DANA POINT : Rent Control Study Ordered in Dispute

Rent control may be the answer to a longstanding, bitter dispute between a mobile home park owner and his tenants, a reluctant City Council decided this week.

After two months of unsuccessfully mediating a dispute between Beachwood Mobilehome Park residents and their landlord over rent hikes, the council Tuesday instructed city staff members to explore rent control as a possible solution.

“This is futile,” said Councilwoman Judy Curreri after listening to pleas from tenants and the owner, Anthony Sepe of Los Angeles, for the fourth time since last summer. “We could get so bogged down on this we (would) never do anything else.”

Sepe had given tenants of his 189-space park until Monday to sign a new lease that included built-in rent increases of between 40 to 45% over the next five years. Sepe says he is charging $282 to $445 a month, a range tenants dispute.

Last summer, the tenants took their complaints to the council, arguing through spokesmen that the park, more than 35 years old, was poorly maintained and that several elderly residents could not afford the rent increases.

“My problem is not so much the rents as the conditions and safety issues at the park,” Councilman Michael Eggers said. “We told him (Sepe) 60 days ago to get together with the tenants, get this thing settled and get if off the agenda. Then nothing got solved.”

Sepe disagreed, saying is taking care of the park’s maintenance problems.