Assembly Passes Mobile-Home Rent Bill

Friday, June 26, 2009
Jake Henshaw
Visalia Times-Delta

The Assembly on Thursday reversed itself and with the minimum votes
needed passed a bill that could raise rents for some new mobile home owners.

Assembly Bill 761 by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier,
passed 41-25 after failing Monday 38-27. The margin of victory came
from three lawmakers who didn't vote Monday.

"We are very sorry to see that the bill passed off the [Assembly] floor," James Burr, who represents Visalia mobile home owners and is state treasurer of the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, said in a telephone interview.

But he predicted the bill, which next goes to the Senate, will never get to the governor.

"We
just have to make our presence felt, dig in and [we] are quite
confident we can kill the bill on the Senate side of the Legislature,"
Burr added.

The bill, which would take effect in 2011, targets the rent that many mobile home owners pay for the space they occupy in a park.

When
a home is sold, park owners interested in raising rental rates would
have to set them at the lesser of appraised market rates or the
seven-year phase-in schedule outlined in the bill that could double the
rent.

The bill
wouldn't affect the rents of existing mobile home owners, nor would it
prohibit or revise local rent control ordinances except to allow for
rent increases when homes are sold.

About
100 California jurisdictions have some sort of rent control on mobile
home parks. There are 700,000 Californians living in mobile home parks
but it's not clear how many might be affected by this bill.

Proponents
argued that the bill would allow mobile home park operators to gain
some of the increased value of their property so they can afford to
make improvements to common areas.

"I think this bill simply takes a distortion out of the free market," said Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert.

But
opponents said it would interfere with local control and rob mobile
homeowners of the value of what is often their only substantial asset.

FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may not have been specifically authorized by the
copyright owner.  Tenants Together is making this article available on our
website in an effort to advance the understanding of tenant rights issues in
California.  We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright
Law.  If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your
own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.

Help build power for renters' rights: