Rule Change Targets Long-Term Leases

County supervisors voted this week to revise an ordinance so that it prohibits mobile home park owners from requiring new residents to sign long-term leases.

Under state law, mobile home residents cannot qualify for rent control if they have signed a lease longer than 12 months. The county Mobile Home Rent Control Ordinance now bars trailer park owners from requiring existing residents to sign long-term leases, but does not provide similar protection for new residents.

“The park owners can sometimes coerce a renter into a long-term lease,” said Steve Offerman, an administrative assistant to Susan Lacey, the supervisor behind the effort to revise the ordinance. “The park owners can get [renters] out of any rent control ordinance and can charge what they want.”

Offerman said the county’s Planning Division will draft an amendment to the ordinance by next month.

“The ordinance doesn’t prevent [mobile home park owners] from offering a lease that is sufficiently attractive that residents may wish to sign,” Offerman said.

Mobile home park residents generally own their coaches but rent the space on which their trailers sit. Rents vary widely depending on the character of the mobile home park. Rent control is set according to the consumer price index for the Los Angeles area. Offerman said any annual increase cannot fall below 3% or top 7%.