As a housing attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, I, along with Garrison Boyd of Legal Aid of Sonoma County, and private attorney Rich Reynolds, represented 74 households of seniors residing at the Youngstown Mobile Home Park in Petaluma, California, in an administrative hearing that successfully prevented the park’s new owner from increasing the residents’ space rent by $301 a month, a 55% increase over their current rent. The park owner sought to pass on to the residents, $192 for its mortgage payments, $94 for its property tax payments, and $15 for its legal fees.
Petaluma’s mobilehome space rent stabilization ordinance permits a park owner to increase residents’ rent by the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index, an increase of 3.2% this year. An increase greater than the CPI, can be granted through an administrative hearing, if the greater increase is warranted under a multi-factor test laid out in the City’s ordinance.
With CRLA and the other attorneys’ assistance, the residents raised $15,000 from residents and community members to hire experts witness to prepare reports to counter the park owner’s expert witnesses. We worked diligently through December obtaining documents through discovery, collaborating with the expert witnesses to prepare reports, and writing and filing a brief to oppose the rent increase.
The arbitration was held on January 12 and 13, 2022, via Zoom. Each side made opening statements. The park’s lawyer presented three witnesses: the park owner, a CPA and an appraiser. The residents’ lawyers presented eight witnesses: a PhD in urban planning, a mortgage broker and retired CPA, and a real estate agent, four Youngstown residents and a resident of a neighboring park as lay witnesses. At the end of the second day of the hearing, both sides made oral closing arguments.
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On February 1, 2022 the hearing officer issued a decision. The hearing officer found that the park owner had not met its burden of proof to show that the requested rent increase was necessary. The hearing officer found that, “[The park owner] has therefore failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the rent increase sought is necessary to provide Park Owner with a fair and reasonable return, or that the guaranteed annual space rent increase based on the CPI is insufficient.” The hearing officer denied the park owner’s rent increase in its entirety, except for the annual 3.2% increase in the CPI, which is automatically permitted under the ordinance.
While the park owner requested a rent increase of $301 a month, but the hearing officer permitted an increase of only 3.2%, which is about $21 a month. Through the efforts of CRLA and our partner attorneys, each resident household saved approximately $280 a month. This translates into an annual savings for each resident of $3,360. The monthly savings for all 74 affected residents is about $20,720, which is an annual savings for all residents of $248,640.
Here is the hearing officer’s decision. Here’s a local news article about the story: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/a-huge-sigh-of-relief-petaluma-mobile-home-park-residents-celebrate-afte/
