CAMARILLO : Mobile Home Rent Control Law OKd

To the disappointment of Camarillo mobile home park residents, the City Council has approved a limited rent-control law that would not stop park owners from raising rents when mobile homes are sold.

The new ordinance would prohibit park owners from increasing the rent only if ownership is transferred between spouses, to a second party on the death of the owner or to living trusts.

But because of lawsuits pending and settled statewide, the city refused the residents’ request for a more far-reaching limit on rent increases when mobile homes are sold for profit.

City Atty. Colin Lennard told the residents that the City Council would like to help them, but the courts will not allow it. “Every court that has come up with a final decision has said that there will not be” sweeping rent control, Lennard said.

He cited the case of Hall v. Santa Barbara, in which a California appellate court found that the city could not limit rent increases.

Without such a limit, residents of the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park said, their mobile homes are not marketable.

“We’re trapped in there,” Cora Mueller said. “Buyers won’t even come in there and look.”

“We are essentially being held captive,” resident Linda Wray told the Council.

Lamplighter park owner Edward Delaplane said he opposes any rent controls on his park. He said his rents are so low that he “does not receive a normal return on his investment” in the park.

With the city unable to help its residents except in very few cases, Councilwoman Sandi Bush urged the mobile home park residents to band together with other park residents and lobby Sacramento for change.

“If you join together with other mobile home owners, you have the potential to approach the state Legislature on this,” she said.