Auburn mobile home park residents sue property owner over rent hikes

AUBURN — The residents of two mobile home parks are suing their property owner for financial restitution months after they were handed rent increases as high as 40% that their attorneys are calling “illegal.”

The suit comes months after Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based organization representing the residents of Whispering Pines Estates Mobile Homes and American Mobile Home Park, along Washington Street, demanded in a letter that the owners, Parakeet Communities, retract the new lease demands.

In April, they followed with another letter, threatening to sue.

After Parakeet did not change its stance, attorney Jacob Love said, “We just really had no choice but to follow with a suit.

“They basically refused to negotiate with us,” said Love. “They’ve taken the position that they’ve done nothing wrong, that they’ve committed no illegalities.”

Parakeet, a Maryland-based company, owns and manages communities that comprise renter-tenant and owner-tenant residents on low and fixed incomes, often due to disability and old age.

The Auburn parks are two of four that Parakeet owns in the state. It bought the properties in April 2022.

While most of the 38 homes at American are rented, the park also has owner tenants who pay a lease for the plot of land. All 58 homes at Whispering Pines are owned by the residents, who pay rent for the land.

Parakeet first issued notices across the parks in late November, with residents of both mobile homes saying representatives posted notes on their doors imposing rent increases for renter-tenants from under $1,000 to over $1,300, while owner-tenants were asked to pay about 25% more, bringing their fees from under $500 to nearly $600.

According to the notices, by 2028 each resident of Whispering Pines, a 55-plus community, will be required to pay a rent of $1,015.

Rob Kraus, an attorney for Parakeet, defended the legality of the hikes while speaking with the Telegram & Gazette in February, saying, “My client is not a villain.” He added that the rent increases imposed by the company were "not outrageous and in line with market prices.”

In contrast, the residents across both parks have said to the T&G that they considered the increase “unfair,” with some saying that the choice to move in — often decades ago — was due to the low cost of living.

A food pantry was started on American Mobile Homes grounds earlier this year.

“Some people haven't been paying because they don't have the funds and have been stretched to a breaking point in terms of their resources,” said Love. “They're having to avoid buying necessities and cutting back on groceries, harming their ability to pay utility bills.

“Obviously what comes with a considerable amount of stress, anxiety and fear, and folks are terrified that they'll lose their homes.”

Love said the increases have become an issue especially for the owner-tenants, who could be left with no choice but to abandon their mobile homes due to the high cost of moving the home and the fear that even if they do so, the home could be damaged beyond repair during transportation.

Love said that the suit will seek financial damages to provide “relief that could help the residents stay in their homes.”

“The fact that Parakeet is taking these actions, which are so clearly illegal and violate well defined, long established statutory rules, shows that they just don't take any responsibility, and they simply don't care about the law,” Love said.