Residents of two Auburn trailer parks sue over unfair rent increases

Residents of two Auburn mobile home parks claim in a class action lawsuit filed this week that their landlord company unfairly raised rents while knowingly ignoring and misrepresenting their rights.

Mobile homes remain one of the few affordable options as housing costs skyrocket in the state. Most residents are elderly or disabled people who survive on fixed incomes, the complaint said.

Five residents of American Mobile Home Park and Whispering Pine Estates, two parks located several miles apart on Washington Street, are suing Parakeet Communities. Parakeet owns dozens of other parks across the country and took over the two Auburn sites in 2022, an attorney for the residents said.

But owners and renters of these mobile homes feel they are being shortchanged. A lawyer for the residents said most of the mobile homes cannot be moved, creating a power imbalance among residents.

Lawyers for Civil Rights is bringing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 100 residents of the two parks, said attorney Jacob Love. He called the term “mobile home” a misnomer.

“Once a tenant decides to place their mobile home unit in a park, they can’t move it,” Love told Boston.com. “That makes them a captive party for negotiation purposes with community owners, and community owners know that.”

Starting in November, Parakeet began offering rental deals to tenants and owner-tenants at each park. Whispering Pine only hosts owner-tenants, who own their mobile home unit and pay to rent a lot. Renters rent both the unit and the lot.

According to the complaint filed in Worcester Superior Court, the tenants named in the complaint saw their monthly rent increase by about $350. The landlords who rented saw their rent increase by more than $100.

Amy Case, an American tenant, faces expenses related to the removal of a brain tumor in 2021, according to the complaint. In a statement, she said Parakeet “has put her through a nightmare.”

“His actions have put a strain on our finances and created a constant fear of losing our homes,” Case said. “We deserve to be treated with fairness and respect and we have taken this matter to court to assert our rights.”

The rent increase notices also failed to provide legally required disclosures, issued non-uniform rent increases that exceeded fair market rates, failed to provide mandatory five-year lease offers and disseminated illegal rules to landlord-tenants, the complaint said.

In March, Parakeet sent another round of leases to landlords that contained “intentionally” misleading statements and false claims about total rent amounts, according to the complaint.

Love said Parakeet’s owners even obscured their own identities and those of their resident agent, who must be identified to file a lawsuit.

“It’s impossible to analyze these actions and violations in isolation,” Love said. “They all combine to diminish residents’ bargaining power and ensure they make decisions based on less information than they are legally entitled to.”

The residents sent a cease and desist letter in April, and “Parakeet has not responded to the cease and desist letter with a reasonable settlement offer,” according to the complaint. Since then, the five named residents have been paying the increased rent to avoid eviction, but Parakeet has initiated eviction proceedings against the unnamed tenants.

“This lawsuit is not only about vindicating the rights of these residents and preserving their homes, but also about preventing other community owners from engaging in unfair and deceptive behavior in the future,” Love said.

Parakeet did not respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday.

The full complaint is available here.

Loading…