Residents of Twin Coach Estates Mobile Home Park in Lakeville want state lawmakers to approve a measure that will help restrict rent increases in the park.

A group of Lakeville residents is hoping state lawmakers approve a measure that will help restrict rent increases in the mobile home park where they live.

Facing a significant increase in rents, residents of Twin Coach Estates Mobile Home Park sought help from local and state leaders earlier this year. In May, voters in Lakeville approved a home rule petition that would establish a rent regulation board and require the owner of the park to go before the board when seeking any type of rent change. The petition, which must be approved by the state, is currently being considered by state lawmakers.

“We’re just hoping that it’s going to go through,” said Arlene N. Wood, 71, who has lived in the park for 12 years.

Residents received notices in January that the property owner was planning to raise rents, said Wood. According to Wood, the property owner was seeking an increase of about 30 percent for a majority of residents, which violated the terms of an agreement that the tenants association had negotiated in December 2001.

Wood, whose monthly rent was slated to increase from $253 to $350, said the 2001 agreement enabled the property owner to raise rents annually based on cost-of-living increases for the next five years.

Since roughly 85 percent of the residents are 70 or older and most are living on fixed incomes, the residents can’t afford such a steep increase, explained Wood.

And Wood argues that the property owner, Wayne Williams, has done very little to improve the park and can’t justify such an increase.

“There have been no improvements at all in the park in the 12 years I’ve been here,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of his client, Brockton attorney Richard Driscoll said Williams sought the rent increases because the town of Lakeville increased property taxes. Driscoll also said Williams has been making improvements to the park, including installing a lawn sprinkler system and offering yard maintenance services to tenants. He added that Williams will be “redoing the road.”

Richard LaCamera, chairman of the Lakeville Board of Selectmen, said residents of the 64-lot park, which is for people 55 and older, approached town officials in early April seeking help. The home rule petition was placed before the annual Town Meeting in May and “overwhelmingly approved,” he said.

If state lawmakers sign off on the home rule petition, said LaCamera, selectmen will be able to appoint a three-person board that would review any rent increases that the property owner seeks.

“I think it’s important for seniors to gain control over their costs. The landlord shouldn’t be able to charge whatever he wants. That’s what he’s trying to do,” said LaCamera.

‘A Taking of Property’
Rent control was abolished in Massachusetts in 1994 but an exception is made for mobile home parks, according to Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-Bedford and a native of Lakeville, who filed the petition for the town.

Through the home rule petition currently being considered by the Legislature, Lakeville residents want to make sure that the landlord works with a rent control board to ensure that rent increases are fair and that adequate services are provided to tenants, said Canessa.

“It’s my hope that it will get passed because the residents want this to protect seniors,” he said.

The measure is modeled after a similar petition that was filed and approved in Kingston, said Canessa.

Mobile home park owners in Massachusetts are trying to get legislation passed to eliminate rent control in their properties. A bill that would remove rent control from manufactured housing communities was placed into study by the Joint Committee on Housing at the end of March, said Richard Norton, executive director of the Massachusetts Manufactured Housing Association, a nonprofit organization that represents mobile home park owners, manufacturers, financiers and insurers.

“To us, [rent control is] unconstitutional,” said Norton. “We think it’s a taking of property.”

There are approximately 225 mobile home parks in Massachusetts, and about 50 of them are located in 22 communities that have rent control, said Norton.

One of the communities falling under rent control is Edgeway Mobile Home Park in Middleborough, another park owned by Williams.

Residents of Edgeway have complained about water drainage problems and other maintenance issues at the park and, according to published news reports, Middleborough officials have refused to renew Williams’ license for the last two years because of outstanding violations at the park.

Williams is trying to sell the Lakeville and Middleborough parks and is seeking $5 million for each. Cedrone and MacDonald Real Estate in Middleborough has listed the properties. The parks have been on the market for almost four months.