Mobile home residents hit with soaring rent after hurricanes

[Judi Lynn]

Amanda Morris, Associated Press
Updated 10:00 am CDT, Tuesday, July 9, 2019

LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) — For eight years, James Lesane paid what he could for his mobile home lot rental every month — $150. But in February, five months after Hurricane Florence flooded the Lumberton region and shortly after Florida-based company Time Out Communities bought the park, his monthly lot rent more than tripled to $465.

With a fixed Social Security disability income of about $791 a month, Lesane said it's impossible for him to pay that.

"If I had to pay $465 I couldn't even pay the lights in this place," he said, gesturing to the dim lighting inside his trailer, where trash bags covered windows to keep the trailer cool on a sweltering 100-degree day.

Time Out owns 23 properties in low-income Robeson County, many of which were bought in the past two years. At the same time, the county was one of the hardest-hit areas during hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Mobile-home-residents-hit-with-soaring-rent-after-14081040.php

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Kick and recommended - they've been at this for awhile...

https://heartlandnewsfeed.com/2018/06/28/time-out-communities-llc-seeks-to-put-veterans-elderly-out-with-lot-rent-raises/

JACKSONVILLE (Heartland Newsfeed) — Ron Hoffstadt and his wife are 17 year residents at the Prairie Knolls mobile and manufactured home park just east of Jacksonville. Danny Davidson, a retired paramedic and disabled Vietnam veteran, has lived at his home in Rolling Acres since 1995. Both may be forced to find new residences on August 1st when their lot rent payments will go up by at least 40% or more.

These two cases are indicative of several retirees, disabled people, and former veterans who live on Jacksonville’s eastern edge. The reason the lot rents are rising are due to a purchase of the two parcels of land by out-of-state investors Time Out Communities, LLC. The company is a little over a year old and already has an annual revenue of over $12 million spread across at least 3 states. Time Out has also purchased other courts in both Springfield and Woodson and Cedarbrook Estates off Brooklyn Avenue in Jacksonville.

Hoffstadt organized a town hall meeting held at Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville to explain the situation, ask for ideas from the community, and to have local government officials offer up advice or help. Hoffstadt started the meeting by explaining the situation of what actually has happened. In early May, many residents received a letter of notification that their lot rent was going up. For many at the time, they had no idea that the property had been purchased from local owner Jess Spradlin, who had been working in the community for over 33 years. Spradlin never properly notified residents of the sale. By Illinois statute, sales of modular home land must be made known to residents one year in advance for any changes to take place. Other statute violations also were on residents’ minds as they brought up other problems of the properties’ management. “I’ve never seen a lease since I’ve been there,” said Davidson, “I signed a piece of paper when I moved in years ago. Rolling Acres has been sold maybe three times since then. I’ve never received a written notice about it.”

Hoffstadt has said that he has petitioned the company and has tried to work with them to make lot rent increase at least more palatable to residents. “What we’re proposing is a 10 percent increase for a two-year lease and then add another 10 percent every two years,” Hoffstadt explained, “It seems they are not willing to do that.” Hoffstadt read a reply to reporter Greg Olson of the Jacksonville Journal-Courier asking about why the company was raising the rent exponentially. “In these economic times, it’s good business to ensure that investments are properly made,” the email read. The email went on to threaten residents that if the demands weren’t met that consequences would soon follow.

By Illinois statute, modular homes and manufactured homes do not have to abide by 30 day notice policies for eviction for non-compliant residences. Landowners of mobile home parks can issue 5 day notices to residents to pack up and leave, whether they own the modular home or not. Jacksonville property law passed by the City Council during the 1990s prohibits modular homes to be moved into the city limits outside of these two areas. With Time Out Properties owning parks in the nearby towns and the exorbitant costs to trailer and move homes, many residents are being forced into paying the rent or risk losing a roof over their head.

</snip>

SCUMBAGS!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. In my opinion this has little to do with hurricanes and everything to do

with greed on the part of the park owners.

I live in Santa Fe, and ten years ago when I was first here I had a temp job at a local mobile home park. I was horrified at what the residents paid for their spaces. I no longer recall the exact amounts, but for the ones who didn't own their units outright, their combined space rent and home payment was more than I was paying in rent for a conventional apartment. And the owners continued to raise the rent.

A year or so after I worked there, I was still friends with the other women who worked in the office, and they both resigned when the owner reneged on a promise not to raise the space rent. I do know a lot of residents moved out, and the last time I looked they had a lot of empty spaces.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I owned a MH park and finally sold after some 30 yrs and we never had anything like this kind ...

of price gouging etc. Of course we usually rented by the night (we were located just outside a state park), and thus, most of the residents were temps for a night or two. We did have two permanent residents (one was there (a grandmother w/ two grandkids whose Mom was in jail for drug offenses) and another who was an avid fisherman and was there only occasionally thought the year)). We had 10 units in total. We enjoyed renting the units out as we got to meet folks from KCMO or STLMO as they and their families came down for their annual fishing trips so it was a tradition for both us (the MH owners and visiting families).

We never had heard of such price gouging and the like that's described in the article and I feel like that it's a sneaky way to get the renters off the land so the owners can develop the land (usually most mobile home parks are located outside city limits as lots of cities put in regulations to prevent mobile homes from being placed inside city limits (at least in MO here)...I guess to 'protect' property values.).

Moving a MH is expensive too. Other than disconnecting the utilities, tie downs, dismantling the skirting, etc., as well as hauling the MH, can add up to pretty significant expenses, thousands of dollars at least. Sometimes the MHs need tires (been sitting there for a very long time) and are not worth even moving. I wonder if the MH owners would charge former renters a 'clean up' fee...I wouldn't be surprised.

And what's the worst thing about this whole thing is most residents are low income...they don't have access to other resources to help. I'd suspect that perhaps if all of these tenants get together, perhaps they can fight this in court as (according to the article) they haven't rec'd proper notice (but it doesn't still stop the clock, it simply just delays it). Eventually the MHs will have to move whether the MH owners sell or not. If these people can't afford to move, whether they have a 1 or 2 year advance notice, then what happens? You can't force the MH owners to eat the loss, can you?

[Karadeniz]

4. American tragedy?

[Rhiannon12866]

5. John Oliver devoted a show to this issue:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Mobile Homes

Mobile homes may seem like an affordable housing option, but large investment companies are making them less and less so.

[Judi Lynn]

6. He is outstanding. Thanks, Rhiannon. b/t

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I agree, his show has turned out to be must-see-TV!

I make it a point of posting it when it's uploaded to YouTube and this was one of his terrific efforts! I'm just bummed out that just when we could use his humor the most, he's currently on summer hiatus.