California MHP News

Sun, Oct 24, 2021 – Creating a plan to get a rent control ordinance passed within the city of Huntington Beach isn’t what Carol Rohr had in mind for her golden years.

It”s a rude awakening to myself and every single person that’s living in here. Everybody is living in fear right now," said Rohr, a retired resident living in Huntington Beach.

Rohr bought a mobile home in the Skandia Mobile Country Club nearly three years ago. The longtime owners of this 55-and-older mobile home community recently sold the property to a different company.

Rohr explained that it wasn’t soon after that rents for new homeowners were up by $750, and existing residents like her were told to expect a notice detailing a $75 increase each year for the next three years. She said it’s unclear what’s going to happen after the three years and, so far, hasn’t received any written notice of this information. She was told a written notice could come in November.

Fri, Oct 22, 2021 – Towing companies have been running wild in those communities for years, homeowners and housing advocates said, towing cars for minor violations or, sometimes, for no explicit reason. Lawmakers are hoping a beefed-up towing task force will more closely regulate these companies – and further legislation may be on the way.

Hooton, the Boulder lawmaker, recognized these issues during the 2021 legislative session when she spearheaded the Vehicle Towing Consumer Protection bill. HB21-1283 will soon add five new members to the state’s towing task force, including a member of the mobile homeowner community and a representative from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

The bill also requires a sunset review of the Public Utilities Commission’s regulation of towing carriers and will look at whether a dispute resolution program similar to one instituted to address complaints between mobile home park owners and residents could be beneficial.
RecentlyHeard

Note: California Mobile Home Parks have similar issues.

Wed, Oct 20, 2021 – The Santa Ana City Council on Tuesday night adopted two new ordinances to help protect renters: a Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which limits residential rent increases to no more than 3% per year, and a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, which limits the allowed reasons for which a renter can be evicted. The new ordinances are not effective until November 19, 2021.

The adoption of the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinances will finally address the long-standing plea from so many of our rent-burdened working families in Santa Ana,” Mayor Vicente Sarmiento said. “These new ordinances will stabilize our neighborhoods and prevent the trauma of being displaced by excessive rent hikes and unjustified evictions. Landlords and property owners will continue to have the ability to responsibly manage and generate a reasonable return on their investment.

The rent stabilization cap only applies to buildings built on or before February 1, 1995 pursuant to the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. The rent stabilization cap for mobilehome spaces will apply to mobilehome parks established before 1990 regardless of ownership. However, the RSO will not apply to mobilehomes with long-term leases (over 12 months).
The City of Santa Ana Rent Stabilization Ordinance

Fri, Oct 8, 2021 – Existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law, regulates mobilehome parks and subjects the owner of the park and any person employed by the park to all park rules and regulations to the same extent as residents and their guests. Existing law exempts from those provisions any rules and regulations governing the age of residents or guests, and actions that are taken to fulfill a park owner’s maintenance, management, and business operation responsibilities.

This bill would require management, as defined, to comply with a rule or regulation prohibiting the renting or subleasing of the homeowner’s mobilehome or mobilehome space and would prohibit management from renting a mobilehome owned by management except that the bill would authorize management to directly rent up to 2 mobilehomes within the park for the purpose of housing onsite employees, as defined, and would authorize management to directly rent one additional mobilehome for every 200 mobilehomes in the park for that same purpose. The bill would, notwithstanding this limit, also authorize management to continue to directly rent a mobilehome to a tenant if the tenancy was initially established by a rental agreement executed before January 1, 2022, and a tenant listed in the agreement continues to occupy the mobilehome. The bill would exempt specified mobilehomes or mobilehome sites from these provisions, as provided.

Approved by the Governor on October 08, 2021.