California MHP News

Thu, Jun 26, 2025 – San Jose is updating language in its rent control policy due to mobile home park landlords illegally raising prices on tenants living in RVs.

The city’s decades-old mobile home rent policy states property owners cannot raise rents more than 7% without city approval – but Western Trailer Park disregarded it on the grounds that recreational vehicles are not mobile homes. Housing Director Erik Soliván updated the policy earlier this month to clarify RVs are considered mobile homes on mobile home lots. RV residents live in 15 of the 58 mobile home parks within San Jose.

Soliván cited Stockton-based Harmony Communities, which manages mobile home parks including Western Trailer Park, as an example of a landlord refusing to comply because they claimed mobile home lots are out of bounds if they’re occupied by RVs. The company is also disputing with city officials over a rent increase request denied earlier this year at Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park.

Harmony Communities spokesperson Nick Ubaldi said the update supports their view that the policy doesn’t regulate RVs or RV lots.

‘If the ordinance already covered RVs and RV spaces, why would an amendment be necessary?’ he told San José Spotlight.

Wed, Jun 25, 2025 – Soquel Gardens Mobile Home Park, a struggling RV park near Soquel Village, faces upheaval after it was purchased by a Stockton firm with a contentious past of evictions, steep rent increases and litigation over tenant displacement throughout California.

A long-troubled mobile home park just up the hill from Soquel Village is facing an uncertain future after it was purchased out of bankruptcy earlier this year by a company with a history of hiking rents and attempting to close parks, raising concerns about a key piece of affordable housing in the community.

Stockton-based Harmony Communities owns or operates dozens of mobile home parks throughout the western United States, most of which are in California and Oregon. It purchased Soquel Gardens Mobile Home Park in February, following years of persistent issues with the park and its facilities, culminating in the state revoking its permit to operate in 2021.

Since Harmony Communities bought the struggling 20-space property, many of the tenants have left the park. The company has sent out eviction notices, though it’s unclear how many tenants left voluntarily. Just eight residents remain. On its website, Harmony Communities is advertising rents that local officials say are three times the typical average for mobile home parks in the county, and the area’s county supervisor, Manu Koenig, said the company has signaled it intends to close the park.

Tue, Jun 17, 2025 – Mobile home residents in Stanton won’t see any form of rent control anytime soon, as residents raise concerns over price hikes. Instead, Stanton City Council members say they’ll consider other support options.

Last week, council members voted 3-2 against holding a town hall to discuss rent control policies with residents from mobile home parks, with Councilman Donald Torres and Councilman Gary Taylor voting in favor of a town hall. Mayor David Shawver, who opposed the town hall, said it would give residents false hope.

Council members then voted unanimously to explore what other types of support and resources they can give residents – also without a townhall option.

Mobile home residents in Stanton urged city leaders, at the June 10 meeting, for help as rising rents threaten to push many out of their communities.

Thu, Jun 12, 2025 – If you’ve ever watched or attended an NBA Finals game, you’ve almost certainly caught a glimpse of Jimmy Goldstein. Also known as the ‘NBA Superfan,’ Jimmy is hard to miss. Whenever he is in public (and perhaps when he’s at home too), Jimmy is dressed in head-turning outfits…

In the early 1980s, he branched out on his own and began acquiring mobile home communities across California. These properties may not have had the glamor of high-rise towers or beachfront condos, but they offered something far more appealing to Goldstein: reliable cash flow, steady occupancy, and huge potential upside, especially in areas with rent control.

Goldstein’s strategy was simple, but aggressive. He targeted parks with artificially low rents due to local rent control ordinances, bought them using financing and private capital, then sought to drastically raise the rents. When city governments denied those increases, he took them to court. Over the decades, he has filed dozens of lawsuits against California municipalities, arguing that rent control prevents him from earning a fair return on his investments.

Critics, including city officials and tenant advocates, say Goldstein has made his fortune by exploiting legal loopholes and driving up rents on some of the most economically vulnerable residents in the state. Many of his properties are age-restricted senior communities, where residents live on fixed incomes and cannot afford sudden spikes in housing costs.

Goldstein disagrees with the portrayal of himself as a villain. He believes rent control is fundamentally unfair and claims that many mobile home park residents benefit from below-market leases that inflate the resale value of their homes. In his view, raising rents is not cruelty, but economic correction.

One city attorney who battled Goldstein for years described his approach as "litigation terrorism," accusing him of leveraging the courts to exhaust public resources and pressure cities into settling or caving. Goldstein, for his part, has said he’s simply protecting his property rights.

Thu, Jun 12, 2025 – The landlord at the center of a sprawling empire of rundown and often dangerous rental properties in Southern California is now being sued by the state.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Thursday against Mike Nijjar and a constellation of corporate entities linked to him and his family.

The complaint alleges Nijjar and his associates ‘rent out unsafe and uninhabitable units, disregard tenants’ requests for repairs, and fail to eradicate pests, inflicting harm and anguish on tenants.’

Tenants told LAist they felt stuck living in unsafe conditions. At one Pomona mobile home park, there was an outbreak of typhus. After a fire broke out at a mobile home park in the Kern County community of Oildale that was not permitted for human occupancy, an attorney for the California Department of Real Estate said landlord negligence ‘led to the death of an infant.’

‘The companies owned by Mike Nijjar and his family are notorious for their rampant, slum-like conditions – some so bad that residents have suffered tragic results,’ Bonta said in a news release.

Wed, Jun 11, 2025 – Homeowners at Mill Villa Estates 55-plus Mobile Home Park in Jamestown were advised last Thursday evening that the Board of Supervisors is considering abandoning Tuolumne County’s rent control ordinance, which for decades has controlled the amount mobile home park owners can raise space rent.

The idea of abandoning the ordinance came up only recently, when Investment Property Group (IPG), owner of Mill Villa, submitted an application to the board to increase space rent at Mill Villa by 17% – and then sued the county for not responding fast enough. Some supervisors apparently favor abandoning rent control altogether rather than face ongoing future legal assaults by IPG and other home park owners hoping to defeat rent control.

Many owners in Tuolumne County mobile home parks bought their homes when they retired years ago, planning to live modestly on Social Security and retirement savings from wages they earned decades ago. Rent control has allowed them to stretch those savings, remain independent and not become a burden on community resources. But due to the housing shortage, rents are being set to extract maximum rent from today’s wage earners. If space rent is allowed to balloon, about 2,000 Tuolumne County mobile home residents will be affected. Some will be driven out, while others will need to eliminate spending at local businesses in order to pay the unexpected space rent increase.

If you are currently enjoying the protection of rent control in a Tuolumne County mobile home park, please be advised your district supervisor may be leaning toward abandoning rent control and letting your rent balloon. You may wish to contact your supervisor’s office and ask what their plans are for your future.

Mon, Jun 9, 2025 – From the 2025 California Mobilehome Residency Law Frequently Asked Questions: Rents, Fees and Taxes, 6. Security Deposit

Resident Question: Can the park charge first and last months’ rent plus a 2-month security deposit?

MRL Answer: Normally, when a mobilehome owner is accepted for residency in a mobilehome park and signs a rental agreement, charging first month’s rent and a 2-month security deposit are permitted. (Civil Code §798.39) After one full year of satisfactory residency (meaning all rent and fees have been paid during that time), the resident is entitled to request a refund of the 2-month security deposit, or may request a refund at the time he or she vacates the park and sells the home. (Civil Code §798.39(b))
2025 California MRL FAQs

Submit your request for a security deposit refund in writing to park management today. The MRL specifically states that park management must refund your deposit after one full year of satisfactory residency if requested in writing.

Do not wait until you vacate the park and/or sell your mobile home.

Thu, Jun 5, 2025 – This table of Mobile Home Parks, RV Parks, and Manufactured Home Communities for Sale in California is a work in progress as of Thursday, June 5, 2025. Data is being updated regularly.

This is a partial listing and covers the period 2021-01-01 to 2025-06-04. 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.

California Mobile Home Parks Recently Listed For Sale

1. 2025-06-05 – Buckhorn Mobile Home Park
   26600 CA-88, Pioneer, California 95666
   48 Spaces, All Ages, 6.21 Acres, $2,000,000
   Operated By: Buckhorn Community LP (John H. Meinbress)
2. 2025-06-04 – Rancho Dominguez Mobile Estates
   425 East Gardena Boulevard, Carson, California 90746
   82 Spaces, All Ages, 5.74 Acres, Not Listed
   Operated By: Carter-Spencer Enterprises LLC (Robert H. Spencer)
3. 2025-05-22 – Ramona Estates
   2030 Black Canyon Road, Ramona, California 92065
   33 Spaces, All Ages, 12.50 Acres, $6,860,000
   Operated By: Michael Ceperich
4. 2025-05-19 – Ridgewood Mobile Home Park
   6674 Pentz Road, Paradise, California 95969
   100 Spaces, All Ages, 15.85 Acres, $1,390,000
   Operated By: Glen Fuller
5. 2025-05-14 – Canyon Crest Estates
   2100 South Escondido Boulevard, Escondido, California 92025
   88 Spaces, All Ages, 18.84 Acres, Not Listed
   Operated By: Estella Dejong
6. 2025-05-13 – Country Mobile Estates
   16754 East Avenue X, Llano, California 93544
   86 Spaces, All Ages, 15.00 Acres, $5,250,000
   Operated By: Llano Country Mobile Estates LLC (Grace Jun)
7. 2025-05-09 – Leapin Lizard RV Ranch
   5929 Kunkler Lane, Borrego Springs, California 92004
   60 Spaces, All Ages, 12.00 Acres, $1,100,000
   Operated By: Siegfried Traviss

Tue, Jun 3, 2025 – The state’s new cap on rent increases is one of the country’s most progressive – and some landlords have already steeply hiked rates in anticipation.

Brenda Valdez feels like she can finally exhale. The mother of two and mobile home owner from Elma in Grays Harbor County said she no longer has to hold her breath waiting for the next lot rent hike to come knocking at her door after Washington state adopted an unprecedented 5% annual limit on rent increases for manufactured home owners last month.

Valdez said her lot rent – what she pays for the ground under her mobile home – had nearly doubled in the past decade, and she expected to face another $100-a-month increase in July.

Many other mobile home residents and housing advocates shared Valdez’s sense of long-awaited relief after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1217 in May, introducing annual caps on rent increases for the first time in the state’s history. The bill also added new limits on move-in fees, security deposits and late fees for mobile home tenants.

The new limit on annual rent increases comes after years of advocacy and organizing from mobile home owners across the state, often in response to large property management companies or private equity purchasing their parks and raising rents year after year. Mobile home owners, many of whom are low-income seniors on Social Security, have warned that unregulated hikes, along with compounding maintenance fees, have increasingly threatened them with ‘economic eviction’ and the risk of homelessness.

Wilson, who has championed tenant protections alongside her neighbors after Hurst & Son bought her park and raised rents, emphasized how long mobile home residents have felt like their housing stability was slipping away. Every year, they waited to see how bad the rent increases would be or if fees would also go up.

From the 2025 MRL Introduction:

Note: Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program (MRLPP). Beginning July 1, 2021, any mobilehome or manufactured homeowner living in a mobilehome park under a rental agreement may submit a complaint for an alleged violation of the Mobilehome Residency Law. Any mobilehome or manufactured homeowner residing in a permitted mobilehome park is eligible to submit a complaint. Complaints must be submitted to HCD. HCD provides assistance to help resolve and coordinate resolution of the most severe alleged violations of the Mobilehome Residency Law. For questions regarding the MRLPP please call 1-800-952-8356, email MRLComplaint@HCD.CA.gov or visit https://www.HCD.CA.gov/.

For the 2025 edition, There are five (5) Assembly Bills (AB) and two (2) Senate Bills (SB) relating to mobilehomes that have been signed into law by the Governor to become effective Wednesday, January 1, 2025.

§798.15 §798.28.5 §798.42 §798.44.1 §798.56 §799.12

Wed, Jan 29, 2025 – GSMOL In the past, the Senate Select Committee for Manufactured Homes has produced an MRL Handbook, which included the current Mobilehome Residency Law, other state laws applying to MH parks, the RV Park laws, the Frequently Asked Questions that have been submitted to their office, and a Community Resources directory by counties. This year, GSMOL has its own version of this Handbook, which features links to each reference, whether it be within the MRL or in another source. This has been produced for us by the Administrator of MHPHOA.com, a website with a lot of good resources. Unfortunately GSMOL cannot afford to make hard copies of this booklet as the Select Committee did, but we hope that this will be a useful online reference for our members and others.
GSMOL MRL Handbook 2025 Now Available on Our Website