After a grueling three years of litigation, twelve residents of Sunset Park Community in Santa Rosa, California achieved a partial victory. While unable to convince a jury that their spaces are subject to the City’s rent control ordinance, court did decide that three of the five most recent rent increases imposed by the park were illegal, because the park operator increased their rent for three successive years with less than the 90 days notice required by Civil Code § 798.30.

The park operator admitted that it gave residents less than 90 days notice. It argued that the rent increases were still valid, but should have been implemented a month later, limiting the residents damages to less than a hundred dollars.

We argued that according to the case of Rich v Schwab, rent increases with less than the required notice were completely null and void. The court agreed with the residents, and ruled that all the money the park operator had charged the residents under the invalid rent increases would have to be refunded.

Also, in what I believe is a first in Sonoma County, the court ruled that the rent increase of two of the residents violated Penal Code § 396, the price gouging law, because the park operator increased their rent by more than 10% during a state of emergency following the massive October 2017 wildfires that devastated Sonoma County.