FREMONT — A three-year dispute over a potential rent increase at a mobile home park for individuals 55 and over will be heard by an administrative law judge starting Monday.
The hearing is scheduled for three days in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Afterward, the judge will decide whether the owners of Besaro Mobile Home Park may increase rent by 43 percent for many of the tenants. The judge's decision can be appealed.
The city's rent-control law caps annual rent increases at 3 percent, although property owners may apply for a "major rent increase."
The park owners have said rent control prevents them from making a fair profit on the land, which they say is worth $68 million. Besaro turned a $1.09 million profit in 2006 and a $1.18 million profit in 2007, according to records filed with the city.
The average Besaro tenant pays $669.55 in monthly rent, but the landlords are seeking $895, while making exceptions for some very low-income seniors. In their filing with the city, the property owners cited that the average rent is $715.81 at Niles Canyon Mobile Home Park and $782.47 at South Lake Mobile Home Park, both in Fremont.
Bruce Stanton, attorney for the tenants, said that in the 30 to 40 similar cases he's handled during the past two decades, he could not recall rent going up by as much as what the Besaro owners are seeking.
"The absurdity of the request is the park owners saying, 'We just want to pretend there's no rent ordinance at all," Stanton said.
Jack Rogers, one of the property owners and a former parks and maintenance director for the city, declined to discuss the situation, and two calls to his attorney were not returned. David Beretta, a major Fremont landlord who co-owns the mobile park, could not be reached for comment.
Stanton said he believes the fact that a judge granted the property owners the right to raise rent "significantly" seven years ago, during a similar administrative hearing, gives the tenants a stronger case this time.
"The park owners got everything they wanted seven years ago. I think the park owners will be the first to admit they're really pushing it out to Never-Never Land with (their latest rent proposal). We're hopeful the administrator will understand that and, in this bleak economic time, that it's ludicrous to give this amount of increase," he said.
Many residents of the park, a 30-acre, 236-space community, live on fixed incomes and rely on retirement funds that have dwindled with the recession. In addition, the majority of tenants pay a mortgage for their homes on top of the rent, resident Larry Alsterlind said.
"(A 43 percent rent increase) really is a burden for people here. Most of the people are just getting by," he said.
Tenants are worried they won't be able to afford higher rents and will be forced to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to move their homes or to sell them. Even if they sell, home values have dropped significantly, residents said, because Besaro property owners have indicated they may close the park if their rent increase application is denied.
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