SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Mobile Home Rent Control Expanded

The City Council this week amended its rent control ordinance to include recently vacated mobile homes, much to the delight of park residents who packed City Hall.

Before the council vote, owners of the city’s seven mobile home parks were free to increase rents to “market value” once a mobile home was vacated.

The council also directed City Atty. Richard K. Denhalter to investigate the possibility of rolling rates back to more affordable levels. Denhalter was directed to bring a report back for council consideration in 30 days.

Councilman Kenneth E. Friess, a longtime supporter of rent control for mobile homes, said a rent freeze would probably work better than a rollback.

“Maybe a rent freeze on those spaces where rents have been raised over the past two years would be the least challengeable in court,” Friess said.

Since 1978, the city’s nearly 3,000 mobile home park residents have been protected from steep rent increases by the city’s strict rent control ordinance, the only such law in the county. Under the provisions of the law, owners can only raise space rents once a year and only through a specially devised formula based on the consumer price index.

The only avenue for a park owner seeking higher rents than the formula provides is to prove that a special hardship has been created. Those rents must be approved by the city’s mobile home park review committee.