. Kids toys and valuables were gone. Then they sell the homes, even if the homes were paid for and all the owner was paying was the space rent. They got to kick out the tenants and resell at least 10 homes that I knew of before I left. The rent space went up $200 before my first year there. They refuse to give receipts and then laugh at you if you ask for one or any paperwork that you need copies of.
Nikoli K.

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2015 Apr – DO NOT move in here, management is racist, we lived here in this park for 4 years and they raised up the space rent whenever they wanted, sending harassing notes to our property regarding every little thing you could possibly imagine. We couldn’t sell our house, people already knew about this mobile park and believe me, I wish someone would have told me what I was getting myself into before I bought a house here. We ended up losing our house, my husband and I released the title to the lady manager, she laughed hysterically after we signed over the title and just had a nasty attitude towards me and my husband. She was making no sense charging us for two months that we hadn’t even lived in the park plus utilities. I’m not going to get into details but please do your own research before you make a huge mistake.
Michelle H.

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2014 Aug – I notified the park that waste was backing up into my mobile home from the park plumbing. At that time they sent a plumber out and it was determined that it was my responsibility. After two weeks of dealing with the issues, I had a fifth plumber out that found the problem. The problem was the pipes in the ground were rusted out and the park had to replace them. I called the health department to get this problem addressed. Sierra Corporate Management hired a plumber and he did a temporary fix and now the pipes have too many curves in them. The primary problem in the ground was never addressed and the only thing they did was change some pipes. For two weeks, every time I look, I have waste water covering my whole floor in both bathrooms and now one of the floors need to be replaced.

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2014 Apr – To Whom It May Concern: The following is an addendum to a letter I wrote to several Assemblymen dated April 2, 2008. I will be 81-years of age in June 2014 and was a resident and mobile home owner in Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park from October 1997 until I moved in June 2013.

Increasing high rent increases, pressure to sign a long-term lease, harassment by management (for example, a 14-day notice to tear down an enclosed porch I had put up with no reason given) even though I had permission from a licensed contractor and management to have it constructed and for which I needed an attorney to decide in my favor, garbage bins overflowing and in general, extremely poor park maintenance are just a few of the reasons I felt I had to leave my home.

I sincerely hope something can be done to help mobile home residents live an affordable, peaceful life free from unbridled greed, harassment and intimidation.

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2008 Apr – Dear Assemblyman Warren Furutani: This letter is to make you aware of the terrible crisis happening in mobile home parks all over the State of California, in particular, two parks in Torrance, California; Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park and Knolls Manor. Until 10 years ago, these parks were senior parks for low-to-moderate income seniors, those on a fixed income and retired, who could buy a mobile home with an affordable space rent for the land the home sits upon.

Then, a corporation called Kort & Scott Financial Group dba Sierra Corporate Management, bought the land and without notification to the residents, made them all-age parks and immediately began raising the space rents yearly by $79.00 per month! As this process has continued, rent spaces that were between $350 to $400 per month are now $920 to $1200 per month and as you know, Social Security increases do not keep up with these raises. This does not include fees for trash, water, sewer, electricity and gas, plus home repairs for which residents are responsible. As space rent charges go up, maintenance of the parks goes way down. Over half of the seniors who moved in when it was a senior park have already been economically evicted, and those of us still residing here are fearful we will be next. Even the younger families are attempting to move because they also cannot afford to live here.

This greedy corporation says… “We will do whatever the market will bear.” When we protested the continued rent-gouging, a representative of Kort & Scott Financial Group was quoted in the Daily Breeze newspaper as saying, “These people just want a free lunch.” Kort & Scott Financial Group continue to make millions of dollars in profit off of the people living on Social Security and fixed incomes. It is almost impossible to sell our mobile homes, as new tenants will have to pay $1,100 to $1,200 per month space rent.

We do not want a free lunch. We paid for our mobile homes and would like to live out our lives in dignity and peace. There is no place else for us to go. Are you are aware there is little to no affordable housing in Torrance, California. We are desperate to not join the growing thousands of homeless. As my 76 year old neighbor put it, "What am I supposed to do? Take my sleeping bag and go under a bridge and die?" She worked for 35 years in Torrance and retired last year.

We implore you to please make this a priority and give it your immediate attention. It is shameful elder abuse. It is morally and ethically reprehensible. Unfortunately it is legal. Please make it illegal to continue this predatory practice and help us.
Anna Nichols

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2007 Dec – For nearly 10 years, I've decried Sierra Corporate Management (Kort & Scott Financial Group) for its unrelenting way of extracting every dime possible from honest, hard-working people who own manufactured homes in every community they control.

Now the city of Torrance and its hardworking taxpayers are going to help what's left of the desperate seniors in Knolls Lodge and Knolls Manor by paying these predators to continue charging exorbitant rents. Just business? No!

This is the worst form of senior abuse. This corporation has raised space rent to more than $1,100 a month plus utilities, forcing 80 percent of seniors, the disabled and low-income families from the affordable homes they owned. That's immoral, disgusting and un-American.

In December of 2006 my vehicle was damaged, while parked in our assigned space, by careless maintenance workers. Neither letters nor phone calls were returned by Sierra Management. We took them to small claims court in July and won. They appealed and lost in September. It is now December and they still haven't paid the court ordered monies.

In May, we left our friends in Knolls Lodge and Knolls Manor and the South Bay. Our lives had become so unbearable due to the harassment, stalking and intimidation inflicted on us by Sierra Management.

They found a “cash cow” in us and now the city of Torrance that deems seniors disposable. What kind of humans are we to condone this disgusting behavior? Should we reward a corporation that thrives on the destruction of human beings?

To my dying day I will not forgive K&S for forcing us to leave Torrance and our many friends. Mayor Frank Scotto, we beg of you to keep up the good work. To our friends and community, we love you.
Leo Lewis

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2007 Oct – When the Kort & Scott Corporation bought our senior parks, Knolls Lodge and Knolls Manor in Torrance, and made them all-age parks, space rents began to increase at exorbitant amounts every year. Many senior citizens in our parks on fixed incomes were economically evicted. The residents who still reside here feel vulnerable, and many will not be able to afford decent food and may also become homeless as the rent continues to increase.

Simply put, there is no affordable place to live. The Kort & Scott Corporation only cares about its bottom line, and as their president, Abe Arrigotti, has said many times, “We are a for-profit organization and we will continue to do what the market will bear.” We are not the market, we are people.

Elderly residents are presented with a 20-year lease to sign at a 6 percent a year increase. What kind of consumer price index is this based upon? If they don't sign, they are told their rent space can increase by much more than 6 percent. When do we put people ahead of unreasonable and unfair profit and greed?

It is shameful in this great country and in the city of Torrance that good citizens of moderate to fixed incomes are treated as though they are invisible and not worthy of respect.

If high priced condominiums can be built for those who can afford them, surely there must be a way to provide affordable housing for those of us who worked hard to purchase our homes and only want to live in them with dignity. The residents do not want a handout.

Affordable housing and a reasonable cap on rent would be the first step in avoiding more hungry and homeless.
Anna Nichols

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2007 Oct – Nobody sees them leave, nobody hears them. They are ghosts. Here in Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park, there are lots of ghosts. More than 80 percent of the senior population has been wiped out by rapacious park owners.

Punishing rent increases have eradicated almost a whole community of seniors, leaving them homeless and penniless.

No law protected this vulnerable group. No one responded to help them, and now, with only a handful of senior citizens left, total obliteration from their homes is almost guaranteed if there is another onslaught of rent gouging from Kort & Scott.

Where is the outcry and outrage? Where are the politicians and legislators? Do they care? Do they mourn?
Jennifer Ludington

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2007 May – Anna Nichols stated that residents of mobile home parks are being economically evicted from their homes due to unfair business practices by the parks’ owners Kort & Scott/Sierra Management, and submitted a petition signed by 300 residents of Knolls Lodge, Knolls Manor and Royal Western, requesting that affordable housing be maintained. She reported that residents were being asked to sign long-term leases with automatic increases much greater than the CPI (Consumer Price Index).

Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park News

1. 2019-09-25 – Knolls Lodge MHP and Knolls Manor Residents Settle Lawsuit for $1.25MM
2. 2019-05-31 – Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park – Change in Management
3. 2018-03-16 – Kort & Scott DBAs Being Sued by Residents of Knolls Lodge MHP (Updates)
4. 2018-01-16 – Kort & Scott DBAs Being Sued by Residents of Knolls Lodge MHP
5. 2017-03-24 – Knolls Lodge Mobile Home/RV Park
6. 2017-03-04 – Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park – No Guest Parking After 5:00 PM
7. 2017-02-13 – Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park – 27% Turnover Since Jan 2015
8. 2016-03-15 – Knolls Lodge Mobile Home Park – $750 Home for Sale