North San Diego County Vol. 2 No. 6 June 2014
www.mobilehomemagazine.org
Mobilehome Magazine - North San Diego County
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Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014
T A B L E
O F
CONTENTS Table of Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 From The Staff of Mobilehome Magazine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 GSMOL’s Failure to Enforce the MRL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page A Have GSMOL Leaders Failed Mobilehome Owners?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pages B-D GSMOL’s Corporation Status Suspended. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page D The Future of Mobilehome Magazine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page E Psychological Abuse in Mobile/Manufactured-Home Parks. . . . . . . . . . . Pages F-G Mobilehome Magazine This & That. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page G Living in a Mobilehome Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page H Donation & FAQ Handbook Order Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page H Jury Awards Record $111 Milllion to Trailer Park Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 13 Lawsuit at Royal Western Mobilehome Park in Gardena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14
Mobilehome Magazine - North San Diego County
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Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014
From the Staff of Mobilehome Magazine
Serving the Mobile/Manufactured Home Community in California
Welcome back to Mobilehome Magazine. This is an interesting issue, both with very good and very bad news. Everyone should read each article, word by word to understand what’s happening today with advocacy in California.
P.O. Box 3774 Chatsworth, CA 91313
(818) 886-6479 Email Address
frank@mobilehomemagazine.org
Lloyd Rochambeau offers up an article on his views about GSMOL’s failure to enforce the laws that were written to protect us. In fact we feel enforcement is the key to park owner obeying the laws or not. For example, just think how many traffic laws would be broken every day if there were no enforcement. Or how many people wouldn’t pay their taxes if their were no IRS. Law breakers would include all of us! So how can we expect that at least some park owners and managers wouldn’t break the law? We need enforcement. See page A. We at MHMag take no pleasure in the article: Has GSMOL Failed Mobilehome Owners? GSMOL, after all, has been the go-to organization for all of us. Please send us your comments, criticisms and suggestions. We will respond to them all. Also if you need documentation on what we have presented, just let us know. See pages B-D. Also note that GSMOL’s corporation status has been suspended. This could be serious. See page D. The face of advocacy in California is changing. And so is Mobilehome Magazine. Read what’s happening on page E. Many of us have experienced psychological abuse in our parks. Read a new twist where folks in Nevada are suing their HOA for abuse. Mind you, this is a HOA; however it is not in a mobilehome park. See pages F & G. MHMag, local editions, are now one year old. San Diego, North San Diego County, and North Bay first received the magazine in July 2013. That’s about 180,000 magazines, all for free! Recently we’ve had trouble getting and keeping advertisers, the life blood of the magazine. So we ask you to at least give the advertisers who support us a call and say thanks. Also donations are down. The residents at California Hawiian in San Jose won their lawsuit against the Sam Zell Corporation, Equity LifeStyle. Although we reported it last month, we feel it is important enough to publish another article this month. Congratulations Joan Malone, Gila DePutter and others. This inspires all of us to stand up to our landlords if and when there is failure to maintain or other issues in our park. See page 13. Finally, the residents of Royal Western in Gardena are suing Kort & Scott / Sierra Management for failure to maintain. See page 14.
Website www.mobilehomemagazine.org
MHMag is not responsible for content contained in advertising
PUBLISHER & EDITOR Frank A. Wodley
ADVERTISING SALES Rose Rosales
DESIGN
Greg Frazier
ARTICLE CONTRIBUTORS Donna Matthews Chuck Zenisek Bill Schlegel Lloyd Rochambeau
SPANISH TRANSLATOR Ruben Ibanez
PROOFREADER Barbara Kelly
Thank you for reading Mobilehome Magazine. We are here to serve you. Have a terrific June and see you in July.
TheMobilehome Magazine Staff
Mobilehome Magazine - North San Diego County
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Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014
Jury awards record $111 million to trailer park residents roamed the streets.
SAN JOSE -- With a fancy name like “California Hawaiian Mobile Estates,” the trailer park on Snell Avenue should have been top-notch.
One of the worst problems was that the water for the entire park of 420 households would frequently be turned off -- without notice -- for up to 20 hours at a time, they said.
But residents say that for years it was anything but -- marred by sewage backups, potholes, electrical blackouts and a swimming pool filled with geese feces. Fed up with having their complaints ignored, a small group sued five years ago, risking the possibility that if they lost, they’d be on the hook for the park owner’s substantial legal fees.
Residents formed a homeowners association in 2007 and sued in 2009. Gela DePutter, 59, a semiretired former Hitachi analyst, remembers getting “threatening” letters from management after the suit was filed. About half the tenants who originally joined the suit bailed out, leaving a core group of determined people. “I had to follow through with this,” DePutter said. “I knew we were going to win but I’m floored at how much.”
Last week, a San Jose civil jury awarded the residents $111 million, the largest such award for a failure-to-maintain lawsuit against a mobile home park in California. Previous awards in other California cases topped out around $12 million. If the verdict stands, 61 tenants out of 1,500 people who live in the park could reap an average of $100,000 each in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages of $1.57 million apiece.
Gary Stutzman said when the owners did make repairs, the work was shoddy. After he complained for years about the lakewater lapping right up against his house, one corner of the house crumpled and the driveway wound up being laced with cracks. A crew came and chopped up the driveway, he said in an interview, but instead of hauling the pieces away, they dumped them at the edge of the lake, leaving a still-unsightly mess. Lawyers for the tenants said the jury was aghast at the “deplorable conditions,” finding after a nearly three-month-long trial that even though ELS had made some significant improvements after the lawsuit was filed, the company was negligent, in breach of contract and had created a public nuisance by failing to maintain the park and provide sufficient security. Some serious problems remain to be fixed, including the substandard electrical system.
For years, residents of the mobile home park put up with electrical blackouts, overgrown trees that damaged homes, and a failure by the owner to maintain the park. This week, 61 residents of the park were awarded $111 million in a class action lawsuit brought against the owner of the mobile home park. The money would be quite a windfall for the tenants, many of whom live on limited incomes and say they cannot sell their mobile homes because the park has such a bad reputation. “We always knew it was a David and Goliath thing, going up against a multibillion-dollar corporation,” said resident Joan Malone, 66, who helped spearhead the effort. “Now, people are coming up to me with their faces shining. We finally have justice.”
The case highlights what the tenants’ lawyers contend is a common problem statewide -- the failure by some owners to maintain their mobile home parks, which can be cash cows. For instance, ELS was spending between $101,000 and $273,000 on upkeep annually at California Hawaiian and taking in more than $4.5 million, according to the San Diego lawyers who represented the residents, James C. Allen and David Semelsberger. The lawyers will reap 40 percent of the award.
The unprecedented verdict has sent shock waves through the industry, even as the park’s owner vows to try to get it overturned. Equity Lifestyle Properties, a publicly traded company chaired by billionaire Sam Zell, is the largest mobile home park owner in the nation, with 140,333 home sites in 379 properties in 32 states and Canada. The award represents about 10 percent of its assets.
Others said the case could set a dangerous precedent. “If verdicts like these are held up,” said Phil Woog, an Orange County lawyer who defends park owners, “there won’t be a mobile home park industry.”
California Hawaiian was once a pristine seniors-only park. But conditions began to go downhill in 1997, some longtime tenants said, after ELS took over. It had already been converted to a family park by then.
Allen said the jury was won over in part because of the testimony of the residents, including Heather and Dion Berry, a clean-cut young couple in their early 30s with three young children. Among other problems, they described how difficult it was for the family to safely shower, go to the bathroom or use the tap water because of the sewer backups. Now, they’re excited about the possibility of netting more than $2 million, after attorneys’ fees. They have their first move already planned.
For years, residents of the mobile home park put up with electrical blackouts, overgrown trees that damaged homes, and a failure by the owner to maintain the park. This week, 61 residents of the park were awarded $111 million in a class action lawsuit brought against the owner of the mobile home park. Malone and Stutzman helped lead the efforts to file the lawsuit. (Gary Reyes/ Bay Area News Group) ( Gary Reyes )
Said Heather Berry, “To get out of here, into a safe home.”
The tenants’ suit described a litany of troubles: The once-scenic artificial lakes became slick with slime. Sewers backed up into people’s homes. Brownouts and blackouts were common. Street lighting was inadequate, making it dangerous to go out at night. Homeless people camped out under the clubhouse stage and Mobilehome Magazine - North San Diego County
Article by Tracey Kaplan San Jose Mercury News. http:// www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25604664/juryawards-record-111-million-trailer-park-residents Contact Tracy at 408-278-3482. 13
Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014
Lawsuit at Royal Western Mobilehome Park in Gardena It has been one and a half years since we first wrote about advocate Paul Masminster (photo) and his group Save Our Souls (SOS)(Mobilehome Magazine Volume 2 Number 6 November / December 2012). In that issue we wrote:
The following was recently posted on YELP. We have edited it slightly to make it more understandable. The park is nice as far as quiet and near a nice residential area. The pool area is decent. What is outrageous is the SPACE RENT! If you purchase a mobile home directly from the park, the space rent begins low. If you purchase from an individual seller then you take over their space rent and the park goes up, up, and up.
Paul Masminster, a resident of Royal Western Mobile Home Park and former COMO-CAL Vice President, has been fighting his park’s management company, Sierra Management & Kort and Scott, for over 10 years. He organized a resident’s group called Save Our Soles (SOS)and has been documenting park issues for several years- taking over 3,000 photos, keeping a time log, and having a paper trail of years of correspondence with his park management and owner.
The owners of mobile homes cannot sell their homes because no one in their right mind would take over such a huge space rent. In effect, the park tries to squeeze the owners of the home out. When the owners can no longer afford space rent, they move out and give the home to the park. I smell a rat here, don’t you?
Now he has recruited the attorney group Endemen, Lincoln, Turek and Heater of San Diego and they have filed a lawsuit to be heard in a Los Angeles Superior Court. They are in the interrogatory phase today.
My kids are currently paying $1600 per month after living here two years! They live in a single wide 1960 mobile home that they gutted and remodeled inside. They own it free and clear but now the park is choking them rent-wise. The park has increased their rents almost $300 in two years. Their friend bought a double wide mobile home directly from the park and pays $800 per month space rent! Doesn’t a double-wide take more space than a single-wide? These owners need to be sued until they have no room to squirm!!!! Karla A., TORRANCE
Among the issues contained in the lawsuit are: a) management not following park rules and regulations b) failure to maintain affecting park appearance c) inability to sell homes d) electrical problems e) sewer problems f) fear tactics and intimidation and several more. So what does SOS want? They want control of the settle ment, they want Sierra Management out, they want 50% of their rent over the last 4-5 years returned to them, they want rents rolled back to $800/month, they want all items mentioned in the lawsuit repaired, no more RV’s, and a management company that complies to all state and federal laws. You can contact Mr. Masminster through MHMag Finally SOS has a court date of June 11, 2014 in Torrance. Sierra Management has made an offer to settle, but residents didn’t accept it. This is not the first time residents have sued Kort and Scott. In the first lawsuit in 2006, again led by Masminster, residents won a $1.4 million award.
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Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014
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Volume 2 Number 6. June 2014