Tim Sheahan
2907 South Santa Fe Avenue/Space 2 San Marcos, CA 92069 ph: (760) 727-4495 email: [email protected]
February 15, 2022
San Marcos Mobilehome Rent Review Commission
San Marcos City Hall
One Civic Center Drive
San Marcos, CA 92069
RE: Withdrawal of Springdale Estates Tenant Rent Review Petition
Dear Commissioners,
On behalf of affected tenants of Springdale Estates manufactured home community, it is with mixed emotions I report a successful resolution of the 2022 space rent increase dispute and withdrawal of the tenants’ rent review petition. Tenants reluctantly voted to offer a 4% space rent increase to resolve the dispute and avoid a hearing, which was accepted by Springdale Estates’ representatives.
Tenants had offered and hoped Springdale Estates (Park) would accept a flat amount rent increase to be applied similarly to all affected spaces, but the Park only offered percentage increases and ultimately only accepted a percentage increase offer made by tenants. The problem with percentage increases is they unfairly do greatest harm to those already paying the highest rents and cause a widening of the rent disparity with each successive percentage rent increase.
Settling the rent dispute unfortunately wiped out the opportunity for tenants to voice their objections to the noticed increase of 6% and explain why directly to the Commission.
Several residents were hoping to describe their particular inequitable situations before you at a rent review hearing. For instance,
• Some residents of over 25 years are paying more than TWICE the space rent as some NEW residents in the park. This is due to unconscionable long-term leases that contained 10% and 12% rent increases in successive years, even if CPI was ZERO, which dramatically raised many rents through the years and greatly devalued homes at those spaces. For several years, only TWO spaces in the entire park were subject to the rent ordinance because of a previous owner’s scheme to evade the rent ordinance by luring residents into signing long-term leases exempt from the Ordinance and thereby trapping them in a continuous discriminatory and harmful situation until they were eventually able to “ride out” their leases and find shelter under the protection of the rent ordinance.
• Due to poor drainage/water table issues, several homeowners hoped to describe the damage to their homes due to lack of proper attention by the Park for several years. At least one homeowner has spent over $10,000 on repairs caused by the damage, and for which the detrimental conditions continue. • Several residents have had their water meters repositioned by the Park so water usage for outside irrigation/use at those spaces is now metered and billed to those homeowners, which effectively gives the Park a rent increase due to the savings in its water bill. We feel the practice has been in violation of both the State Mobilehome Residency Law and local Municipal Code. • Many tenants have been adversely affected by Covid-19 AND the spike in inflation. They hoped to describe their financial hardship and how increases in the costs of gasoline, groceries, and energy affect homeowners much more than park owners and why park owners generally should not receive full CPI rent increases.
Unfortunately, those who wanted to appear before the Commission would have had to sacrifice a days’ worth of wages to attend because the Commission approved a 10:00 AM start time for the rent review hearing. That alone was a very disappointing lack of consideration for tenants but in addition, for the City to not even contact the tenant representative in regard to scheduling the rent review hearing demonstrated a disturbing lack of courtesy, fairness and respect. In the future, residents hope the City will be more considerate of the impact of start times on working families.
Finally, we want to urge the City to adopt a policy that either requires the Park to provide a list of tenants subject to the rent ordinance directly to the tenant representative/petition circulators or for the City to forward the list it receives from the Park to tenant representatives. Tenants should have the opportunity to scrutinize and challenge the accuracy of the Park’s list, a position with which I hope the attorneys on the Commission, in particular, will agree. Without that opportunity, the Park can provide unfettered false information to the City, making the tenants’ burden of meeting the minimum required signature numbers unfairly difficult to achieve.
Sincerely,
Tim Sheahan
Springdale Estates Tenant Representative
Cc: Sean Harris, City of San Marcos
John Pentecost, Springdale Estates Representative