Mobile Home Tenants Reach Rent Accord

Residents of the Costa Mesa Aloha Palms mobile home park, who have been on a rent strike since May 1, have reached a settlement under which they will pay 30% of their rent through September while the park’s owner makes repairs to their homes, an attorney for the renters said Friday.

The judgment was filed in Harbor Municipal Court late Thursday and calls for landlord Krishan Kakkar to make improvements in the next 60 days to the dilapidated mobile home structures he owns and rents to 35 tenants at the park, said tenants’ attorney Richard L. Spix of the Legal Center for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a nonprofit legal center.

Under terms of the settlement, renters who have pooled their rent payments since May 1 must pay 30% of their back rent and 30% of the rent through September but may keep the balance, Spix said.

Unlike the situation at most mobile home parks, the park’s owner owns the mobile homes and rents them to the tenants, Spix said. “He’s basically renting out the homes as if they are apartments.”

According to Spix, the mobile homes have electrical panels that short out; open sewer mains; infestations of opossums, rodents and roaches; and walls, roofs and floors that are falling apart.

Kakkar had sued the rent strikers, seeking 100% of the back rent, but in the settlement with tenants agreed to 30% of the rent and agreed to make the repairs that sparked their protest, Spix said.

Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom, before whom the lawsuits were heard, “has the power to fix October rents for the parties so that Mr. Kakkar now enjoys a guaranteed future income as well,” Spix said.

Kakkar and his attorney did not return calls from The Times.