Residents of the Crestview Hills Mobile Home Park in Fallbrook, CA, are facing two rent increases this year as the community is under new ownership.
The 55-and-older community was recently purchased by a new owner, which informed the residents of a second rent increase due to a property tax reassessment.
“The recent sale of Crestview Hills will result in a substantial and near-term property tax reassessment, including supplemental property taxes payable by the new owner. And higher ongoing annual property taxes,” reads the letter, according to KGTV.
The management company provided tenants with information about a subsidized rent program in addition to informing them about the additional increase.
Resident Rita Burn, who provided KGTV with the letter from the company, said that her rent has nearly doubled since she moved into Crestview Hills.
When Burn moved into the park when she retired in 2017, she paid $825 a month for rent. Now, her rent is $1,600 per month and could climb higher if a second increase goes through.
Burn, who is on a fixed income, was shocked to find out a second increase was coming.
“I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I had heard rumors that it was gonna happen and then we got the letter,” she told KGTV.
A spokesperson from the park’s management company, Cabrillo Management Corporation, told Realtor.com® that the rent increase was calculated based upon two elements: the replacement of the park’s sewer system and the anticipated increase in property taxes following the park’s sale.
“This increase covers the cost of the sewer system and the estimated property tax increase costs moving forward. Please know that this increase is not profitable to ownership this simply covers increased operating cost,” read the company’s emailed statement.
The email noted that Crestview Hills is a “five star community” with a clubhouse, pool and Jacuzzi, dog park, and fitness center, and that “continued investment helps maintain the quality of the community.”
Cabrillo Management Corporation did not provide details on the amount that resident rent went up at either of this year’s increases.
Manufactured homes, widely known as mobile homes, are structures built off-site and assembled on-site without a permanent foundation.
While they were traditionally built on a chassis with wheels, hence the nickname “mobile” home, modern manufactured homes are not generally intended to be moved for more than their initial placement inside a manufactured-home park such as Crestview Hills.
Experts believe that manufactured housing is an alternative way to build cheaper homes. However, as a long stigmatized product, financial ease and modernization are necessary.
Earlier this year, the bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act was passed, which, among other things, removes the requirement for all manufactured housing to be built on a permanent chassis.
Being built without a chassis cuts down the cost of a unit by roughly $10,000.
Then, in early October, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to upgrade its energy efficiency standards, update design and construction codes, and scale the industry in order to keep pace with efforts to encourage the building of manufactured housing.
While encouraging the construction of manufactured homes shows progress, another part of the equation needs to be addressed: rental practices for manufactured home spaces.
San Diego County, where Fallbrook is located, does not have specific rental laws for mobile-home parks, and instead defers to California’s statewide Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL).
“State law does not regulate the amounts of rent that can be charged to a homeowner for rent in a mobilehome park,” reads the MRL.
While most rentals in California are subject to AB 1482, which states that the maximum annual rent increase is limited to 10% and consists of a local cost-of-living adjustment of no more than 5%, mobile-home parks are exempt from rent-control laws.
The MRL requires that management provides at least a 90-day written notice of any increase in rent, but lays out few other restrictions on mobilehome park rent.
Still, Burn and other residents of Crestview Hills are hoping find a solution to the second increase.
“As a group, I think we wanna come up with a plan. Quite a few of us have written to our congressmen and officials to see if they can help in any way. We’re hoping to get some legal advice,” said Burn.
Cabrillo Management informed Realtor.com that a meeting for all homeowners to “discuss the rent increase, the rent subsidy program, and other questions or concerns” as been scheduled.
