Mobile-Home Park Rent Changes OKd

Capping a year of discussion, the City Council has approved an ordinance to relax regulations on rent increases and eventually abolish rent control at the city’s two mobile home parks.

The ordinance adopted Wednesday will allow owners of the 240-space Villa Del Arroyo mobile home park and the 28-space Moorpark Mobile Home Park to raise rents annually by no more than the consumer price index. Currently, park owners may raise rents for mobile-home spaces by the index or 4%, whichever is higher.

The new ordinance also will end rent control as existing tenants move out. Once a mobile home coach is removed from the space, the park owner will be allowed to charge market rate for that space.

But if a coach is replaced by a tenant with a new or improved coach, rent for that space would be subject to the index limitation.

If the coach remains but a new tenant moves in, the owner can charge rent that exceeds that of the previous tenant by 5% or CPI, whichever is lower.