La Verne : Mobile Home Rent Control

To eliminate a loophole that allows mobile home parks to avoid rent controls, the City Council has approved an ordinance requiring park managers to offer short- and long-term leases to prospective tenants.

Before the ordinance, which took effect Tuesday, mobile homes that leased for more than five years were exempt from rent control.

Two of the city’s eight mobile home parks, Kings Way Gardens and Valley Rancho, had been requiring new tenants to sign five-year leases, a staff report said. Residents of Kings Way Gardens told the council they had repeatedly been misled by management.

Deann Pancheri, vice president of Advantage Management Inc., which operates Kings Way, opposed the law, warning the council that it was heading into a legally “gray area.�