The Perris City Council took a major step toward enacting mandatory rent controls Tuesday night but vowed to keep negotiating with the mobile home park owner whose tenants have been crying for rent relief.
Some council members at first sounded determined to pass permanent rent control for the city's mobile home parks, in spite of a last-minute proposal sent by park owner Ray Farris to the city on Monday, one day before the council's meeting.
"I think we need to bring this to a head. It's cost the city a lot of money already," said Councilman Al Landers, about attorney fees, rental studies and consultants.
The council gave city attorneys until Oct. 13 to negotiate a rental cap agreement with Farris or they will enact permanent rent control.
For the past 2 ½ years, residents of Park Place and Lake Perris Village have asked for a lasting remedy to what they call unpredictable and unfair rent increases as well as dilapidated park conditions. The outcry followed consecutive increases of approximately $100 a month at both parks between 2005 and 2007, according to a study by consultant Kenneth Freschauf.
In November 2007, the council banned further rent increases at the parks and went on to extend the moratorium twice.
The rent freeze expires Sept. 30 and legally cannot be continued. The only way for the city to mandate rent caps now would be through a rent control ordinance, used by 100 cities in California.
Perris' attorneys crafted a rent control law that would force mobile home park owners to base their annual rent increases on the Consumer Price Index, which would amount to annual increases of about $5 to $15 a month. By law, the rent control would not apply to about three-quarters of the tenants who signed long-term leases locking them into annual increases of $35 a month.
In his letter, Farris suggested that instead of passing permanent rent control he and the city forge a five-year agreement binding him to annual rent increases of $20 for all his tenants, including those on leases.
Park Place resident Suzanne Fatone was one of several residents to speak and asked just one question.
"What happens in five years? Five years the rent increases will be back in full force," she said.
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