California MHP News

Tue, Oct 31, 2023 – The owners of two Petaluma mobile home parks at the center of an ongoing fight over rent control have filed a civil lawsuit against the city claiming its recently tightened regulations are unconstitutional.

In the lawsuit, the owners of Youngstown and Little Woods Mobile Villa claim Petaluma’s mobile home rent control laws, most recently updated last August, violate the park owners’ constitutional rights by compelling them to operate at a loss.

The suit also claims that Petaluma’s rules weaken contractual agreements between residents and park operators by requiring payments to displaced residents if the parks close, and that they take away the owners’ property rights by barring them from closing.

The lawsuit comes as mobile home residents have ramped up their fight for stronger protections over the past year, and with Petaluma City Council members ratifying stricter rent caps along with other rules, such as a new “overlay district“ prohibiting owners from changing seniors-only parks to all-ages parks.

Wed, Oct 25, 2023 – The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to limit annual rent increases at mobile home parks in unincorporated areas to no more than 4 percent or 70 percent of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. The amendments to the mobile home ordinance bring Sonoma County’s policy in line with recent updates passed by cities in the county.

‘Individuals living in mobile homes often are lower-income and have little choice when the landlord raises the rent on their park space,’ said Supervisor Chris Coursey, chair of the Board of Supervisors. ‘While they own their home, they are unable to pick up and move it elsewhere. The amendments to this ordinance are similar to those used by local municipalities and are designed to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our community.’

The amendments, which will be adopted upon a second reading scheduled for Nov. 7, would also allow a mobile home park owner to raise a rent up to 5 percent when ownership of an on-site mobile home changes ownership. Currently, the county caps annual increases at 6 percent or 100 percent of annual CPI, whichever is less. The county also does not have any limits on increases when a mobile home changes owners. The ordinance, if adopted on a second reading on Nov. 7, would take effect 30 days later.

Sat, Oct 21, 2023 – Like a lot of his neighbors, John Sullivan looks down his Apple Tree Park street and across the Colorado River toward the small Western Slope town of New Castle and wonders about the future.

The 290-space mobile home park where he has lived for 25 years has one of the more picturesque settings among the 50 or so such parks, large and small, that dot the region from Aspen to Parachute.

What Sullivan and his neighbors worry about — corporate ownership takeover, creeping unaffordability, the potential for the park to be displaced by redevelopment — is happening at an accelerating rate, both in the Roaring Fork Valley and across Colorado, prompting stronger policy prescriptions from elected officials and community leaders.

In 2020, according to Garfield County property transaction records, Apple Tree Park sold for $22.7 million to the Park City, Utah-based Investment Property Group (IPG), when the Talbott family, which had owned the park since its inception, decided to sell.

That same year, IPG also purchased the 68-space Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park, on Highway 133 at the entrance to Carbondale, for $9.5 million — almost $4.3 million more than what the property sold for just two years earlier, records show.

IPG first entered the area real estate market in January 2019 when it purchased the 79-space Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park, on Willits Lane in Basalt, for $11.2 million, according to Eagle County property transaction records. The company’s portfolio now includes more than 150 properties across 13 states, including 114 mobile home parks offering more than 19,000 spaces, according to the Mobile Home Park Home Owners Allegiance’s online database.

Thu, Oct 19, 2023 – Twenty-one Hennepin County renters could be spared imminent eviction over utility fees, after the state Attorney General’s Office filed a civil enforcement lawsuit and emergency motion Thursday against a Utah-based property management company.

The Attorney General’s suit alleged the company, Investment Property Group (IPG), illegally charged ‘exorbitant’ utility fees to thousands of renters at the company’s 34 Minnesota properties, including six in Minneapolis and four in Hopkins.

The civil enforcement suit, filed in Hennepin County District Court, alleges that Investment Property Group started charging utility fees in late 2022 without proper disclosure about the charges or local utility assistance.

The lawsuit alleged a ‘blatant violation of Minnesota’s utility billing statute.’

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Thu, Oct 19, 2023 – Attorney General Ellison files emergency motion, lawsuit to protect tenants from unlawful evictions and illegal utility charges. Requests court stop Investment Property Group from charging its tenants illegal gas utility fees imposed in the middle of their leases, immediately halt eviction of 21 tenants on the basis of non-payment of the illegal fees.
Minnesota Attorney General

Thu, Oct 19, 2023 – This table of Mobile Home Parks, RV Parks, and Manufactured Home Communities for Sale in California is a work in progress as of Thursday, October 19, 2023. Data is being updated regularly.

This is a partial listing and covers the sold period 2021-01-01 to 2023-10-19. This is NOT a complete list of mobile home parks for sale in California. Many sales of mobile home parks are usually done via Pocket Listings (aka Off-Market Listings, Exclusive Listings), they are not marketed via public channels.

Wed, Oct 4, 2023 – Hundreds of seniors live among five mobile home parks in Petaluma designated 55-plus. Now those mobile home parks will stay that way, after a Petaluma city council vote this week.

While many people own their mobile homes, the spaces where the homes are located are rented from the park owners. Facing threats of rent hikes and conversions to all-ages… the council voted to create what’s called an overlay zone.

That freezes the senior-only designation of those five mobile home parks in Petaluma, so owners can’t convert to all-ages. The council voted unanimously, stating a goal of preserving a diverse range of housing options in Petaluma.

As the ordinance says, another goal is quote ‘ensuring that senior citizens can age with dignity, respect, and a strong sense of community in the place they have called home for many years,’ end quote.

Other cities including American Canyon and Santa Clarita have similar senior-only zones. They are allowed thanks to an exemption in the federal Fair Housing Act… which usually seeks to prevent age discrimination.

Wed, Oct 4, 2023 – Less than a year after taking control of a north Fresno mobile home park, owners want to close the site. And Fresno officials will get the first look at a report of what that means for the remaining residents.

California law requires that tenants receive notice a year before landowners can close a mobile home park. Part of the law also requires cities to review an impact study before deciding whether to approve a mobile home park closure.

On Thursday, the Fresno City Council will get the impact study from Harmony Communities regarding the closing of La Hacienda Mobile Estates – formerly known as Trails End Mobile Home Park. It’s at 104 E. Sierra Avenue, just east of Blackstone Avenue.

Stockton-based Harmony Communities officially took ownership of La Hacienda Mobile Estates in October 2022. By April, notices went out to residents that the owners intended to close the park.

After a dozen eviction hearings, approximately half of the 60 spaces at the park have been vacated, according to Mariah Thompson, an attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance acting as the representative for tenants at La Hacienda.