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Mobile Homeowner StoriesThank you for reading our collection of stories. These stories highlight ongoing resident experiences in mobile home parks across Southern California. Some residents asked to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation from their park owner.
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Skandia Country Club Senior Mobile Home ParkAugust 2021, Kort & Scott and Fitterer purchased family-owned Skandia Country Club Senior Mobile Home Park for $58 million. IPG Management (owned by Fitterer) is the park management company. IPG immediately raised rents for new home buyers from $1,445/month to $2,195/month. This caused home values of current residents to plummet $75,000 and more. Residents have lost most, if not all of their equity and some will become homeless. A study of homes sales from 8/18 – 8/21 shows that prior to the purchase of Skandia by Kort, Scott & Fitterer the average sales price of mobile homes was 213,403. 1 year after the purchase of Skandia the average sales price of a mobile home is $144,798. Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva stated “The industry estimates that for every $10 per month space rent increase, the Mobile Home owner loses $1,000 in equity.” In order to justify the increase in new home buyer’s rents, IPG provided what they called a Manufacture Home Community Rent Comparison which only included rents from 7 out of 17 MH Parks in Huntington. These rents were the highest rents from 17 MH Parks. It also included a MH Park in Fountain Valley and rents from a HB apartment building – which we all know cannot be compared with a MH Park. IPG also claimed their 6.7% increase is near the 5.9% Social Security cost of living increase for 2022 even though the average Social Security benefit increase since 1982 is only 2.57%. Under terms of the IPG lease, a resident agrees that IPG may close the MH Park and/or terminate or change, at any time, any terms provisions, rules, or regulations contained the lease but the resident can only terminate the lease by selling, dying, or abandoning their home. IPG originally offered in writing to existing Skandia residents that their increase in rents for 2022, 2023 and 2024 would be an annual increase of $75/year. They then tried to say that the increase was no longer being offered unless a long term lease was signed although no mention of having to sign a lease was stated in IPG’s original offering. Through lengthy discussions, IPG is now saying they will honor their original commitment. |