El Rovia Mobile Home Park, LLC v. City of El Monte
Facts: A city enacts two ordinances establishing rent control for large mobilehome parks. In between the enaction of the first and second ordinances, a group of investors acquire a small mobilehome park. The city enacts a third ordinance, establishing rent control in all mobilehome parks regardless of their size. The third ordinance establishes the year preceding the first ordinance as the base year for rent. The investors petition the city to use the year preceding the third ordinance as the base year for setting rents, increasing rent in the small mobilehome park. The city refuses to change the base year for rent, set as the year before the first ordinance was enacted.
Claim: The investors seek to use the year preceding the third ordinance as the base year for rent, claiming this year best reflects the park’s market conditions before rent control legislation applied to small mobilehome parks.
Counterclaim: The city claims using the year preceding the first ordinance as the base year is appropriate since it best reflects market conditions for all mobilehome parks uninfluenced by rent control legislation.
Holding: A California court of appeals held the city’s selection of the year preceding the first rent control ordinance as the base year for the small mobilehome park’s rent is appropriate since it best reflects market conditions before all rent control legislation. [El Rovia Mobile Home Park, LLC v. City of El Monte (April 28, 2020)_CA6th_]
