VENTURA : Law Limits Mobile Home Rent Hikes

A new law will regulate the amount of rent that owners of Ventura mobile home parks can charge their residents.

After nearly three hours of public testimony late Monday from mobile home residents and those who own the parks, the Ventura City Council approved a new rent-control ordinance that makes a number of changes to the existing law.

Council members split 4 to 2, with Mayor Tom Buford and Councilman Gregory L. Carson opposed. Councilman Jack Tingstrom abstained.

The new ordinance limits the annual rent increases park owners can charge tenants to 75% of the consumer price index, a national inflation measurement.

“The majority of cities are at 75% of the CPI, so this keeps us in step with the mainstream cities,” said Councilman Steve Bennett, who argued that a new law was needed to balance the interests of park owners and residents.

The new ordinance limits the ability of park owners to pass on operating costs to the tenants, who have complained in recent years about unfair rent hikes.

“It totally wipes out our ability to recover increased operating costs,” complained Bill Schweinfurth, who manages the Lemon Wood Mobile Home Park in Ventura. “We would just have to eat all those things forever and ever.”

The law also creates a mediation board that will resolve disputes between tenants and mobile home park owners, and designates a “rent administrator” to oversee applications for rent increases.

Park owners would be allowed to accept an automatic rent increase equal to 75% of the consumer price index or apply for a special hearing to state their case for a higher hike.

Residents will pay an undetermined yearly fee to fund the rent administrator.