Mobile Home Park Owners Sue Carson

A suit seeking to have Carson’s mobile home rent control ordinance declared unconstitutional has been filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Compton by the owners of Colony Cove Mobile Home Estates.

The suit also seeks to increase rents at the park to fair market value and to recover $20 million in alleged damages.

The suit alleges that because the city ordinance does not permit a park owner to increase the rent on a space when a mobile home is sold, the departing tenant is able to sell the coach at an increased value. Thus, the owner’s rights to the space are transferred to the tenant.

“The ordinance enables the mobile home owner to sell the coach at 200 to 300 times more than it’s really worth,” said Robert J. Jagiello, attorney for Colony Cove Mobile Estates.

“The tenant is making the profit on the sale of the coach based on the value of the space it occupies at a reduced rent. That space belongs to the owner, not the tenant,” he said.

Jagiello successfully represented a Santa Barbara park owner in U.S. District Court in July. The court ruled that a limit on rent increases when a mobile home was sold was an unconstitutional taking of the owner’s property and ordered Santa Barbara to pay $315,000 in damages.

But Rochelle Browne, an assistant city attorney for Carson, said Thursday that the federal court decision was not binding on the state court.

Browne said that Carson’s ordinance was reviewed by the California Supreme Court in 1983 and held to be constitutional.

She said there were differences between the ordinances of the two cities.

“Santa Barbara required leases of indefinite duration and took away the owner’s rights to decide who new tenants were going to be.

“All Carson does is regulate rent . . . . That has been ruled to be permissible.”

Carson’s rent control ordinance was adopted in 1979. Jagiello said the amount sought in damages was based on the number of vacancies that have occurred since then.

Steve Mandoki, administrative programs specialist for the city, said rents at the park range from $228.55 to $312.31 per month. He said the park owner has requested a 35% across-the-board rent increase, which will be reviewed next month by the city’s Mobilehome Park Rental Review Board.