No Mobile Home Rent Increase, Judge Rules

A judge ruled against a Watsonville mobile home park owner who wanted to increase rents, the city of Watsonville reported Tuesday.

The owner of had submitted a Fair Rate of Return application with the city in January of last year seeing to up the rent, according to Assistant City Manager Marcella Tavantzis.

The possible rent increase was calculated several ways by both the property owner and the city. The suggested increase ranged from $21-55 by the city to $159-448 by the mobile home park owner. Rents in the 105-space park at 501 S. Green Valley Rd. are $350 per space, the city reported.

The city, park residents and the owner went through a lengthy arbitration with Administrative Law Judge David Benjamin.

The property owner refused the city's suggested rent changes. That meant that when Benjamin ruled in favor of the city's analysis and rejected all of the proposals from the property owner there would be no rent increase at all.

It's unclear what the property owner's next step may be.

Meanwhile, the city will  to up the fee the city collects from mobile home park residents and save that money in a fund to defend against possible rent increases.