Mobile Home Owners Voice Complaints

It’s been four years since Lynn Munsterman and her husband Paul put their Stanton mobile home on the market. It’s still for sale.

Time after time, interested buyers would go off to the mobile park office to fill out a tenant application--never to be seen again.

Eventually they found out why: One former hot prospect told them the park operator had offered him a better deal on another mobile home that the park had purchased from another departing resident.

This kind of story was common Wednesday at a state Senate hearing on complaints that some park operators effectively force residents to sell their homes to the park, rather than get the best price on the open market.

“So how can you ever sell your home?” asked Munsterman, 70. “It’s heart-rending what they do--especially to older people,” she said later.

About 60 attended the morning-long hearing presided over by State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), chairman of a committee researching mobile home problems. His Assembly counterpart, Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), also was on the panel.

Speakers included mobile home owners who say they lose money on sales of their mobile homes because of competition from park operators. Representatives from park operators denied there is a widespread problem and urged the legislators not to pass new laws that would impede their business.

In a later interview, the manager of the park where the Munstermans live, Sharon Stulen, denied Munsterman’s allegations. “That’s not true,” said Stulen, refusing further comment.

Alleged Roadblocks Thwart Sales

Park operators and managers have a legitimate role to play in sales transactions because new mobile home owners become their tenants and must be vetted to make sure they can pay rent on the ground beneath their homes.

But tenants around California have complained for years that the process is abused and sending potential buyers to park management can, one way or another, lead to a lost sale. Often, critics say, park owners use these powers to steer buyers to mobile homes they have purchased from other residents.

“The whole transaction can be voided at the whim of park management,” Steve Gullage, president of the Golden State Mobile Homeowners’ League, testified at the hearing.

The roadblocks park operators allegedly set up to thwart sales not handled by the park include:

* Demanding the new owner have an income of up to $50,000 a year--no matter how much money they have saved--to pay for a space renting for $600 monthly.

* Demanding long leases and high rent.

* Demanding an exemption from rent control.

* Demanding extensive repairs of the mobile home before a sale can go through.

The plan, tenants charge, is to wear sellers down so they capitulate and sell their home at a discount to park operators, many of whom are real estate agents. The agents then turn a profit when they resell, often offering their buyers a better deal than they offered to the original owner’s perspective buyer, critics claim.

“In absolute desperation, owners are forced to sell their homes at the infamous ‘Blue Book’ price to management,” Gullage said.

Many mobile home owners who testified say park operators have a conflict of interest because they can approve their buyer as a tenant, but a financial incentive to steer a prospective buyer to a unit owned by management.

Representatives from park owner associations downplayed the extent of the problem and urged the legislators not to pass new restrictions on mobile home parks because of a few complaints.

“If these abuses are taking place, there is a remedy,” said Chelu Traveiss, of the California Mobile Home Park Owners’ Assn. “Why aren’t they suing park owners?”

While acknowledging that the majority of mobile park owners operate honorably, Dunn, a trial lawyer, said individual lawsuits are impractical and not an option for those with limited incomes.

“I’ve spent 15 years as a trial lawyer and this is the first business representative who ever encouraged more litigation as a solution to a problem.”

Dunn said he hopes legislation can be avoided, but that the industry’s help is needed to “address that rotten apple in the barrel. . . . We have a situation of unequal bargaining power here.”