Sierra Corporate Management Complaints and Reviews

Reviews and complaints from Sierra Corporate Management residents, SCM employees, buyers and sellers of mobile homes, City Council Members and other officials. These are mobile home parks in California managed by Sierra Corporate Management (SCM) and owned by a Kort & Scott Financial Group KSFG) named business entity.

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KSFG Mobile Home Parks in California

2018 Apr – After checking out the location and meeting a recent victim of completely being swindled as others have here, worst of all is to hear that once the eviction process is over, their personal property was thrown away, parents remains, a lifetime of memories gone due to some person that thinks they earned that right, as well as instead of sealing the eviction so that the victim wasn’t homeless for a long time, they also pushed the eviction onto their history. Nobody does that anymore, this could be considered cruel and unusual tactics. Let’s hope you stay clear of this place, and Karma finds it’s way for these land pigs.
David C.

2016 Jul – In January 2014, my sister Vanessa and her husband Larry, purchased a mobile home here in Arrowhead Mobile Home Park. They paid in full before moving in, $18,000 for the mobile home, and $599 for the title. They also had to pay rent on the property which was approximately $900 a month, plus utilities. The mobile home was in pretty bad condition and needed a lot of repairs before they could move in. Larry had to put flooring in the hallway and both bedrooms, he had to drywall much of the interior to put in walls, and had to do some basic rewiring. Then Trudy, the park manager, told them they had to paint the exterior, so they had to buy a few gallons of paint.
Read Larry and Vanessa’s Story

2015 Dec – My name is Robin, I am a 51 year old disabled female. I have MS and other health related challenges. I am now homeless because of fraud taking place at Arrowhead Mobile Home Park. I just lost my mobile home along with four others all in one year. Trudy Jacobs, the park manager for Sierra Corporate Management, stole everything in my home, she threw away my parent’s ashes. This lady is going to jail, these people bully everyone, I’m not afraid, I’m homeless because of their fraudulent activity. I can’t cry anymore, it’s justice time.
Read Robin’s Story

2015 Oct – Beware of this mobile home park. They take your home and all your money. This park is all fraud. The park manager is white trash and scum. Beware of this park.
Vanessa C.

2014 Jun – If you can live anywhere else, do it. The owner rides through in a limo every so often and bitches about everything. Gives the manager a hit list and goes to the next property. The manager lies about anything that might make her look bad. There’s a heated pool but the Glenair people can’t use it. There’s a big meeting room and the Glenair people can’t use it. The home I rented had roaches and they do nothing about them. Same owner and manager as Glenair around the corner on Glendora Avenue.
Another C.

Kort & Scott Pay $57,000,000
Largest Mobile Home Park Settlement Ever

Fri, Nov 22, 2019 – Kabateck LLP attorneys representing hundreds of low-income mobile home residents in Long Beach, California secured a nearly $57 million settlement, which is the largest settlement ever involving a mobile home park.

Lawsuits Against Kort & Scott DBAs

2018 Jan – Kort & Scott Financial Group owns multiple mobile home parks throughout the United States. I am complaining about Sierra Corporate Management. This corporation owns over 36 parks within California. This corporation's sole purpose is to take advantage of their residents (especially Seniors) through fear, fraud, and intimidation. They harass and mislead tenants into signing 25-year leases under the guise that they will save money because they will only raise the rent up to 5%. But that is an oxymoron, because California law only allows for a yearly 3% increase for mobile home owners. This practice allows them to remove all the constitutional protections that tenants rely upon. If that’s not enough (monies), they overbill tenants for their rent utilities and fail to maintain their own property. For example; garbage fees. If you look up your local garbage fees they do not charge what is reflected on the owners billing statement. The fraud is so blatantly in your face. But, the chicken always come home to roost. Sierra Corporate Management has numerous lawsuits pending against them because of their illegal practices regarding mobile home owners. If you live in one of their parks complain to your local government just as we have in Redwood City, California
Sheryl P.

2015 – Amaranda used all of her savings to purchase a mobile home and signed a 25-year site lease, written in English legalese, with Bayshore Villa Mobile Home Park. Speaking to Amaranda in Spanish, her native language, the park manager had told her that the rent would only go up by 5% each year. The park owner had been using incomprehensible leases and suddenly raising rents throughout the park.

Amaranda, a single mother of two boys, worked cleaning houses to give her kids safe and stable housing and better opportunities. She used all of her savings to purchase a mobile home and signed a 25-year site lease, written in English legalese, with Bayshore Villa Mobile Home Park. Speaking to Amaranda in Spanish, her native language, the park manager had told her that the rent would only go up by 5% each year.

Initially, the park charged the appropriate amount but, after a few years, it began to raise the rent astronomically. Amaranda’s space rent went up 79% in 5 years and became unaffordable. She could not afford to move her mobile home or move to an apartment in San Mateo and the surrounding counties. Moving far away would mean a different school for her youngest, interrupted medical care for her oldest, and losing her business clients. She would also lose the investment in her mobile home.

Amaranda was not alone. The park owner had been using incomprehensible leases and suddenly raising rents throughout the park. Amaranda and other Bayshore families decided to stand up to this injustice with the help of Western Center and our co-counsel, the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. She filed a class action lawsuit, alleging that the park owner, one the nation’s largest management companies, had violated state and local law, had breached its lease with residents, and had engaged in unfair business practices.

2015 Nov – This is not a place you want to live. Rent is way too high, and they are known for illegal activity like raising rent when there is a rent freeze in effect. They do shady stuff like charge residents when non residents illegally dump, and tell you to call the cops on children walking to the playground. They seem to think each space is worth $400k and the park is worth 57 million even though it is only appraised at 4 million. The owner is a greedy man who is only out for himself.

2010 Jul – Don’t trouble yourself to live in Bayshore Villa in Redwood City, California. Massive health and building code violations, out of control rent increases, lying and intimidation are all the order of the day. A case of the Bubonic Plague would be infinitely preferable to dealing with these uncouth louts. I have recently prevailed in court standing alone against them. If you are in suffering with their tyranny in any park in California, ask me how. It is my understanding they control about 200 parks nationwide. Good luck everyone.
Chris W.

2009 Jun – Residents of a Redwood City mobile home park where a small fire broke out early Monday morning speculated that it might be related to residents’ frustration with the park’s ownership. Several residents of the park said they believe someone may have set the fire out of anger because of several ongoing disputes between the park’s ownership and residents.
The Mercury News

A San Mateo Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction in Cruz v. Sierra Corporate Management, prohibiting the park owner from: increasing rents, evicting residents based on nonpayment of those contested amounts of rent, threatening unnamed plaintiffs with the risk of paying attorneys’ fees for being class members, and from trying to offer residents new leases that purport to waive any rights under the lawsuit.
Western Center on Law & Poverty

2018 Apr – Price of the rent is too high. I moved in 4 years ago and I was told they had security and it was a gated community but it’s not true. The pool is so dirty, and there’s dog poop on every street! The manager Dorothy takes too long to do things and she never knows anything. Her answer to every question is to call the regional manager Liana. The regional manager is worse, she has a bad attitude. I really had a bad experience with Liana.
Julian R.

2016 Oct – Like the New Manager Dorothy. Absolutely sweet while maintaining the rules of Blue Star MHP. But, it is not like it used to be when we first moved in. Gate hasn’t worked in over 10 years, garbage area is indescribable, parties in driveways, dirty streets and still rent continues to go up, up and away. Also, they might as well call it El Pueblo Mobile Home Park considering who they’re selling to. So will be selling next year.
Yazmin L.

2014 Jan – I have a mobile home in Blue Star Mobile Home Park. I’ve been here for 1 year and 3 months and they have raised my rent twice now. Last March it was raised $40.00 per month. This March they are raising it another $65.00 a month plus trash and sewer charges are being added. Like most people say, Sierra Corporate Management only care about the money, not the people living here. I got behind on my rent and I found a buyer for my place but now the park management won’t give me the application papers for the new buyer until they get approval from Sierra Corporate Management. It’s been 4 days and I can’t get a response from park management or Sierra Corporate Management. I have left 2 emails for park management and 3 emails and 1 text message for Sierra Corporate Management and can’t get a response or returned email, call, text from anyone of them. I am so fed-up with this bull****, I can’t get out of here fast enough.
Fed-Up

2008 Feb – My aging parents live in a Kort & Scott owned park in Sylmar, CA. They and the other seniors are being driven out by their huge increases in rent. The security has even been eliminated. This company must be stopped, the area is literally between Pacoima and Lake View Terrace. These people are ruthless and this is their objective. They literally should be tied up and tortured. Don’t buy any property associated with these people.
Craig

2008 Jan – Meanwhile, another backer of the rent control measure is Sierra Corporate Management, which gave $35,000 to the campaign. It operates Blue Star Mobile Home Park, where the ballot measure is being watched with special interest. Passage of the measure would dash the hope of tenants there who want the city of Los Angeles to annex the part of the mobile home park that is outside the city boundary, extending rent control to all residents.

2017 Aug – Ever since the new ownership group has taken over, there has been a sense of separation. It is no longer a community environment but more of a communistic mentality. Nothing but additional rules, price increases and punishment. Now they are eliminating the parking and charging a 25.00 fee for a parking permit. I just looked up the ownership group which is Kort & Scott DBA Briarwood Associates LP or also Sierra Corporate Management. There are many complaints about other parks they own as well as warnings not to sign any long term leases with them. One good thing is that the State of California has won an injunction against them recently. The management has been good, they really are only doing what they are told to do by Sierra and Kort & Scott. I feel it's only going to get worse, stay as far away from this company's properties, totally unethical company from what I have read and seen.

2017 Apr – The owners and manager of this park do not care for it and are obviously making no effort to make the residents care for their own places either.
Thomas W.

2017 Jan – Capital One announced today (Tue, Jan 3, 2017) that it provided a $6.2 million Fannie Mae Structured Adjustable Rate mortgage to refinance Briarwood Mobile Home Community, a 105-unit manufactured housing community (MHC) in Sacramento, California. Senior Vice President Chad Thomas Hagwood originated the transaction. Hagwood leads Capital One Multifamily Finance’s Southeast region out of the Birmingham, Alabama office.

The sponsor, Kort & Scott Financial Group, bought the property for cash in October 2016 and will use the loan to return a portion of the proceeds used for the acquisition. This is the 27th transaction Kort & Scott Financial Group, has completed with Hagwood’s team at Capital One.

The ten-year adjustable rate loan has five years of interest-only payments, followed by amortization on a 30-year schedule. There is a 12-month lockout period with one percent exit fee thereafter until 90 ninety days from maturity.

Based in Southern California, Kort & Scott owns and operates MHCs in the Western United States, primarily in Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico. Since 1989, the company has acquired over 9,500 mobile homes spaces.
Capital One Multifamily Finance – Recent Closings

2016 Oct – On Thu, Sep 15, 2016, Kort & Scott filed two (2) new DBAs; Briarwood Associates LP and Briarwood GP LP. These types of DBA filings usually precede a mobile home park purchase. We cannot locate any publicly available information regarding a Briarwood sale. This is normal, these are referred to as Pocket Listings or Off-Market NNN Properties. If anyone is aware of a Briarwood Mobile Home Park that is for sale or, it may have sold already, please contact the MHPHOA with more information.

Attention Briarwood: Do Not Sign Long-Term Lease Agreements

Suspicion: We are aware of a Briarwood Mobile Home Park (105 Spaces, Family) located at 2950 Routier Road in Sacramento, California 95827. Kort & Scott currently own two (2) mobile home parks in Sacramento County that we are aware of; Emerald Meadows Mobile Home Park (154 Spaces, Family) in Antelope and Lamplighter Sacramento Mobile Home Park (173 Spaces, 55+) in North Highlands. It would make sense for Kort & Scott to purchase a park within a reasonable radius (15-25 miles) of the two parks they currently own.
Kort & Scott DBAs – Briarwood Associates LP, Briarwood GP LP

2015 Dec – On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 6:00 PM, the City of Carson, California held a Mobilehome Rental Review Board meeting. Mr. Abraham Arrigotti, President of Sierra Corporate Management was present and asked by a board member if it was true that SCM were offering residents at Carson Gardens Trailer Lodge a $450 cash incentive to sign long-term leases?

Mr. Arrigotti responded with a "yes" and counsel (Thomas W. Casparian) for Sierra Corporate Management confirmed that this was legal and it is encouraged.

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Resident Speaker 1

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Resident Speaker 2

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Resident Speaker 3

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Resident Speaker 4

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Resident Speaker 5

Carson Mobilehome Rental Review Board Meeting - Abraham Arrigotti (Left) and Counsel Thomas W. Casparian (Right)

2015 Feb – In June of last year, I was no longer able to afford the massive rent increases in my rent at a Santa Ana park managed by Sierra Corporate Management. My rent was $1,296 per month plus utilities and my SSA was under $1,200. When I let them know I was no longer able to afford their ‘high cost of living’, I was asked, "Are you going to surrender your home"? My health was bad and I was in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. For the last four years, I used every resource to make the rent, then buried my mom. That’s when the heartless bastards at SCM (an acronym for scam) swooped in to take my home of 31 years.

2016 Mar – Several families struggling to make ends meet in Corona have been hit with another setback – a rent increase. CBS2’s Crystal Cruz reports many of the mobile homeowners are asking the city for help. And Cruz reports that’s another struggle. Many would like to see the City Council step in and fear more increases are on the horizon. The Vice Mayor of Corona says this is a private matter between business owner and tenants. Cruz called management several times for a comment and was yet to hear back at press time.
CBS Los Angeles

2015 Oct – Three months ago, Anaheim based Sierra Corporate Management purchased Corona La Linda Mobile Home Park. Since then, the price for new rentals has doubled from $650 to $1,300 per month. Dixon, one of several landowners who agreed to the deal, said he felt forced to comply with the majority decision. ‘I have a feeling the new owners are about as aggressive as they can be. I personally feel terrible for having done the deal.’
The Press Enterprise Corona Council Meeting Oct 7, 2015

Residents from Corona La Linda Mobile Home Park in Corona, California which was purchased by KSFG in July 2015 and is now managed by SCM.

Corona City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 1

Corona City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 2

Corona City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 3

Corona City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 4

Corona City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 5

2007 Mar – I live in a Sierra Management park in Corona and I am about to lose my home due to the astronomically high rent raises Abe Arrigotti sends us. Never buy a mobile home that has anything to do with Sierra or Kort and Scott. You, too, will lose your shirt.

2022 Feb – Crestmont, IMHO, is a beautiful community… what makes it that way is its location, set atop a green hill in Brea, California. The hard part about living here is the continual increase in costs. The most outlandish is billed to each resident [space] at $182.00 monthly, and it is a “pass through property tax” where we, the residents pay the owner’s [corporation] property tax for THEIR property (while simultaneously paying for our own individual home property tax). The charges here are suffocating, and the amenities don’t quite make up for that!

2020 Jul – I have lived at Crestmont Estates for over a decade. When I purchased, the real estate agent said they rarely raise the rent – it has been raised 6% every year. Since Sierra Corporate Management took over, we have a new monthly fee of $182.00 to pay for the owners property tax. New management is useless, everything they do is based on favoritism, no rule enforcement regarding parking, park is in horrible shape. The price they charge to live in this place, it should be like Beverly Hills.

2020 Jun – Wow! We are in the middle of a Pandemic and other issues in our state and the owners are going to raise the rent. People without jobs and barely surviving and they’re going to raise the rent again… very classy owners!

2020 May – Since the new owners took over, it’s gotten expensive and crappy. It took less than two years for that progress. Pandemic or not, they’re raising rent again. Come September my bill will be $250 bucks more than it was just 13 months prior.

2020 Mar – This company is charging myself and the 288 other residents of Crestmont Mobile Estates $181.68 each month, itemizing it as a “property tax pass-thru”… indefinitely. We, the residents, pay our own property taxes for our own individual properties. We also pay a high amount monthly to lease the land our properties are on – their land, of their property. We cannot understand why we are being charged this amount, and Sierra Corporate Management has refused, repeatedly, to put in writing or even via answered / returned phone calls as to the “why” of this charge. They won’t respectfully call a community meeting to discuss and clear up matters. We, the residents, do not trust many of their maneuvers and are beyond frustrated with this one. Too many documented stories of shady practices can be found from the owners of this property.
Maria B.

2019 Dec – Terrible place to live. At this point you can buy a real home for the same price. I’m paying 25% more now in space rent than I was 4 years ago. So, if you finance a home here you’re looking at $2,000 or more a month to live in a bread ghetto. They raised it by over $180 this year alone.

2019 Sep – I love my house here at Crestmont Mobile Estates. I just don’t know why they want everybody to move? I have lived here over 10 years and only one year our rent wasn’t raised! They’re bringing way more money in then they’re putting into the park! Like I said, I love my home, I love the park, but they’re choking us to death with the rent raises – please stop raising the rent!

2019 Mar – I live at Crestmont Mobile Estates. A new manager was hired and the place has gone down hill. It's Sunday, 12:40 PM, and the clubhouse is still locked, the pool area is still locked, and the new manager is rude and very unprofessional. The new manager hasn’t even updated the contract list for the community.
John P.

2018 Aug – How about instead of dangerously parking all these cars on Site Drive that you add some parking in your overly cramped mobile home park? All these cars along Site Drive are obstructing visibility and making navigating Site Drive very unsafe for the people who have to cross the street. Seriously, stop adding so many trailers in your park and add some actual parking instead inside the facility all your residents pay for!
Corey H.

2018 Jul – At the last minute would not approve an all cash buyer with retirement savings and would not give any clear or distinguishable reason as to why this was the case. They are also partners with a towing company that routinely comes to the park and drives around looking for people whose cars are parked outside for even just a few minutes. They've towed hospice nurses with plaques on their car from the hospital as well as towing a car that had a little kid in it while the parent was inside putting groceries away – they literally towed the car with the child still inside.
Sej R.

2017 Jul – Management is horrible, very inconsistent on rule enforcement. Rent goes up 5.5 to 6% every year. Common residential turnaround because of rent hikes, it will get to where you cannot afford to live there anymore. Management makes it very hard to sell, so do not go in thinking temporary. You need park approval to make any upgrades on your home including paint. Parking is scarce for guests and they pay tow trucks to make rounds and tow your car even if you are loading and unloading. Your home will not be yours, it is theirs, and they tell you what you can do to your home or not.
Patricia M.

2017 May – The Crestmont Mobile Estates land owners are hurting their residents financially. If you are a concerned neighbor or owner inside the park, please sign this petition on STOPPING THE YEARLY 6% PER MONTH SPACE RENT INCREASE that is financially hurting families and seniors on fixed incomes. Realtors lie to potential buyers by telling them rent increases don't happen often and advertise a low space rent price to entice buyers.
Owners Against Crestmont Mobile Estates Yearly Space Rent Increases

2017 May – This place has gotten worse within the last year. The management no longer does the weeding in the common areas and most of the street lights are not working. Way too many empty units. Trash and abandoned cars are everywhere. There is some sort of dead animal under an empty unit and it's smelling up this whole place. We will be moving ASAP. Another one bites the dust.

2016 Sep – This place is a hell hole, management has no idea what they’re doing. They take advantage of people. They will make up random rules on the go. Please if you plan on moving in here I advise you stay away!
Ivan P.

2015 Nov – General Civil Case Filed by Residents 12. Defendants maintained both a per se public nuisance and a common-law nuisance on their property by substantially failing to provide and maintain the Park’s common areas, facilities, services, and physical improvements in good working order and condition.
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

Case Number: 34-2015-00177316-CU-PO-GDS
Plaintiffs 1-XX vs. Larchmont Associates, LLC, Larchmont Associates, L.P., Sierra Corporate Management, Inc.
Order Date: 2015-11-17, Filing Date: 2015-04-01
Complaint: Read the First Cause of Action – Nuisance
1. The Park’s sewer system spills sewage needlessly endangering the safety of the public and residents. This sewage flows down streets, in front of homes and onto some of the lots. The poor maintenance of the sewage system has also caused sewage to back-up inside residents’ homes. The smell of sewage goes inside residents’ homes and can be smelled throughout the Park. Sewage spill and/or backups have resulted in damage to residents’ homes and personal property.
2. The Park’s water system provides contaminated, discolored, rusty, dirty and odorous water needlessly endangering the safety of the public and residents. The water pressure is low and management has failed to provide residents with advanced notice of shut-offs of water service. Residents have been overcharged for water. The water has caused some residents to become sick.
3. The Park’s electrical system provides inadequate power needlessly endangering the safety of the public and residents. Residents have experienced power outages that have affected multiple homes in the Park simultaneously. Residents have also experienced problems with power surges and flickering and dimming lights in their homes. Residents are unable to run multiple appliances at one time, because the Park provides insufficient electrical power to adequately supply needs of homeowners. Residents have noticed exposed or inadequately covered electrical wires in the Park. Electrical boxes have caught on fire. Problems associated with the Park’s electrical system have damaged residents’ kitchen appliances and home electronics and home appliances. Residents have had to spend money to replace food that had spoiled as a result of extended power outages.
4. Residents are being overcharged for electricity. The electrical meters are not properly maintained and do not work properly.
5. The Park’s drainage system fails to safely remove water from residents’ lots needlessly endangering the public and residents. The Park drains do not work properly. Improper drainage has caused the ponding of water in front of, around or under homes, as well as in streets, common areas, in driveways and on spaces. These drainage problems usually occur after rainfall or when sprinklers are used. Some homes have sustained damage, as the improper drainage has caused homes to become unleveled and sink. There are sinking areas on residents’ spaces.
6. The Park’s failure to safely manage and maintain the common areas has needlessly endangered the public and residents. Streets have potholes, cracks, bumps, and depressions. Poor street conditions, along with improper lighting conditions, make it difficult for residents to walk, and put residents at risk for personal injury. Driveways are not maintained by the Park. Driveways are deteriorating and sinking.
7. The swimming pool is not available for residents’ use. The pool is filthy and poorly maintained. The water in the pool is murky and dirty.
8. There is limited lighting in the Park. The lighting is either not turned on or not working, is inadequate, and/or is out for long periods of time. There have been unreasonable delays to replace broken and burned out bulbs. The light poles are not maintained. Residents do not feel safe walking at night in the Park due to the poor lighting.
9. The clubhouse is not available for residents to use. The Park lets people from outside the Park use it. The kitchen window is broken and boarded up. The Park charges residents a large deposit to rent the clubhouse.
10. The laundry room is unavailable for residents’ use. The laundry room is not maintained and there are not enough machines and they do not work well. There is no light in the laundry room.
11. Trees and landscaping are not properly maintained or trimmed, and look unsightly. Tree roots are damaging residents’ driveways.
12. Park restrooms and showers are dirty and not maintained. Restrooms are not stocked with toilet paper, soap, or paper towels. The Park showers are closed. The showerheads are broken.
13. There is a lack of maintenance of the trash area. There are an inadequate number of trash containers, resulting in frequent overflows and scattered debris.
14. The perimeter fence is falling down and crumbling.
15. The fence around the pool has missing bars and small children can fit through the bars making it a health and safety issue.
16. The playground, storage, barbecue, and basketball areas are not maintained. The playground has dangerous equipment and the area is covered with cat and dog feces.
17. The storage area locks have been changed and residents cannot get a key. The storage area is not secure.
18. The carwash has been closed.
19. There is no basketball hoop.
20. Park Management has failed to properly maintain vacant homes, which are often left in the Park for long periods of time in poor condition with broken windows. The vacant homes are eye sores and homeless persons have broken in to sleep in them and to take things from inside.
21. The overall poor maintenance of the Park, Park areas, vacant lots, utilities, and landscaping, results in a rundown appearance and affects home sales.
22. Lack of security and lighting has resulted in vandalism, graffiti, criminal and drug activity, and theft of personal property.
23. The Park’s failure to properly supervise and manage its employees has needlessly endangered the safety of the public and residents.
24. Management is unavailable or is difficult to communicate with.
25. Management harasses or and threatens retaliation against Plaintiffs, disregards their safety, and demonstrates lack of concern for them and their needs.
26. Management regularly refuses to respond to Plaintiffs’ complaints, and harasses, threatens and retaliates against them for making complaints.
27. Management comes onto resident’s spaces without advance notice and selectively enforces Park rules or does not enforce them at all.
28. The lack of proper management has resulted in overcharges or improper billings for utilities.
29. Repairs by Park owner or agents are done poorly or incorrectly.
30. Management refuses to make repairs or there are lengthy delays in making repairs.
31. Management interferes with the use or enjoyment of Plaintiffs’ leasehold and home.
32. The Park has a stigma and bad reputation affecting home values.
33. Defendants have removed Park amenities and decreased services.
34. There is a deterioration of the Park infrastructure and Park appearance despite high increases in rent by Defendants resulting in Plaintiffs’ difficulty and/or inability to sell homes.
35. Defendants interfere with prospective sales of homes by:
  1. failing to maintain the Park’s infrastructure and appearance;
  2. improperly withholding approval of prospective purchasers for resident owned homes but approving them for Park owned homes which it offers at reduce rates;
  3. failing to provide Group B Plaintiffs with title to the homes upon purchase from Defendants,
  4. charging some Group B Plaintiffs for the back-owned taxes on the homes and,
  5. charging excessive rents for the leasehold which are not worth the amount charged.
Status: Set for Trial 2017-10-10, Mandatory Settlement Conference 2017-08-31

2015 Nov – This place is run down. Space rent is high for the appearance of the community. The utility meters are controlled by the clowns they hire to manage the park. I hate it, there are better mobile home parks to live at than this place. This place is infected with thiefs that come from somewhere else to steel from the hardworking people that live here.
James H.

2014 May – I lived at Emerald Meadows Mobile Home Park in North Highlands. Myself and about 13 others illegally lost our homes. The manager was fired for the crime and had served a few years in prison for the same thing about 10 years ago. Their lawyer is a snake too.
Susan N.

2008 Jun – General Civil Lawsuit Won by Residents Complaint Summary: Complaint for Nuisance, Breach of Contract, Negligence, Intentional Interference with Property Rights, Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Negligence Per Se, Unfair Business Practices, Breach of Warranty of Habitability and Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment, Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

Case Number: 06AS04103
Plaintiffs 1-XX vs. Larchmont Associates LP
Status: Plaintiffs Won on 2008-06-05
Damages Awarded: $3,800,000+

2000 Dec – She was told that Sierra Management, the company that runs Emerald Meadows Mobile Home Park where Reed lives in North Highlands, had made an accounting error and undercharged most of the park’s residents for sewer and storm drain charges for over three years. But now the error is fixed, and the company wants residents to pay up. In some cases, the bills run $400, $500 and $600. The company admits that the bills arise from their own mistake, but that they still have a legal right to collect.
Sacramento News

2016 Sep – Nice place, nice homes – but wow! The manager of this park is such a snobby b**ch. No toilet paper in the restrooms by the pool. She blamed it on someone else. In fact, every little thing out of place she was quick to point the finger at someone else, even bad talking them. WOW! We will not be thinking of moving there. Not until the current manager is gone anyway. I believe her name was Lorie Lara. Avoid her like the plague.
Saki U.

2016 Jan – In August 2011, a new homeowner bought a confiscated mobile home from Sierra Corporate Management for $12,000. There was evidence that the mobile home title was not correct for many years before resident bought the home and that Sierra Corporate Management sold the home when they did not have title to it. The new homeowner asked for title to the home but was told that they could not have it until the home loan was paid off. They had paid approximately $11,000 of the loan. From November 2011 through March 2012 (5 months) the homeowner’s electrical utility bill was too high, hundreds of dollars too high when their previous electrical bills were averaging $60 dollars. Often when asking resident park managers about the eviction, homeowner would be told by the park manager that she did not know anything about it.

Homeowner protested the high utility bills but was told to pay them. They continued protesting for a period of time. The homeowner had Orange County Weights and Measures check the meters and was told there was nothing wrong with the meters and to take it up with the park owners. They continued protesting. A neighbor two doors down had similar high utility bills but was somehow able to get them adjusted. There was an argument with park management about a pet in an outdoor cage. Park management told the homeowner to trim vegetation that was the neighbors.

The homeowner made considerable improvements to the house. The floor was soft in many places so they had floor covering put in. The family performed the labor on most improvements. The heater did not work. The oven did not work. A month after purchase, there was a leak under the house requiring a plumber. The homeowner put in a new kitchen sink. Approximately one month after the purchase, the homeowner was told to paint the house. At the same time, the homeowner decided to also install a new dishwasher, ceiling fans, landscaped the bare dirt with green vegetation and added a lamp in front.

Between the painting requirements and the continued high utility bills, the homeowner got behind on rent and was immediately served an eviction notice in August 2012. The homeowner was evicted from the mobile home by October 2012 after one year of occupancy. The now ex-homeowner received notice that they still owe $6,000 and a collection agency was hounding them. The ex-homeowner’s credit rating was damaged. The ex-homeowner feels that they were harassed because of their complaints about the electrical bills and that there was a deliberate effort to force them out of their home. The ex-homeowner did seek legal assistance but there was nothing that could be done, it was too late, the eviction proceeding had already been disposed of by judgment.
As Told by Evicted Ex-Homeowner

2015 Aug – This park has raised the rent of elderly Social Security Income only, people who are Vets, retired teachers, nurses, caregivers, soldiers from many wars who fought to save our Country, to live a free, and comfortable, safe life. In the last 5 years, average raise total has been $400-$500, a 5% increase every year. Including when the market crashed, and no one was buying, this park continued to raise the rents. IMO, they are waiting until the homeowner can no longer pay the lease, and have to simply walk away, for they can’t sell the home with a $1,600 lease, not including the home payment itself, which can run a total of $3,500 a month.
Angel M.

2015 Jul – The lady whom is “supposed” to answer the phone continued to hang up on me over and over instead of answering. When she finally got on the line she was the rudest person I have ever had the displeasure of speaking with. I couldn’t believe how she represented this property. If she is not the owner then the owner might want to know how his/her staff is treating perspective tenants. I have since withdrew my offer on a home in this community. I wouldn’t be able to live in a community when the one person who is there to help you treats you like garbage!
Melissa C.

2015 Jun – Fountain Valley Estates is not in the habit of looking for their tenants doing right. They seek out tenants that might have one weed growing in the front yard, take a picture of it, and then give you a 14 day notice to pull the one weed or be charged $250 gardener fees. Sure wish I had known of the hostile environment this corporation runs. Also, every single year on your “anniversary date” of living in the park, they thank you with a 5% increase in space rent. Don’t let them fool you with the increase rate of 2% to 5%. They will always increase the full 5%. When I purchased my home three years ago the going rate was $1,180 per month, I am now paying $1,560. BUYER BEWARE – THIS IS ONLY A TASTE OF IT!
M. Nelson

2012 Jul – Residents from Fountain Valley Estates addressed the City Council last night and submitted a petition signed by 113 residents asking the council to impose rent control after a series of increases by new owner, an affiliate of Kort and Scott Financial Group. Residents allege the new owners are taking advantage of homeowners who were denied lease renewals, then assessed the maximum allowable rent increase plus assessments to cover half of a supplemental property tax bill.
The Orange County Register

2018 Dec – Bankruptcy Distress Sale for $27,400,000 – Sale Notes: The entity that owns the property is Friendly Village MHP Associates L.P., d/b/a Friendly Village of Long Beach, a California limited partnership (“LP Debtor”). The LP Debtor filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code in the Central District of California (“Bankruptcy Court”) on October 2, 2018. The LP Debtor’s general Partner, Friendly Village GP, LLC, a California limited liability company (“GP Debtor”) filed for protection under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy code in the Bankruptcy Court on October 21, 2018. The cases are Nos. 8:18-bk-13638-ES and 8:18-bk-13864. Richard A. Marshack was appointed and is the acting Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee of both estates.
Friendly Village Mobile Home Park

2018 Nov – A jury decided today that the owners of Friendly Village Mobile Home Park in North Long Beach should pay out $34 million in punitive damages, in addition to $5.5 million awarded last week, to residents of the park who sued over decaying conditions that included methane gas leaks and continually sinking ground. The jury awarded the punitive damages for negligence, unfair business practices, retaliatory eviction and financial elder abuse. Lead attorney Brian Kabateck said the residents lived in squalor at the property that was once a trash dump for the city of Long Beach.
Friendly Village Mobile Home Park

2018 Jun – My grandfather has lived here for a while now and we have all witnessed the changes over the years with the new management and they're HORRIBLE! The rent is rising, the management doesn't care, they're bias and a little racist l would say. I have had multiple encounters with the lady who works there and she seems to keep her eye on me and my black friends more than anyone else. KARMA WILL GET YOU! I've noticed a handful of people are trying to move out as well. Not a very "friendly village" to me, not a nice place to live, I would NOT recommend living here at ALL!
Ashlee E.

2017 Oct – Horrible Management. Very unfriendly. Neighbors are great. But the office manager is a selfish WITCH. Does not care about homeowners. Increases rent. Parking is horrible. Do not care about Handicapped. Spoke with corporate, they do not care either. Karma will come BACK TO THEM.
Julie M.

2016 Mar – Friendly Village Mobile Home Park – HCD Violates 174 of 182 Lots – This inspection is being conducted under the authority of Health and Safety Code, section 18400 and Title 25, California Code of Regulations, section 1004.5. Re-inspection fees of a minimum $196.00 will be required for any inspections after the first re-inspection. The below noted violations require correction within 30 days at which time the first re-inspection will be conducted. The result of this investigation is as follows:

A subsequent administratively requested meeting was held by our department at Friendly Village Mobile Home Park on March 1, 2016. Mrs. Erin Crum of (Sierra Management) was in attendance as well as Gabriel Contreras, Carlos Udria and I representing HCD. During the meeting Sierra Management advised us that they have not come up with a plan to abate any of the existing violations at the Friendly Village Mobile Home Park. Mrs. Erin Crum stated that Sierra Management would rather have all of the violations in writing. Sierra Management was cognizant of the substandard living conditions of the mobile home park however they have failed to make a plan to abate all violations.

2015 Dec – The 181 mobile homes in Friendly Village Mobile Home Park were built on top of a former dumpsite. This is an unhealthy and unsafe place to live. Protect your health and look elsewhere.

2015 Aug – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents: Failure to Maintain Mobilehome Park, Breach of Contract, Negligence, Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress, Continuing Trespass, Public Nuisance, Private Nuisance, Inverse Condemnation, Unfair Business Practices, Retaliatory Eviction, Financial Elder Abuse.
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

2015 Aug 15 – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents
Case Number: BC591412
Plaintiffs 1-235 vs. Friendly Village GP LLC, Friendly Village MHP Associates LP, Sierra Corporate Management Inc, Kort & Scott Financial Group LLC
Filing Date: 2015-08-15

2015 May – Update on the last posting. Yet another month without a word about issuing a credit for the mistake on the $254 water charge. They are totally ignoring my letters and spreadsheets. I believe in Karma and I know God is watching this situation. My Mom couldn’t afford her diabetes medicine because of the big water charge we had to pay for THEIR mistake. Unbelievable that people can act this way. If we could afford to move, we would be gone.

2014 Oct – Friendly Village is now under new owners and management. Again, this pains me to write a negative review, but I am personally very upset and currently in the process of selling my home and moving elsewhere. Space rent is expensive, and is rising and rising. If you were to take a peek into this park you would see that MANY other residents are trying to sell their homes and move out as well.

KBK’s Brian Kabateck is fighting on behalf of Friendly Village Mobile Home Park residents whose homes are sinking into a landfill.

Additional Media Coverage: Channels 2, 4, 7, 9

The Destroyer

HCD Activity Report
File Type: PDF, Pages: 8, File Size: 451KB

HCD Activity Report Page 1, March 7, 2016

HCD Activity Report Page 2, March 7, 2016

HCD Activity Report Page 3, March 7, 2016

Letters from City of Long Beach
File Type: PDF, Pages: 2, File Size: 37KB

Letter from Al Austin - Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Letter from Amy Bodek - Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Friendly Village MHP Image Library

2014 Jun – If you can live anywhere else, do it. The owner rides through in a limo every so often and bitches about everything. Gives the manager a hit list and goes to the next property. The manager lies about anything that might make her look bad. The south side is the slum. The north side is better. You can’t park in front of your home. The cable TV sucks. Nobody is friendly. There are no parking places for your friends. The pool is always cold as they don’t fix the heater. Same owner and manager as Arrowhead Mobile Home Park around the corner on Arrow Highway. I have a friend in this trailer park. The home I rented is in Arrowhead Mobile Home Park and it had roaches and they did nothing about them. I don’t live there anymore.
Another C.

2018 May – Worst place to live. I have lived here for quite some time and this place keeps getting worse. From being told the children in the park cannot play outside, ride bikes, play with balls, not do anything on the streets, to not being able to let our dogs be outside on our lawns to play around. Also, if you plan on visiting overnight, you cannot. Why? Because the managers of the park will tow anyone who parks in a visitor spot for more than 12 hours. Ask the manager to do anything and they will ignore you and just waste your time because talking to them is like talking to the wall, you won't get anywhere. Once again, worst place to live unless you want to pay more every month without notice and pay for your car every other day because it is probably getting towed. Also, whenever we ask to speak to someone above our park manager we never get a response from them and they never come and help. Several people have tried calling to talk about the issues of this park but no one ever gets a response so please, if you care for your family, do not move here.
Phellippe C.

2010 Jan – The park is overpriced for this area and the amenities. Rents keep escalating which makes it impossible to sell your home if you live there. People can’t afford the rents there which has stopped any resells. Talk to any RE agent in the area to prove this yourself. The owner refused offers to sell to the tenants, a loan was given by the state to convert it to condo status. My space rent doubled during the six years I lived there because there is no rent control in the area. I called the state representative Mike Antonovich about the situation there, because it is a low income park. When I lived there maintenance needed for the roads in the park was added to the bill of home owners, even though it was the responsibility of the park owner. All in all it was a bad experience when I lived there. It’s one of the worst parks in the area and I would not recommend anyone to live there.

2018 Jul – Super high rent that just keeps getting higher every year. There is very little guest parking and if you leave your car parked in front of your house for even a few minutes, the tow truck that prowls the park multiple times a day, will tow you in seconds. You have to pay for a key to the pool which was supposed to be part of what we get for our super high space rent. The new manager seems cool but the company he works for is greedy and wants to do very little for their residents. Plus, I’m pretty sure we are in the middle of that “toxic plume”. I mean that should lower our rent right? It's a clean and safe park though, so that’s one plus.
Shuron S.

Ametek Granted Partial Judgment in Alleged Ground Contamination Case

2018 May – The owners of mobile home parks were not able to immediately claim compensatory damages after they alleged a nearby facility dumped toxic waste on its property.

The court stated that Ametek pointed out the plaintiff Greenfield MHP Associates LP, et al. are not allowed to be rewarded compensatory damages grounded on any potential remediation costs for the future. The district court decided the case will proceed under the notion that if the plaintiffs do win at trial when it comes to Ametek’s alleged liability, the district court will move forward with the new information in mind.

The legal issues between the parties began after the mobile home parks' owners filed a lawsuit against Ametek and Senior Operations LLC after a manufacturing facility allegedly contaminated the ground after it released toxic chemicals, including more than 500,000 gallons of liquid waste into the soil and water by 2003. The plaintiffs allege a plume extended beyond the facility's boundaries and contaminated soil and groundwater under the mobile home parks. An expert pointed out that if the plume was not remediated, it could impact the plaintiffs' properties for 185 years, the court's decision states.
Charmaine Little / Northern California Record

El Cajon Toxic Plume Still a Problem for Mobile Home Residents

2018 Feb – Ana Hayes moved into her home at the Starlight Mobile Home Park in El Cajon in 1969. It’s where she raised her three children, and it’s where she and her husband still live.

Hers is one of the 457 mobile homes that sits above a toxic groundwater plume that residents first learned about in October 2016, though state officials and the company responsible for the contamination knew about it in the late 1980s.

So far, 151 homes in the Starlight, Greenfield and Villa Cajon mobile home parks have been tested, and 63 more are expected to be tested this year.

Lawsuits Filed Against Ametek

The lawsuits allege that Ametek “knowingly, willfully and intentionally failed” to stop the contamination from spreading and possibly affecting nearby homes and businesses. Fiske told inewsource one of the primary goals of the lawsuits is to provide medical monitoring for the people living and working on the plume who may have been exposed to TCE.

Last year, Ametek asked the court to hold the owners of the mobile home parks liable along with Ametek. The company said the owners knew about the contamination and never told the residents. The judge ruled against Ametek.
Ingrid Lobet / inewsource

2016 Oct – On Thu, Oct 20, 2016, an article was published in inewsource regarding a toxic plume of TCE (Trichloroethylene) reaching beneath mobile homes. The article mentions a mobile home park in El Cajon, California but no specifics are provided.

The MHPHOA investigated further and it appears that two (2) Kort & Scott owned mobile home parks are affected; Starlight Mobile Home Park and Greenfield Mobile Home Estates. Both mobile home parks have mobile homes that are within the 1,000 μg/liter contour (third inner blue border). No action and little testing have taken place there – until now. Here are some key snippets from the article…

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control issued a notification Thursday, October 6, 2016 after a contractor tested soil there and found TCE levels that left no doubt further testing should be done.

We collected data near the mobile homes along the property boundary and concentrations were detected at 5 feet below ground surface that are at level that may result in what we consider a significant risk to residents,” said Shahir Haddad, a supervising engineer for DTSC.

Several people at the mobile park said they’ve not been told that the plume runs under their homes. Most did not want to give their names.

Residents at the mobile park will be told of the testing results. The county water board is arranging a location and time, the agency’s Sean McClain said in an email.
Toxic Plume in El Cajon Reaches Beneath Kort & Scott Mobile Homes

2018 Apr – Man this place has some of the worst management a manufactured home community can have. The current manager they have is so lazy that she doesn’t even bother to try to get the correct meter readings for water and electricity that are located in the backyards. She’d rather guess and charge us a crazy amount of rent and have the guts to lie to our face. They even charge extra to use the swimming pool. Rent goes up every 6 months. If you have guests come over, they wouldn’t be able to find parking inside the park. Oh, if you happen to live there and want to move and sell your home, they make it so impossible for you to sell your house at a high value because rent is already at $1,400 average. Well, I can rant all day because the place is just horrible. I HOPE THIS HELPS. AND I HOPE THIS PLACE DO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER!
Kobe B.

2018 Mar – DO NOT LIVE HERE, hopefully you’re reading this prior to buying a house here. The management is horrible, when Alex was a manager at least it wasn’t as bad, but a new management got there and prices go up literally every 6 months or so. When I started living there rent was $1,000 a month. We are up to $1,300, NO UTILITIES INCLUDED and they charge for everything they can. Now you even have to buy your own key to the pool and God forbids you try to sell your manufactured home, again they will make it impossible until you owe more than the value of the house and they can OWN IT. Also, they are in a lawsuit with the engineering company next door who contaminated all the land from which you grow trees and your kids might be playing at. There’s hundreds of other mobile home parks – CHOOSE WISELY and don’t live here.
Alejandra A.

2015 Oct – One example of a truly heartless company is Sierra Corporate Management, who has made a racket out of buying senior mobile home parks and turning them into "family parks". They will raise the rent dramatically in the first year, and continue to do so until people are paying an exorbitant amount of money for what amounts to be a slab of concrete with plumbing. These extreme space rent costs are destroying the resale value of these mobile homes for their owners – and are essentially altering the real estate market in favor of profiteers. The cost of displacing senior citizens ultimately falls on families and the taxpayer base as a whole – whereas before, the mobile home-owning senior citizen could live independently on a fixed income.
Rocky 2020

2014 May – This place is horrible! Drita Bronkey, the saleswoman, will tell you anything just to get you to buy a home. Once you do, they’re so rude to you. They will jack prices up so that you can’t afford it. After we bought a home here we had to pay 7 years back registration fees because they never took care of it. They are scam artist. You can ask any of the residents that live there.
Jax S.

2018 Aug – Just like so many others have said, this park raises space rents so high, you’re forced to move, and then they steal your home. It happened to us in 2013. Sure, it’s in a beautiful location, but they are scammers. We could no longer afford their outrageous space rent, as they had raised it several times on us, in a one-year period, so they blackmailed us. They said if we GIVE them our home, they would forget about the rent we were behind on (only due to the cost of increase), and we would be free and clear. And they harassed us weekly for the money. We should have sued them! Now to find out they’ve done it to many others, too? That is definitely NOT legal! Shame on that park’s management! We lost a home because of them!

2016 Oct – I checked out a home and already knew the space rent. But I wanted to get a personal feel for the office staff, so I stopped by. I was told the space rent was $1,600 for the space when I visited the front office. But, I was also told that the other space rents start at $1,500 going all the way up to $1,800 depending on the view, but that nothing in the park was less than $1,500. Considering the dilapidation culture of the park and the extraordinarily high rent, I researched the park online and came upon space rent of $1,150 for homes offered by Joshua Lukasiewicz. It also brought me to your site. Not sure if the $1,150 rent information is still offered, but this site has saved me a huge headache. I was also told that utilities run about $200 including water, trash, sewer, gas, and electric. So surprised to hear about the mismanagement of billing. Thanks for the website and all your hard work in making this information available to the suspecting public!

2016 Oct – They raise the rent and force you to move out. They sell your home because they won’t approve anyone you want to sell to. They forced my 80 year old Mom out and sold her home.
Linda J.

2016 Sep – This is the worst place I have ever lived. Not only did they up my space rent $300 in one month, they tried to tell me that I didn’t own my home. I had paid it off in Sep 2014 and asked for my title every month at least once for the next year. Once the rent hike happened, my family of 6 with only one income could no longer stay above water. I had someone interested in buying my home since I could no longer afford it, and they told me that I didn’t have the right to sell it. Well I got a lawyer and it turns out, I did have the right and they didn’t have the right to try and evict me because I didn’t want to comply with their crap. In the end, I was paid back the full amount that I had paid in and my back rent. The stupid part is I had offered to sell it back to them for $15,000 less then what they lost in court. Sylvia was nice, but would tell you anything you wanted to hear, the truth or not! Do not buy a home here, they will run you out and steal your place right out from under you! I was lucky that I was able to get an attorney, I feel for all the ones that lost their homes because they couldn’t!

2016 Jul – During the 2015 calendar year, there were seventeen (17) Unlawful Detainer Lawsuits filed against home owners which affected a total of twenty-nine (29) residents (Evictions). There are 134 spaces in Hollydale Mobile Home Park – this mobile home park experienced a 12% eviction rate in the year 2015.
System Administrator

2016 Jan – Stay away from this place. They jack up rents until they force you out and steal your mobile home from you. Please do not even consider moving here, you will be sorry. Manager lied in court and can’t be trusted.
Hope S.

2015 Jun – Nothing to like, don’t even rate one star. They cheat people out of their homes and resell for a profit. Been through 4 managers in 4 years. All of them liars. The sub metered utilities are a joke. Managers change the numbers to suit themselves. One month the electricity is $750, the next few months it's not even a hundred. How does that happen? Look at how many of the homes are for sale by the park. All of them are homes that were taken by the park. Look at some of the homes that aren’t struggling at the jacked-up rents and crazy utilities, there are 2 and 3 families in there with screaming kids.
Lex V.

2013 Jun – Do not move there. I live here and these people are awful. They will raise your rent and charge you all these ridiculous charges until you can’t pay anymore and they can take the house back and leave you homeless. We loved living here until they got a new manager.

2012 Jun – It is dirty, unkempt, the bathrooms are disgusting, hair and dirt in the ice cold pool. In the heat, it makes you cry, there is so much bleach in it. The rent is the highest in California, higher than in Malibu. No services, but they (Sierra Corporate Management) overcharge on gas, water and electricity. They spy on tenants. They regularly get sued and lose in court. They regularly run people out of their homes. They undersell the tenants and give kickbacks on the homes they stole from people and now sell. If a tenant wants to sell, the rent is very high and the lease is bad, right now up to $1,500 a month. When they sell, they offer leases starting at $970, but in only 5 years the tenant pays them $1,600 as they write in rent hikes and the "home" they sell is in ruins, holes in roof and floors, no hot water, no appliances etc. When the people no longer can afford it, they run them out and resell. They had 3 lawsuits against them in the last 7 years, lost every one of them.
Mark

2009 Aug – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents – Complaint Summary: Nuisance, Breach of Contract, Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Prima Facie Tort of Willful Conduct, Negligence, Negligence Per Se, Unfair Business Practices, Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

2009-08-26 – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents
Case Number: 30-2009-00125333
Plaintiffs 1-XX vs. Hollydale Uppertier/Operating LP
Status: Plaintiffs Won Civil Lawsuit (Researching)
Damages Awarded: (Researching)

2009 Jan – How can they even consider raising our space rent when most residents are already paying space rent well in excess of $1,000.00 per month and now, if their increase is anything like mine, they will be paying almost $200.00 per month more on April 1st. For an owner to increase space rent immediately after we came so dangerously close to losing our homes to the wildfires is unconscionable! It is especially egregious when the management breached their to duty to the homeowners by failing to maintain and/or remove trees, weeds and overgrowth in and around the park, and this breach, if not the direct cause, certainly exacerbated the risk of our park going up like a tinderbox. The rents in this park are already so high that it is virtually impossible to sell our homes. So if you can’t sell your home and you can’t afford to pay the increased rent, you certainly won’t have the money to move your mobile home to another park, so the end result will be the loss your home to the mobile home park.
dakosgirl

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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).

2019 Mar – No management, owners show up once a month to collect rents, clubhouse is ALWAYS closed, no services, no employees. DO NOT LIVE HERE. Sierra Corporate Management gives slumlords a bad name. Drug dealers in the park, homeless breaking into vacant park owned units management/owners do not care. They want your rent check, they raise the rent at least $40 every year and supply no services, period. WORST PLACE I HAVE EVER LIVED. Run! Run away from this place! Dreadful. The people who gave low star ratings are correct, the newer people who gave higher star ratings just haven't been here long enough to see the true picture. Miss Kelly quit last month, like the 8 or 10 other managers in the past 4 years. No management at this park at all now. NONE! No one can work for this slime ball company. No one should live on their properties. Google Sierra Corporate Management, look until you find the lawsuits against them for improprieties and bad business practices that they have been sued for and LOST their cases. RUN! Run away from Sierra Corporate Management and all their properties.

Otherwise, have a great day, just don't try to do it here. So many people moving out. So many vacant units here. They are trying to sell "totaled" units without disclosing they were missing entire sides of the homes that non licensed people replaced poorly. That says enough right there. Even the part time employees are bailing out and leaving. Again, have a great day, unless you work for or are an owner at SCM. They should just throw a U in the middle of that acronym for their name "SCUM" would be appropriate instead of SCM. Good day!
Mark

2018 Apr – Manager is a horrible, horrible lady. Her harassment of the elderly is the definition of elder abuse. She harasses the elderly so much that they sell and move or are pushed out and forced to give up their home. She told one lady that if she continued to feed the stray cats, she would be kicked out. That she would have to either move her home or sell it or lose it. The Department of Adult Protective Services should really be investigating this lady and the company that employs her.
C. C.

2016 Mar – I am a calm and a peaceful person. I love all my jobs and give 100%. This company wanted to teach me how to do illegal sales. I told them that let’s fix the homes and then sell them but this statement offended them and I ended up being the bad employee. Legally we are supposed to have a Property Manager, Assistant Manager and a full time Maintenance person. Instead, I was the only Property Manager there and we had a part time porter (not maintenance). As me being a great employee, I continued working there and doing 3 person’s jobs all by myself. I know I was learning and, learning is the key to success. I will find a better job and be successful as I am a hard worker and a leader.
Onsite Community Manager (Former Employee)

2015 Oct – This park was bought out by predatory owners who intend to make it a family park or joint senior/family duel income park. To do this, current seniors with low fixed incomes will have to go. To do this, the space rent from January 2015 through December 2015 was raised 79.00 and on January 1, 2016 another 79.00. This will continue until all fixed income seniors are priced out of the park, their homes foreclosed on by park owners or abandoned on site. This is their agenda – beware!
Sharon D.

2015 May – The management is horrible. They are abusing the elderly by lack of management. They refuse to fix the SMUD fuse boxes which are legally their responsibility not the homeowners. Therefore, mobile homeowners are having to pay out of pocket and are being denied when trying to take it off the rent. The residents are being threatened with fines and evictions for the most tedious of things. Meanwhile, they have trailered in 4-5 broken, beaten up, uninhabitable homes that are extremely unsightly and are drawing the homeless to drink and sleep in them. I’ve called the police on several occasions about vagrants canvassing the neighborhood late at night. The new owners got rid of the security for whatever reason and this is no longer a safe feeling place. The manager never answers the phone or returns phone calls. Matter of fact they’re never even in the office. They do not care about the residents.
B. K.

2015 Apr – Do not buy here. Property was bought by Sierra Corporate Management and they raised the rent immediately to $675 with nothing included. They force out seniors who can no longer pay the rent and take their homes after they evict them. Rent then will increase 6% per year until you’re paying $950 after 5 years. Look them up. Sierra Corporate Management. These no good THIEVES are bad news. They have been doing this stuff for years and have been taken to court many times. They also own Emerald Meadows. RUN AWAY NOW!
Kayo S.

2017 Jul – This neighborhood has become a horrible place to live. Management knows and doesn't enforce its own rules and regulations, or law. It is even becoming dangerous. Between a half and a third of the spaces here are empty or for sale, or don't have a home on the space. People have been found breaking into and squatting in these abandoned mobile homes. I am saddened to see my home being slowly destroyed.
Karyn H.

2015 Feb – But now, with $1,700 rent, more and more people are finding they can’t afford their rent, and they are trying to sell their homes. However, the homes won’t sell because the rent is too high. Since they can’t sell, residents are walking away from their homes, and this park is receiving more and more foreclosures than ever before. Because of all the foreclosures, mortgage companies have "gotten the word," and are refusing to loan to buyers in this park.
Elaine S.

2017 Nov – We have lived here just 3 years. We were told by the previous manager that signing a 25-year lease would help protect us on rent increases. We have gotten yearly increases of $40 per year. Our income has not changed since we moved here. I think about all the other seniors in this park who are on fixed incomes! Nothing ever improves on park grounds. The office/clubhouse is run down and our driveways are in bad shape, there are dead trees on properties. It's impossible to sell because corporate approval for new resident qualifications are high! More than half of current residents would not qualify under these standards! We've had qualified buyers who could have easily paid rent but past credit/bankruptcy disqualified them as residents. Corporate needs to look at our demographic/local small town economy/housing crisis and understand this is not like other cities in higher populated areas. Yes this location is great, but if you do not drive it's not walkable with these steep hills for roads to walk on, so location is not a selling point! Horrible management! Very unprofessional cussing at residents yelling/fighting with spouse! Friends/family hired as help. Can't wait to get out of here!

2015 Nov – If you are ever considering about buying a home here, “DON’T”. The management is so piss poor, they should not even have one. Things are always broken down or out of order. The management company is only out for your hard earned money and don’t give a rat’s ass about your well being. So if you want the worst experience of your adult life, by all means move in here. They never inform you about any work that is being done that will inconvenience you. Just so you know, I have lived here for about 5 years and there have been 4 different managers in that time, and the most current one is the worst. Good luck to you!
Sam T.

2008 Oct – About 100 residents of the Olympia Glade Mobile Home Park in Glenbrook Basin filled the City Council chambers Tuesday night, insisting council members do something about impending rate increases from Sierra Corporate Management.

‘The rents were too high and that’s when we got involved,’ said City Administrator Dan Holler. ‘For renters, anything will be too much and to the owners, it won’t be enough,’ he said.

‘Things have gone to hell,’ said resident Bob Dunn to the council. ‘Are you willing to give us help?’

Councilman Dan Miller said he would. ‘When I see a senior being skinned by someone at the corporate level, it makes me sickened,’ Miller said. ‘We’ll work our (tails) off to see you’re not skinned.’
TheUnion.com

2017 Mar – We own a manufactured home in Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park. We purchased it 3 years ago and after fixing up the house we learned that the park was sold to new owners and now they want to keep increasing the land lease upon sale. They have already increased the lease price from the original $1,200 to $1,900. We purchased the property with the intention of fixing it up and selling it. Now we are faced with no buyers willing to pay the lease cost. Is there anything we can do?

2017 Feb – When being approved by the park for residency, I had no choice but to sign a 25 year lease. I cannot transfer that lease to a new buyer. New buyers must pay $1,800 a month with a 6.0% increase every following year. It’s making it an impossibility to sell the home! I cannot afford to continue living here but have found that they have given me no way to get out of it short of turning the mobile home over to them or asking them to purchase it for a ridiculously low price. They have made it almost impossible for anyone to buy in here based on the income requirements and several other areas. I want desperately to find a way to fight them but I cannot financially afford to do it alone!

2016 Aug – Kort & Scott Financial Group (KSFG) purchased Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park in 2012 for $25,400,000 (Fannie Mae ARM).

In January 2006, space rents were advertised at $500 per month. In January 2013, space rents were advertised at $1,000 per month. As of August 2016, mobile home space rents are now advertised at $1,900 per month, that's a 90% increase in three (3) years and a 280% increase in ten (10) years.

Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park was a senior park at the time of the KSFG purchase. Prospective mobile home buyers are expected to prove income of 3x the current space rent which equals $5,700.
System Administrator

Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park, Space 188 - Lot Rent: $1,908

2015 Sep – Rancho Huntington’s owner is mobile home industry mogul Kort & Scott Financial Group (KSFG), which operates hundreds of parks throughout the country. Through Sierra Corporate Management, it attempted to convert Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park into an all-ages community in 2013, a common tactic to drive out seniors and make more money off newer, better-off tenants. But the city created a "senior park overlay" in March 2014 that prevents the conversion of all 10 of Huntington Beach’s current senior parks into all-ages parks.

At Rancho Huntington, Kort & Scott Financial Group (KSFG) has raised rents to match the expected conversion. HOA treasurer Pat Taylor has seen her rent increase $350 in two years. Fellow HOA member Barbara Rocha’s lease allows $200 increases for two years, with $89 increases three years thereafter. As with El Nido in San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Huntington residents were offered 25-year leases riddled with potential rent increases while promising little protection. After a back-and-forth between Sierra Corporate Management and the Rancho Huntington HOA, the periodic rent increase was shelved, with residents settling for an annual 7 percent rent increase for now.

While several residents would like to leave, they’re stuck in what Rocha calls a "hostage situation." Not only are rents dramatically increasing, but many other mobile home parks have ratcheted up move-in qualifications over the past decade; for instance, Kort & Scott Financial Group (KSFG) requires prospective tenants to prove they make three times the monthly rent at Rancho Huntington. "How many retired people do you know that bring in $5,400 a month as income?" HOA president Bruce Binder asks.
OC Weekly

2014 Jun – In the past, and hopefully in the future, I would have given Rancho Huntington Mobile Home Park five gold stars. However, in the recent past the park has been purchased by a large corporation (Kort & Scott Financial Group) that is attempting to change us over from a senior park to an all age park. As many of our neighbors did, we purchased our mobile home with the intention of living here until we died and leaving our home to our son and his family. The management company (Sierra Corporate Management) has not made any attempt to resolve this situation or even discuss it with the current residents. This has long been a quiet and serene mobile home park where many members of Orange County’s older community have been happy to spend their retirement years. With the possibility of families with children moving into the park, the quiet enjoyment of our park, including the swimming pool, the billiards room, the workout room, the laundry facilities, etc. will be lost. There will be a lot of noise and children riding bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, and other children’s toys throughout the days. Those who are disabled and/or sick will not be able to relax and take a nap in the afternoon. Huntington Beach City Council is attempting to assist the residents in their attempt to keep RHMHP a senior park, but only time will tell.
Annie B.

2014 Apr – Horrible ownership, I wouldn’t ask someone to live in this park. I would ask for something to be done on a property that we rent, then the company will not send a letter or a phone call back, I have waited over two years. So many people leave due to the rent rises fast. Don’t be suckers on making a choice you will regret. Staff at the park are nice and do great work. Owners (Kort & Scott Financial Group) seem to be the Spawn of Satan. They have no idea how to run a good business. This is my warning.
Mark S.

2017 Feb – On Thu, Feb 16, 2017, 90+ residents from Reseda Mobile Homes filed a Civil Lawsuit (Case No: LC105272) against the Kort & Scott companies that own the park including Sierra Corporate Management. James C. Allen of ASK Law Group is the attorney/law firm representing the residents.

This is a new Civil Lawsuit filing and there are no documents available online yet. The MHPHOA will be monitoring the progress of this lawsuit and will post additional information as it becomes available.

Congratulations to the residents of Reseda Mobile Homes and kudos to the boots on the ground group who helped make this happen!
Lawsuits Against Kort & Scott Companies

2018 Nov – I was evicted from my mobile home in Rio Vista Mobile Estates in Anaheim. I lost everything and still can't recover from this loss. I paid cash in full for my mobile home and never received my title. I asked over and over for it and 2 years later they came at me with a bill for unpaid taxes and when I couldn't pay that they refused my rent. I fought that and a month later they claimed to have not received my rent. I spent everything I inherited on this home, fixing it up, and ended up on the streets with my family. I have a special needs child and this was devasting to all of us! My name is on your list of evictions, I would love to be able to fight these disgusting people that ruined my life!

2018 Mar – Whatever you do, never come here. Waste of money. Worse place to live. Tweakers everywhere. They will steal your things right from your porch and management won't do nothing. The TO' and MO' Towing company is always on the lookout for cars not parked right. Even if it's in front of your home with the doors or trunk open, they'll close it for you and take your car then charge you. You've been warned.

2017 May – I am a current resident and can say that the management here SUCKS! Unprofessional, rude and unethical. They charge way too much to live here. My advice… keep looking, do not allow them to cheat you as we are being cheated.
Cindy L.

2014 Nov – The park owner is not signing the lease the new owners signed to allow me to close Escrow. The park owner has now held up my Escrow by one full week. I am hiring an attorney and suing - this should never had happened.
Denise L.

2009 Aug – I also live in the Rio Vista Mobile Estates and the owners are outrageous. They continue to raise rents until you cannot pay, then if you are more than 15 days late with your rent, they refuse to accept your rent and take you to court to evict you. These people are crazy and everyone in one of their parks needs to get together to fight them.

2007 Mar – I live in Rio Vista Mobile Estates which happens to be the Corporate Office for Sierra Management aka Kort & Scott. Almost every park in O.C. and L.A. County has had problems with park rent and elimination of common areas and services. This is a corporation that loves controversy and is in the news constantly. I would not recommend moving into one of their owned parks.

2016 Sep – On Monday, March 19, 2015, Chair D. Ewing of the East Davis County Fire Protection District (EDCFPC) announced that a task force of nine (9) was being formed to investigate the questionable business practices of Sierra Corporate Management.

One year later, on Friday, March 25, 2016, The People of the State of California (Plaintiff) filed a Complaint for Injunction, Civil Penalties, and Other Equitable Relief against Davis Group LP, Sierra Corporate Management Inc, Western Ventures LP, Abraham Arrigotti and DOES 1 through 20 inclusive.

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016, The People of the State of California won a Final Judgment and obtained an Injunction against Davis Group LP and Western Ventures LP.
System Administrator

INJUNCTION

Pursuant to California Business and Professions Code sections 17203 and 17535, Defendants, and all partners, officers, directors, employees, agents, franchisees, contractors, affiliates, employees whose duties include any of the matters covered by the injunctive provisions and their successors and assigns, are permanently enjoined and restrained from directly or indirectly engaging in any of the following acts or practices in or from California:
Lawsuits Against Kort & Scott Companies

2015 Mar – Mobile home parks run by Sierra Corporate Management have become a statewide problem because of highly questionable business practices and management. A task force, including District 4, the District Attorney, Yolo County Housing Authority, Legal Services of Northern California, the CAO, the Assessor, the Sheriff, the State Department of Housing and Community Development, and County Counsel, has been formed at Yolo County to investigate and respond. The County BOS office is receiving many calls from the residents in the Royal Oaks Mobile Home Park because of hazardous fire conditions, title issues, allegations of fraudulent business practices, and units in ill repair.
Chair D. Ewing – East Davis County

2014 Sep – Royal Oaks appears to be a very poorly managed mobile home park. Law abiding residents are at financial and physical risk. This is extremely disturbing, as many low income families reside there. I am working with justice and law enforcement to explore solutions. Based on information that I’ve received over the last several weeks, this week’s raid brings to light just one example of a complex set of issues in Royal Oaks that may well demand a legal remedy.
Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza

2013 Jun – There is a reason why the managers change so often. They have the worst job on the planet. The owners are crooks! I lived there for 5 years. When I moved I sold my mobile home to the owners. I was unable to find a buyer. Legally they have 90 days to transfer ownership and be registered with HCD and the Yolo County Tax collector. It has been 4 years! I am still being charged for property taxes!
Katie L.

2013 Feb – Do not do buy a mobile home or rent an RV space here. Do not do business with Sierra Corporate Management, the company that owns this park. Don’t rent from them, don’t work for them, if you see their name run screaming in the other direction. They will lie to you and then screw you because you believed the lies. If you must rent anything from them, get everything in writing, signed and dated - and I do mean everything. If it’s not signed, dated and in writing, it is a lie and if you believe it, you will get screwed.
Lisa W.

2012 Oct – The business practices of the park are still grotesquely unfair (and possibly illegal) to residents who’ve been around a while and especially for those who need to sell their homes. It seems that the business model is based upon driving people out by escalating individual rents to a absurdly high level and making it impossible for private owners to resell their units. So then the park acquires the mobile homes by default for the cost of a few legal fees. Then they are able to turn around and resell the units for cheap, undercutting private home owners, reinforcing the crooked cycle.
livegreen

2007 Nov – I live in a park in Davis, CA where the residents are being driven out by Kort & Scott and Arrigotti. They operate the park so people can’t sell or even give away their mobile homes. After they are abandoned the park takes them over. This behavior is illegal but they are getting away with it. No one in Government is interested in enforcing the Mobile Home Residency Laws or health and safety codes. Park management has even made people get rid of children’s playground toys in their yards and have taken away handicapped residents parking in front of their house. Difficult to comprehend people this evil but the evidence is obvious.
More Victims

Yolo County District Attorney Press Release

2016 Sep – This park is a joke. I lived here for quite a few years and the rent has gone up 60%. Can't afford to move, and all these parks around here won’t except older homes. And the “PARK SHARK” manager or I like to call her the “Devil’s Advocate”, she has to live with a lot of good people losing their homes on her conscience. Don’t move here, it will be the worst mistake ever.

2016 Jul – My friends live here. There is practically no parking for residents, let alone guests. The management screws you over by upping the lot rate over and over. My friends own their home but they can’t move it to another location because it is 10 years old, even though it is in excellent condition. The only place that they could move it to would be if they had their own piece of property, so that means out of LA County.
Becki L.

2016 Jun – Paul Masminster lives in Gardena at Royal Western Mobile Home Park, a Kort & Scott owned park. He has been an advocate for mobile home owners for over sixteen (16) years. Paul is the past Vice President of COMO-CAL, helped form the South Bay Alliance with Frank Wodley and Scott Hoaby, and is working with COMO-CAL to help form regional groups.

Paul has spearheaded the fight against his mobile home park management company, Kort & Scott aka Sierra Corporate Management, on such issues as sewer spills, electric issues, water drainage, overall maintenance of the mobile home park and high rents under the HOA name Save Our Souls.

2016 May – Just Google Sierra Corporate Management who runs the park and the owners who own this property. It will show you the list of scams they have done to the people who have moved here. I feel bad for the people that live here including me. I can't wait to f***ing leave.
Mayra V.

2016 Jan – The most incompetent, expensive and corrupt mobile home park anywhere. We had nothing but trouble in that hellhole. We rented for a month and could not get away from there fast enough. They never returned our deposit of $750, no reasons given. Management, and their corporate office do not return calls. Onsite management has no authority (is too dumb to walk upright) IMO, and doesn't know or understand how the place is supposed to be run. She could not add, nor subtract even numbers to prorate. We were moving to California. We signed up, they asked for a bank statement to make sure we could afford $750 per month. I later found out management told tenants and friends our bank balances. I could not believe it. Many residents have lawsuits in effect, already won huge amounts, and we just filed suit. These people need to be in prison for what they do to tenants. The state of California has a warning on their website warning of bad practices. That ought to tell you a lot! The rent, I heard, is now $1,600 per month plus all utilities and all you get is noise, dirt, nasty, dumb, rude and corrupt management with a pompous attitude. Stay away!
E M G

Dec 2015 – This is an information request sampling of ten (10) Unlawful Detainer Lawsuits, for one (1) of thirty-one (31) mobile home parks, owned by a KSFG named business entity and managed by Sierra Corporate Management.
Unlawful Detainer Lawsuits

2014 Aug – Civil Lawsuit Won by Residents Case Number: YC066308, PLAINTIFF, ET AL VS. ROYAL WESTERN, L.P., Filing Date: 01/13/2012, Case Type: Other PI/PD/WD (General Jurisdiction), Status: Other 08/28/2014
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

2012 Jan 13 – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents
Case Number: YC066308
Plaintiffs 1-XX vs. Royal Western, L.P.
Filing Date: 2012-01-13
Case Type: Other PI/PD/WD (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Plaintiffs 1-XX Won Civil Lawsuit on August 28, 2014
Damages Awarded: $1,700,000+

2014 Apr – Kort and Scott is an atrocious company. Their business practices are ruthless. They use bait and switch tactics with their mobile home parks, and do not have proper maintenance performed in the parks. Basically, they squeeze homeowners out of their homes by continuously upping the rents until the homeowner cannot afford space rent and their house payment. Can you imagine paying almost $1,600 per month on space rent for a 900 square foot 1960s mobile home?
Karla A.

2014 Mar – I agree with everyone, someone does need to put a stop to them, the rent increases are insane in all the parks. Drita Bronkey, you will pay someday with everything you do. You sell crappy homes to people that have no papers just to take their money. I live in Royal Western Mobile Home Park in Gardena and oh boy, people hate her here. Abe Arrigotti, you are influenced by Drita, no question about it. Someone needs to stop these two monsters.
Clara

2014 Jan – Decent enough park, terrible ownership! The park raises space rents of the owners of the homes who did not purchase directly from them. Those owners were never allowed to begin space rent at a low level, having to take over the space rent from previous owners. Then the rent is hiked repeatedly (for instance a 50 year old single, remodeled is now paying a total of $1600 rent/utilities). The owners cannot sell to anyone because the buyers would have to take up the owner's space rent. If the potential buyer purchases a home directly from the park, that buyer can begin space rent at $800. As can be seen, it leaves the owners who bought through individuals in a bind until sometimes abandonment of the property is the only feasible option, since especially an older home cannot be moved. Then the park takes over ownership, sells the home to some happy person who pays a normal space rent to the park with incremental rate hikes. The park owners receive huge rents, and basically steal the homes they did not sell, in order to make huge profits! It is horrible and leaves hard working families stressed and without homes to live in.
Karla A.

2013 Aug – What is outrageous is the SPACE RENT! If you purchase a mobile home directly from the park then the space rent begins low. If you purchase from an individual seller then you take over their space rent and the rent goes up, up, and up. The owners of the mobile home cannot sell their homes because no one in their thinking mind would take over such a huge space rent. In effect, the park tries to squeeze out the owners of the home so that they can no longer afford space rent and thus the home OWNED by the individual is basically given to the park. I smell a rat here, don't you? My kids are currently paying $1,600 per month after living here two years!
Karla A.

2006 Dec – Civil Lawsuit Won by Residents Case Number: BC316282, PLAINTIFF, ET AL VS. ROYAL WESTERN, ET AL, Filing Date: 05/28/2004, Case Type: Other PI/PD/WD (General Jurisdiction), Status: Other 12/12/2006
Kort & Scott Financial Group Lawsuits

2004 May 28 – Civil Lawsuit Filed by Residents
Case Number: BC316282
Plaintiffs 1-50 vs. Royal Western, L.L.C.
Filing Date: 2004-05-28
Case Type: Other PI/PD/WD (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Plaintiffs 1-XX Won Civil Lawsuit on December 12, 2006
Damages Awarded: $1,300,000+

2012 Jul – These guys are the worst. First, the manager just sits around all day and does nothing. Guess she got fired. A new manager is put in place and instead of introducing herself to the people who live here, she starts messing with the tenants. We have a cat who is licensed and the park knows about it. So the park decides to call the dog/cat catcher and round up all the cats in the park. I don't know about you but an animal in my house is like a family member. Not to mention that they took his bowls off the porch like they owned them. This place totally sucks and as soon as I'm able, I'm outta here. But I continue to warn people looking at the places for sale here.
James S.

2016 Mar – I just can’t buy into the fact that these people are being gouged this way, and I think it’s time that we send a letter articulating some of the grievances that we are seeing. I recognize that it’s a black hole, but when you look at this kind of abuse, they have two choices: They can pay it, or they can lose the little they have in a mobile home. That’s all they have. They have nothing else.
Councilwoman Laurene Weste

2016 Jan – Seniors are a very special class of people that are on fixed incomes, don’t have the ability to run out and get a job to support their families. And, if the net result is that park owners take ownership of a park and then raise the rents at such a rapid rate that the seniors cannot afford to live in their homes in Santa Clarita, then I will tell you there is a special place in hell reserved for you.
Councilman TimBen Boydston

Residents from Sierra Mobile Home Park in Santa Clarita, California which was purchased by KSFG in October 2015 and is now managed by SCM.

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 1

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 2

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 3

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 4

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 5

Santa Clarita City Council Meeting - Resident Speaker 6

2019 Apr – The new manager in Starlight Mobile Home Park is very rude and is always trying to find a way to ruin your privacy and freedom. All of the unnecessary rules she gives out. She takes pictures of me and my car for parking on my property in the space that I own. It is not fair. Sometimes I feel harassed because she wants everything to be done as soon as you're told. If you don't do as you're told she will take pictures and not even give you five minutes to do what she told you to do. She ignores you when you're trying to communicate with her on the action she was taking. I have been trying to get ahold of the owner of the mobile home park. I feel like I am not the only one who feels this way. I feel like I live in a prison and I have to be aware of everything that I am doing or else she will come driving around in her golf cart trying to figure out a way to piss you off after a long stressful day at work. Coming home should be a relaxing feeling and stress free but instead, I come home to her constant nagging and creating problems with all her residents.
Rosemaggie A.

Ametek Granted Partial Judgment in Alleged Ground Contamination Case

2018 May – The owners of mobile home parks were not able to immediately claim compensatory damages after they alleged a nearby facility dumped toxic waste on its property.

The court stated that Ametek pointed out the plaintiff Greenfield MHP Associates LP, et al. are not allowed to be rewarded compensatory damages grounded on any potential remediation costs for the future. The district court decided the case will proceed under the notion that if the plaintiffs do win at trial when it comes to Ametek’s alleged liability, the district court will move forward with the new information in mind.

The legal issues between the parties began after the mobile home parks' owners filed a lawsuit against Ametek and Senior Operations LLC after a manufacturing facility allegedly contaminated the ground after it released toxic chemicals, including more than 500,000 gallons of liquid waste into the soil and water by 2003. The plaintiffs allege a plume extended beyond the facility's boundaries and contaminated soil and groundwater under the mobile home parks. An expert pointed out that if the plume was not remediated, it could impact the plaintiffs' properties for 185 years, the court's decision states.
Charmaine Little / Northren California Record

El Cajon Toxic Plume Still a Problem for Mobile Home Residents

2018 Feb – Ana Hayes moved into her home at the Starlight Mobile Home Park in El Cajon in 1969. It’s where she raised her three children, and it’s where she and her husband still live.

Hers is one of the 457 mobile homes that sits above a toxic groundwater plume that residents first learned about in October 2016, though state officials and the company responsible for the contamination knew about it in the late 1980s.

So far, 151 homes in the Starlight, Greenfield and Villa Cajon mobile home parks have been tested, and 63 more are expected to be tested this year.

Lawsuits Filed Against Ametek

The lawsuits allege that Ametek “knowingly, willfully and intentionally failed” to stop the contamination from spreading and possibly affecting nearby homes and businesses. Fiske told inewsource one of the primary goals of the lawsuits is to provide medical monitoring for the people living and working on the plume who may have been exposed to TCE.

Last year, Ametek asked the court to hold the owners of the mobile home parks liable along with Ametek. The company said the owners knew about the contamination and never told the residents. The judge ruled against Ametek.
Ingrid Lobet / inewsource

2016 Oct – On Thu, Oct 20, 2016, an article was published in inewsource regarding a toxic plume of TCE (Trichloroethylene) reaching beneath mobile homes. The article mentions a mobile home park in El Cajon, California but no specifics are provided.

The MHPHOA investigated further and it appears that two (2) Kort & Scott owned mobile home parks are affected; Starlight Mobile Home Park and Greenfield Mobile Home Estates. Both mobile home parks have mobile homes that are within the 1,000 μg/liter contour (third inner blue border). No action and little testing have taken place there – until now. Here are some key snippets from the article…

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control issued a notification Thursday, October 6, 2016 after a contractor tested soil there and found TCE levels that left no doubt further testing should be done.

We collected data near the mobile homes along the property boundary and concentrations were detected at 5 feet below ground surface that are at level that may result in what we consider a significant risk to residents,” said Shahir Haddad, a supervising engineer for DTSC.

Several people at the mobile park said they’ve not been told that the plume runs under their homes. Most did not want to give their names.

Residents at the mobile park will be told of the testing results. The county water board is arranging a location and time, the agency’s Sean McClain said in an email.
Toxic Plume in El Cajon Reaches Beneath Kort & Scott Mobile Homes

2016 Oct – Lived here for three months, bought the home, new manager came on and runs the place like a concentration camp, beware do not buy here, if I had the chance to do it over I would.
Fredrick S.

2016 Sep – This place sucks. They will just end up raising the rent and taking possession of the home once you cant afford the space rent. The people who live here are on drugs. Everyone please don't move in here. They will get over on you.
Jason L.

2016 Sep – I was buying a unit in one of their San Diego Parks called Starlight Mobile Home Park in El Cajon and the manager Manny forced me to sign a lease before I signed escrow papers. The escrow fell through two days later and 1 month later nobody knows where my refund check is, no one picks up the phone or returns calls after I’ve left numerous messages. I was told to speak to somebody named Drita Bronkey and she doesn’t even exist on their company directory. I had a Sheriff’s Deputy go out to speak to Manny the park manager and he wouldn’t talk to them. They are very shady. Do not deal with this company.
Susan S.

2016 Jun – I give this park a negative star. This park is so ghetto, loud neighbors, lots of crime. New owners (Kort & Scott Financial Group) changed it into a family park. This place is a dump, the new families that have bought homes in here are the SCUM of the earth! We are talking the trashiest, dirtiest, vulgar people you could ever imagine. Stay away! This is Elder Abuse in the highest form! Management (Sierra Corporate Management) is worthless. The new owners are criminals.
Stuckin T.

2016 Jan – At present Starlight Mobile Home Park is a Corporate Park Slum with units that have massive problems; overhaul heaters that according to SDG&E have limited time remaining, swamp coolers that are failing, termite damage, a park with an electrical system that is unable to support new units. Manufactured homes with all the bells and whistles and the State of California Department of Toxic Substances Control Southern California Region working to stop toxic chemicals from flowing through the ground under the park toward Gillespie Airfield. Starlight Mobile Home Park has become the Chicago West version of Shameless. Once again, another reviewer has written; RUN, RUN FAST and HARD from Sierra Corporate Management, it's not for the weak or elderly, and Starlight Mobile Home Park is a slum.
Aj G.

2016 Jan – Been here awhile. No longer a senior park. Pets allowed, $350/dog space rent, just the space is $1100/month. Many vacant units, good prices, however, the units are old and unmaintained. One example is a 50-year old unit for $27,000/make an offer. Many up for sale, get an inspection if you want to purchase. New management since April 2015, place has gone downhill since then. No real maintenance, parking can be crazy, gardeners are gardeners in name only. Park rules are not enforced. If you buy, you are responsible for taking care of the outside, if you have an outside. No, I cannot say move here, there must be better out there.

2015 Dec – New owners (Kort & Scott Financial Group) suck. They are turning the park into a family park. We rented here because it was a 55+ park. Now we have a screaming brat living next door. Rents were increased $99 per month, and owner's space rent went up $150 per month.

2015 Sep – We lived at Starlight Mobile Home Park from September of 2013 until August of 2015. We were happy enough there that we planned to buy a manufactured home in the park in May of 2015. While we were in escrow the previous owner sold the park to Sierra Corporate Management. The new owners refused to honor the rent we were quoted from the previous owner, they raised the space rent $175 per month.

2015 Aug – We moved out of Starlight Mobile Home park in El Cajon (owned by Sierra Corporate Management) in August 2015. We have not received our deposit refund which was due 21 days after we moved out. Company will not communicate with us, refers us to Park Manager who can't get any answers from them.

2015 Jun – I have a friend who has been living at Tustin Village MHP for quite some time. They are getting on in years and are having trouble coming up with the $1,600 per month space rent. I’m not familiar with Mobile Home Parks and was hoping you could help shine some light. Their rent has gone up from $500 to now $1,600 during the time they've been there. My friend is on a fixed income and most of it now goes towards the rent.

2014 Dec – Do not buy or live here. Space rent is ridiculous and the place is dirty. And, if you ever want to sell your place you will not be able to do that and the park will end up keeping it and reselling it and making money on your behalf.
Lily P.

2014 Nov – Veteran Walks Away from $125,000 Mobile Home – Reasons for Vacating

1. The overall condition of the park along with the quality of life have deteriorated considerably since I purchased my mobilehome here in September 2006. This process appears to have begun at the time of the Leasehold Rights purchase by Kort & Scott in January 2005 and has accelerated after the conversion to a Family Park in 2007.

2. Past and ongoing lack of, and failure to, enforce the Tustin Village MHP Rules and Regulations. Items: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 22, 27, 29, 31 and 34. I’ve estimated 100+ Title 25, HCD, and MRL Violations, well beyond the average. Information obtained from the MPM-PI Violation Booklet, Title 25 and the MRL.

3. Park Management itself continues to violate the Tustin Village MHP Rules and Regulations, specifically item number 7 regarding Accessory Equipment, Structures and Appliances, Section B, Sub-Section 8, Item (a) which states (a) Only new, not used, mobilehomes are permitted.
Veteran Walks Away from $125,000 Mobile Home – Reasons for Vacating

2014 Jul – Buyers beware. Tustin Village MHP is a poorly managed park. The property management company, Sierra Corporate Management is an unorganized mess. They are putting in old homes and covering them up with pressboard and not doing the proper repairs. The land lease is scheduled to expire on April 30, 2017 which means if the land lease is not renewed, you will be out of luck, and out of a home.
Evelyn T.

2014 Jun – I've watched many people forced out of their mobile homes by skyrocketing rent costs. New tenants are expected to pay $1,600.00 per month space rent in addition to any mortgage payment they may have for their mobile home. Rent goes up approximately $80.00 per month every year (May) like clockwork. Meanwhile, surrounding mobile home parks are under $1,000 for space rent and are much nicer with much higher property values. I've watched more than a handful of people just walk away from their properties. I've watched the elderly, folks on fixed incomes, forced out of their homes. The rent keeps going up and the property values keep going down.
Edward L.

2007 Jun – Since 2004 the seniors of Tustin Village in Orange County have begged their city council for relief from the economic oppression of K&S. Their cries are still ignored. Tustin Village was recently converted to all-age. Space rent is $950 per month, perfectly good homes sell for as little as $500 - and, as they have every week for the past year, Catholic Charities delivers food to prevent homeowners from starving. The only thing Lee Kort and Michael Scott care about is their bottom line. When K&S purchases a community they immediately escalate space rent, reduce amenities, eliminate services, and cut operating expenses to the absolute minimum. California Mobilehome Residency Law mandates that a reduction in amenities or services requires a reduction in rent. You won't get one from Kort and Scott.
The Press – Guest Comment

2018 Nov – I have lived in Vista Diablo Mobile Estates for 19 years. I've seen the rent go up to the point that it is so expensive now, a lot of people are selling and moving out of their homes. The property management does not care about seniors at all. They let the park go to pieces. No security, a lot of break-ins, a lot of things stolen, it's very sad. I love my home and I love my neighbors but, property management doesn't care for us at all. They like to play games with us, one minute they say they're going to make it an All Age Park, and then now it can stay a Senior Park. Then they wonder why so many people get upset and move. I really hope someday that we can get rent control so people can live here and be able to afford it. I see so many neighbors that can't afford it and they have a choice of paying the rent or not eating, that's sad, really sad.
Ivy O.

2015 Oct – Upper management said that they can do anything they want and that’s pretty much the way they run the place. They don’t listen to the tenants, they just do whatever they please and if you try to get anything done, they’re going to try to find some reason to evict you.

Good luck and I hope you find a good park that is well managed and has an ownership that doesn’t feel like they’re omnipotent. Oh, and by the way, the other review that they didn’t publish was absolutely correct, the corporate office does interfere with the sale of homes that they are not selling themselves.
James S.

2014 Apr – Vista Diablo Mobile Home Park Antioch, California, is a senior park and the rent is so high right now, it is so hard for seniors to pay $1,000 a month, we are on fixed incomes. The park owners make it very hard for us to sell our homes. They keep changing their price of their rent. They make deals on their homes they bought. They offer people to buy them and give them an incoming rent of $700 for two years and then they will be moved up to $1,000 a month. All the other parks in this area are at $700. I don't know how they get away this. This seems to be elder abuse. When residents put their homes up for sale the park doesn't make a deal on the rent, it's up and down. Until the families get tired of it and they end up selling it to the park for around $8,000 and then the park turns around and sells it for more and makes a profit. We need help to stop these people from ripping us off. My neighbor passed away five months ago. The park has made them lose five sales on the home because of their rent issue. Please, someone help us with this.
Ivy O.

2013 Apr – We have been working with the park for over 3 months now in effort to sell a mobile home after the loss of a family member. Not only has their office manager consistently changed their story about the monthly rent and how it is determined, they have now caused confusion for potential buyers about the rent and stated that if they were to buy a home from them directly, they would receive a discount. I genuinely feel they are deliberately stopping us from being able to sell so we must forfeit it to them.
Robyn J.

2011 Jun – My mom lives in Vista Diablo Mobile Estates. She is 79, legally blind and when she first moved in there, she (stupidly) signed a 20 year lease, with 5% rent increases, that was 13 years ago. Now her rent is over $800 a month and they put notices on her door for her to pull weeds or she will be fined. They have never helped the seniors do anything. She has no family or friends in Antioch anymore. The management will not let her out the lease. The trailer they sold her has, and continues to be, a big money pit. Every 6-8 months she has to have a professional come out to level it, so she can open her doors, that is a cost of close to $1,000 every time. The trailer sits on dirt, not a concrete pad. This, over the years, has depleted her savings, and she is wishing she were dead. She has no bright outlook for her future, because her $$$ savings is almost gone. What are these people thinking? A senior gated community, they described it. It isn’t any of those, and the managers are lazy bums!

2009 May – I too live in a Kort and Scott mobile home park. Vista Diablo are the highest rents in Contra Costa County. I have had the not so great pleasure of meeting Kort and Scott’s henchman or should we call him big mouth Abe Arrigotti. These people don’t care about any of us. Currently we have 6 park owned homes because residents left them and 7 empty lots. We have been fighting these bastards for 3 years. Something has got to stop. If everyone of their parks would stand up maybe then we could put a stop to this. Kort and Scott and arrogant Abe are despicable human beings. While they count their millions we scrounge to come up with rent. And don’t be a day late or they will throw you on the street.

2007 Aug – Mr. Simonsen, I don’t understand why you think they should have more chances. This company has shown that they have no regard for elderly people. You should be considering filing charges for elderly abuse. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. These people are criminals. They are robbing us. They should be in jail. There should be laws against this. And you know that, all of you know that. At this point they are raping us, and people like you are allowing it to happen. And you should be seeing to it that it doesn’t happen. That’s what your job is.
The Press

2007 Jun – The council members expressed their outrage at what’s been going on. ‘It’s elder abuse, it’s terrorizing senior citizens - and it’s got to stop,’ said Mayor Don Freitas. ‘It just simply has to stop. I’m hopeful that the owners will truly sit down in good faith - because I think it’s only been bad faith - and truly negotiate with us.’ Councilman Arne Simonsen said, ‘When you look at the rents that are being charged (for just the land under the mobile home) this is obscene what they are doing. You’re paying a little less than what I pay for a mortgage on land with a house. That’s wrong, that’s totally wrong. I’m very mad at these folks. I think it’s wrong. It gives free enterprise a completely bad name.’ Councilman Jim Davis said, ‘I wanted to voice my total disdain to this management company for their insistence upon, in my mind, wreaking total havoc and discontent from the owners of the individual coaches in the park.’ Councilman Reggie Moore said, ‘I find this very troubling. I believe strongly in corporate responsibility.’ Neither the Vista Diablo owners, a company called Kort & Scott, nor the managers, Sierra Corporate Management represented by Abe Arrigotti, were in attendance at the meeting.

2007 Jun – Enough is enough. We have all tried to be extraordinarily patient. We have tried to be reasonable, be balanced and, frankly, to have the citizens that live in the mobile home park derive a benefit. We thought we did come to a resolution in January after some robust discussions between me and the city staff and Abe Arrigotti and the Sierra Management, as well as the two owners.

Clearly, the only time they engage is when there’s a possible action by the City Council that has some perceived or realized consequences to them. It’s almost as if the owners and the management company are terrorizing some of the seniors. And that’s what I find most unacceptable. There’s really no reason for it.

It’s not just about the money. There are people behind these figures. Some of you fought in our wars, some of you were police officers, some of you were teachers. You paid your price. You’re not asking to live there for free. You’re asking to live there for the rest of your life in peace and harmony, and you’re willing to pay a fair price, an equitable price.

Unfortunately, the owners and Sierra Management Corporation, that’s not their intent. It’s to squeeze every single penny out from you. Terrorism can take a lot of different methods. One is certainly physical. But the worst is to have to deal with financial uncertainty.

I think that we have been more than reasonable. I think our approach has been more than fair. I think we as a city have negotiated in good faith. I know I’m an elected official but my word is my bond. And I expect the same from anyone sitting across the table from me and negotiating. So I’m not interested in renegotiating or negotiating against myself.
Mayor Don Freitas, Antioch, California

2007 Jun – Freitas said city officials might look into sponsoring legislation in Sacramento making it a crime to do to senior citizens what has been done to the Vista Diablo residents. The council unanimously passed the 45-day ban on opening mobile home parks to all ages. If an agreement with the park owners is not reached in that time, the moratorium is expected to be extended for another 10½ months.

2007 Jan – The way this group (Sierra Corporate Management) has been conducting business has been slimy – and that’s being nice. From my perspective, nothing about this smells right. You have 70-plus-year-old seniors signing leases for 20 years or more with an automatic 6% increase in rent each year. How do you do that to someone on fixed income?
Councilman Brian Kalinowski – Antioch City Council

2006 Dec – Mayor Freitas expressed his concern regarding the business practices of Sierra Corporate Management and reported the management company had failed to agree to reasonable requests made by the city.

2006 Oct – Mayor Freitas stated he is willing to support rent control if necessary and voiced his support for a ten-year moratorium in which no discussion could take place regarding the conversion of the park to an all age facility. He noted that after the 10-year period changes could take place under a conditional use permit process. City Attorney Nerland stated the city could draft an agreement that is recorded on the property (Vista Diablo Mobile Estates) or require a conditional use permit for conversion.

2006 Oct – Councilmember Kalinowski voiced concern regarding conversion of the park to a family facility as well as excessive rents and rate increases. He stated he would be willing to consider the city purchasing the park from the property owners and noted he would also support a 10 year moratorium with a sunset followed by a requirement for a conditional use permit to pursue the conversion.

2006 Oct – Councilmember Conley suggested the sunset of the senior park be until the last current lease expires with future agreements disclosing that at that date the conversion may be considered. He stated he feels the property owner has an unfair business practice and leases should be rolled back to the amount at the date of expiration. He suggested future rate increases be based on half of the social security increases. He stated he would support staff review of the Concord model for the rent control ordinance. He spoke to a repossession that occurred and questioned why the owner did not receive the net equity after all expenses.

2019 Mar – The manager is inhumane and racist. Numerous residents complained of elderly abuse to them and her mother. I'm facing legal action with this company so I can't say much – just don't work there. Go on Yelp Reviews. Go in and talk to any resident because I guarantee ANY one of them will tell you the horror stories. Living/working there puts yourself in danger cause the manager has got many threats to do harm due to the treatment.
Indeed.com – Maintenance Technician (Former Employee) – Sacramento, California

2018 Feb – Listen to what others are saying. This is not a company you go to and be happy with what you do. And come on, it’s at least 8 eight hours of your day. This is one of those places that is good for those who can’t work with others and prefer to point the finger rather than take responsibility. If you’re someone who says to yourself “oh I can deal with that”, you very likely are one of those types of people. This is one of those places where you take the job because nothing else is coming along. But, you’re better than that, hold on until the right place comes along, and it will.
Indeed.com – Manager (Former Employee) – Anaheim, California

2016 Jun – Work hard for nothing. Corporate is out of state. You have full time maintenance supervisors that have been there years and years and don’t do anything. So I used to have to work at 2 different parks, most of the time by myself for a total of over 600 residents. Just to never get a raise and get paid $11 bucks a hour. Wasted my time there, and was underappreciated. Only good thing was health insurance was cheap, and great days off.
Indeed.com – Maintenance Supervisor (Former Employee) – Thornton, Colorado

2016 Apr – No advancement opportunity, low pay, and no good management that cares about employees at all. No good benefits, and very stressful to work, with little training provided.
Indeed.com – Administrative Assistant (Former Employee) – Anaheim, California

2016 Feb – Sierra Corporate Management took over 3 years to transfer title of my mobile home to my name. They have interfered in a sale between me and a buyer, whom I have now lost because of them. They have also terminated my lease and are proceeding to take me to court to evict me and take my mobile home away from me. I would like to not pay rent for the space as the mobile home is unoccupied and they ruined my sale. I don’t want them to evict me and take my mobile home away, I need more time to sell it.
BBB Business Review

2015 Oct – I am in the process of purchasing a mobile home, the park manager refuses to accept the application. Although this is racially motivated my main reason for filing this complaint is due to the fact that the manager does not release any information regarding the owner or the management company. It appears as though the company is unlicensed and in no way on record for managing this property. I am a real estate broker and am fully aware of licensing laws, which include business cards brochures applications office and advertising material must included information from licensing and management. I have no way to file a complaint with the manager as Sierra Corporate Management’s website does not in anyway indicate they are the management company in charge of this mobile home park. Nor is there any information regarding licensing on their materials or website making it difficult for individuals to file a complaint. It appears that the homeowners of the park do not know who manages their park. I have also attempted to call at different hours with no one picking up or returning my calls.
BBB Business Review

2012 Dec – Operators such as Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS), Tatum & Kaplan Financial and Kort & Scott Financial/Sierra Management are today’s version of the Robber Barons, comparable to both the medieval feudal lords who collected unjust tolls from captive merchant ships along the Rhine river, and the 19th Century Industrialists who had so much money they could buy virtually unlimited power and influence. Attempts by homeowners to assert their rights usually prove futile against such adversaries that flaunt their near absolute power. The word "Vulture Capitalist" has been widely used in the media in recent days and while that term certainly applies to many community owners, a great number of them operate in an even more focused and predatory manner, targeting the elderly and others facing economic, physical or psychological challenges living in manufactured home communities.
Letter to LA City Councilmember

Mobile Home Parks Owned by Kort & Scott Companies