Westminster : New Lawsuit Challenges Trailer Park Rent Control

Another lawsuit challenging the city’s mobile home park rent-control ordinance was filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

The plaintiff in the latest suit is Willis L. Miller, owner of Los Alisos Mobile Home Park.

The 1981 ordinance allows rent increases only after arbitration with tenants. Miller is challenging the city’s authority to limit rent increases, a restriction that he says prevents him from earning a “just and reasonable return” on his property.

Miller previously filed several lawsuits on similar grounds, and all but one has been dismissed, said Westminster City Atty. Paul Morgan.

One of Miller’s earlier lawsuits held that the ordinance, which requires a kind of collective bargaining, was unconstitutional because it violated his rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

The rent-control law was the first city ordinance of its kind in the state.

It provides that each of the city’s 18 mobile home parks must have a five-member committee--made up of two tenants, two owner’s representatives and a fifth member approved by the other four--to decide on rent increases if a majority of the park tenants cannot.

If either side rejects the committee’s decision, the matter would go to a professional arbitrator, whose ruling would be final unless appealed to a court of law.