Are You Ready to Kiss Your Home Goodbye???

I recently found the following two sentences buried deep within a lengthy City of Upland document:


"Land in Upland is becoming too valuable to use as mobile home parks. 

Owners of existing parks are considering selling their land for development."

Apparently if you are a resident in ANY of the mobile home parks in Upland, your days on your current lot may very well be numbered. So much for the protection of the City of Gracious Living's rent control ordinance. It had already failed many of us anyway.


A big "Welcome to the nightmare" for Mountain View Estates, Oasis Mobile Estates, Upland Eldorado Mobile Home Park, Upland Meadows Mobile Estates and Upland View Terrace.

Is this the Future of Tatum Kaplan Owned Mobile Home Parks???

Just wondering is this is what residents of Tatum Kaplan owned parks have to look forward to in the future due to our ever-escalating rents...

 

 

The Rent is Too Damn High.....

 Here is a message for those of you who feel our rents are too damn high.  Jeffrey, Thomas, Chelu...even you might enjoy this.

1 UNLAWFUL DETAINER...2 UNLAWFUL DETAINERS...3 UNLAWFUL DETAINERS...etc.,etc.,etc...

What is an Unlawful Detainer Lawsuit?

"An unlawful detainer lawsuit is a suit brought by a landlord to obtain possession of the rented property and receive payment of back rent. In order to legally evict a tenant (remove and lock the tenant out of the property), the landlord must file an unlawful detainer lawsuit. An award for possession of property authorizes the landlord to evict you from the property. If the landlord is also awarded judgment for payment of back rent, he or she may collect the judgment by attaching your property, garnishing your wages, or any other legal means." (State of California Superior Court, San Bernardino County)


Here are some interesting figures for you involving unlawful detainers filed by the Tatum and Kaplan organization against their mobile home park residents.  The parks mentioned here are only of few owned by Tatum and Kaplan but the examples most likely reflect what has occurred in their parks throughout the state.  The information pertaining to the number of unlawful detainers was obtained via public records searches of the San Bernardino County Superior Court.

Upland Cascade Mobile Home Park has approximately 188 spaces. Since 1994 our park owners have filed approximately 120 unlawful detainer lawsuits against the residents of Upland Cascade.

Rancho Monte Vista MHP in Chino Hills has 226 spaces and since 1990 our park owners have filed approximately 190 unlawful detainers lawsuits against its residents.


Lake Cadena MHP has 281 spaces and since 1991 our park owners have filed approximately 200 unlawful detainers lawsuits against its residents.

That comes to a whopping total of 510 unlawful detainers in just 3 of the 19 Tatum Kaplan owned mobilehome parks.  I'll let you do the rest of the math to figure out how huge this could be in their parks throughout the state. 


So what happens to their homes after victims residents are evicted or just walk away because they have been rent gouged out of the park?  I have mentioned in previous posts that Community Mobilehome Sales a.k.a. CMS is part of the Tatum Kaplan Gang and handles the sales of the park owned mobile homes.  CMS currently has a website listing approximately 80-90 mobile homes for sale in the various Tatum Kaplan owned parks.  Check it out here.  I wonder how these listings were acquired by CMS?

The Tatum Kaplan Rent Stabilization Packet

Here is a copy of The Tatum Kaplan Rent Stabilization Packet that is distributed by the park owners/management to residents.  In my opinion this packet is just another 30 pages of legalese and trickery devised to give our park owners more financial and legal advantages over residents.  This is a prime example of the methods the Tatum and Kaplan organization will stoop to in order to empower themselves and squeeze every last cent from us.  Sure, they'll give you a rent decrease that will probably amount to less than $20.00 per month but if you carefully read the packet you will discover that what it sets you up for in the future could be even more devastating than the atrocious situation we are currently facing.  This packet of paperwork along with the copy of the Tatum Kaplan Long Term Lease that I posted earlier should be required reading for any of our elected officials, particularly those officials who seem to believe that this is not their problem.  


I have highlighted one section in the document that has the infamous 200 plus word sentence.  I challenge anyone who reads it to email  me a concise, clear explanation of what it means.  That challenge also applies to any of our legislators that have visited this blog. 


More to come in later posts regarding this

A Copy of the Tatum Kaplan Long Term Lease

I am posting a link to A Copy of the Tatum Kaplan Long Term Lease.  Keep in mind that this is only one document among many, many, many documents presented to prospective residents at the time of their final interview before they move into the park.  Look it over and see for yourself how confusing/misleading/deceptive it is.  Is this intentional...I'll let you be the judge.

Review of Previous Information...

Every so often, I review some of my previous posts.  Tonight I found two posts buried deep within the blog that I feel deserve to be a little more accessible to visitors.  Both posts deal with the Tatum-Kaplan predatory contracts and I have now placed links to them in the side bar.  As you read these posts please remember that these are only 5-6 pages of the 60 plus total pages presented to current and prospective residents.

• An Example of the Shameful Legalese Used by the Tatum Kaplan Organization
• The Tatum-Kaplan Trojan Horse Lease

A Challenge to Sacramento...

I have listed below two State of California Committees that play an important part in mobile home and mobile home park legislation.  Some if not all of these committee members have at one time or another received complaints regarding the Tatum Kaplan organization.  If these committee members are aware of what is taking place in Tatum-Kaplan owned mobilehome parks, then why has nothing been done.  Why do our state representatives continue to sit on their hands, year after year and do nothing to help us as the Tatum-Kaplan Gang continues to take from us all our properties and funds and then kick us to the curb when there is nothing left???!!!


I am issuing a challenge to each and every one of these committee members.  It's a simple challenge and will not require much time to complete.  Take a few minutes and drive through one of the Tatum-Kaplan mobilehome parks near you.  Look around the park ask yourself why are these residents required to pay space rents as high as $1500.00 per month?  Ask yourself why someone would sign a long term agreement that is filled with confusing legalese and does nothing less than take advantage of unsuspecting residents up to the very end of the contract.   Ask yourself why there are so many empty spaces and vacant homes?   Then, when you return to your committees and have some representative from a lobbying firm sitting before you that spouts about the "extremely sophisticated property owners" they represent remember the drive you took through the Tatum-Kaplan mobilehome park.  


Too many residents have lost their piece of the "American Dream" to the Tatum-Kaplan greed based business.  THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS!  Our elected officials from the local level on up seemingly do not want to support us and appear to just look the other way when we point out the questionable business practices of our park owners.  If our elected officials don't start taking some meaningful actions against these predatory landlords, it may very well be time for mobile home park residents to start looking the other way at the ballot box.  It is our strong feeling that the Tatum-Kaplan organization needs to be investigated state wide.  Enough is enough!!! 


Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities
Members:
Senator Lou Correa (Chair)
Senator Elaine Alquist
Senator Ellen Corbett
Senator Tom Harman
Senator Alex Padilla
Senator Mark Wyland


California State Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development 

Norma J. Torres - Chair Dem-61 (916) 319-2061

Juan Arambula - Vice Chair Ind-31 (916) 319-2031

Steven Bradford Dem-51 (916) 319-2051

Mike Eng Dem-49 (916) 319-2049

Danny D. Gilmore Rep-30 (916) 319-2030

Steve Knight Rep-36 (916) 319-2036

Lori Saldaña Dem-76 (916) 319-2076

Tom Torlakson Dem-11 (916) 319-2011

Van Tran Rep-68 (916) 319-2068

REQUEST...ONE WAY YOU CAN HELP

In the last 2 months, approximately 37% of the visitors to this blog got here by entering "Tatum and Kaplan" or a name variation i.e. "Jeffrey Kaplan," "Thomas Tatum" in their chosen search engine.  If we add "Mobile Community Management" variations to the count the percentage  increases to over 50%.  We are now placed extremely well in three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing.  (Top three depending on what is entered.)  You should keep in mind that these are nation-wide searches for Tatum-Kaplan related information.  This indicates to us that a lot of people are doing some type of research on our park owners. 

So now, we are requesting that if you are a resident of a Tatum-Kaplan owned mobile home park, get out your digital cameras and snap a few pictures.  You've seen some of the examples we have posted on the blog from Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park and Brookside Mobile Country Club.  Send us your examples with a brief comment and we will try to post them here.  Don't worry, we will not divulge your identity or e-mail address.  It's an easy way for you to help expose these jerks.  Since we created this blog, we have had visits from numerous government agencies, banks, law firms, insurance companies, newspapers, etc., but we doubt that any of them have driven through a Tatum Kaplan owned park to see what it really looks like.  Your pictures can help take them on a virtual tour of all the Tatum Kaplan parks.  


To help us create a Tatum-Kaplan Mobile Home Park Gallery,  send your pictures here.

Thanks and best of luck to all of our visitors and a special thanks to Jeffrey A. Kaplan, Thomas T. Tatum and Mobile Community Management for helping us make this blog the success it is today.

An Example of MCM's Concern...

The following picture was taken a few days before the meeting Upland Cascade Mobile Home Park residents had with Mobile Community Management.  The former resident was evicted around January.  This lot was mentioned during the meeting and pointed out to Ms. Costaglio.

The next picture is the same lot nearly one month after the meeting.  (Click on the pictures for a larger view.)

A picture is worth a thousand words...unfortunately I cannot post them here.

Community Meeting with Mobile Community Management

It has been nearly a month since we had our meeting with our park management company..MCM.  In this post I will briefly tell you what was discussed as per information I received from attendees.  


First of all approximately 50 residents attended the meeting with MCM being represented by David Starnes, State Facilities Manager and Natalie Costaglio, Senior Regional Manager.  It was announced by Ms. Costaglio that Sue Brown and Dorothy Gunn could not attend because they were "very ill."  


The meeting began with Ms. Costaglio stating that MCM has always wanted to have a good working relationship with its residents.  This brought about a "since when!" response from one of our residents.  Many of the residents felt that the only reason management was here now was because of a possible failure to maintain lawsuit.  My feeling is that they were here fishing for information regarding what they might be facing should a lawsuit take place.  So right off, MCM's sincerity was in question.  


Ms. Costaglio then stated that MCM was not aware of any problems in the park because residents have not brought them to their attention.  Residents then responded that when resident concern forms were turned in they were never acted upon by management and many felt that the forms probably went no further than the local office.  


Some of the other topics discussed during the meeting are as follows:

One resident was concerned that management is not doing its job and so property values are declining.

Problems with dogs running loose were discussed.


Park appearance...park owned homes and empty lots are not being maintained.  Management responded that they maintain vacant lots with weeding and chaining.  (Chaining???)  Also, if someone is evicted or walks away, there is an in depth legal process that may prevent management from cleaning up the lot.


One home was the focus of discussion by a resident who claimed that his neighbor left the home in January and at that time signed the home over to the park.  It has sat there for months, unmaintained and an eyesore which is hindering his attempt to sell his own home.  He asked management why they could do nothing if the home was signed over to them in January.  Management offered no real answer to his questions.


Dried/dead plants and foliage around vacant homes were brought up as being a health and safety hazard.  One carelessly thrown cigarette could start a fire that could take a few homes with it.  It was asked, "does not MCM have employees go around the park and look at their own properties problems?"  Do residents need to tell them of every single space of theirs that needs to be attended to?


Water cut-off and electric outages were discussed.


Poor night lighting.

Poor security that allows squatters to camp out on vacant lots at night.


A rumor was brought up that the park sells their homes by offering much lower rents than a resident can offer a prospective buyer. 


An attempt was made to discuss the high rents in the park but Ms. Costaglio dismissed and ignored them because they were not a topic of discussion on her agenda.  Although many felt that the high rents were driving many residents out of the park and further decreasing the values of their homes, Ms. Costaglio simply refused to discuss this item.


There were other items discussed, but I have listed here some of the most important that were brought up.  If anything else is brought to my attention regarding this meeting I will bring it up in later posts.


Ms. Costaglio then closed the meeting stating that anytime residents want to have a meeting with management they are always willing to do so.  This could also include park issues such as the rents.

We'll see.

blighted condition

Within the last week, our park management has engaged in a frenzy of landscaping improvements around the clubhouse.  I suppose this is in preparation of the sugar-coating we will see during the community meeting between management and residents.  If you plan on attending this meeting prepare yourself to watch management pat themselves on the back for all the improvements they have made in this park.  Be prepared to listen to them claim that they are not responsible for the parks deteriorating conditions. Be prepared for management to ask you to point the finger at your friends and neighbors for the problems we have in our park.  


I recently found a web site with a letter posted from one of our park owners, Jeffrey Kaplan, to the City of Los Angeles.  I found the following paragraph particularly interesting:

"I.  Aesthetics:   Potentially Significant Impact.  The proposed ordinance would potentially degrade the existing visual character and quality of LA City hillside properties and surroundings areas as, for example, certain undeveloped lots and potions of lots will be required to remain in its "natural state" as opposed to being improved with new landscaping and development appropriate and consistent with currently existing area homes and properties.  By way of example, currently graded or ungraded lots (i.e., fenced and unfenced vacant lots consisting of little more than dirt and weeds) would potentially remain in a blighted condition as compared to being beautified, utilized and developed."



Jeffrey Kaplan is talking about multimillion dollar properties located in Los Angeles but he mentions some conditions that sound quite familiar to residents who live in Tatum Kaplan owned mobile home parks.  "By way of example, currently graded or ungraded lots (ie., fenced and unfenced vacant lots consisting of little more than dirt and weeds) would potentially remain in a blighted condition as compared to being beatified, utilized and developed."  There you have it!!!  Straight from Jeffrey Kaplan's keyboard.  According to this paragraph composed by Jeffrey Kaplan, "Vacant lots consisting of little more than dirt and weeds" are representative of "blighted conditions."  With this in mind, look at the following pictures and ask yourself why this quote would not apply to us.  Why would his description of "blighted conditions" apply only to vacant lots in Beverly Hills or Bel-Air but not to his mobile home parks in Upland, Santa Ana, El Monte, etc.?


Look at the following pictures...pictures of vacant lots and abandoned homes and tell me why anyone would believe we are not living in a park filled with "blighted conditions."  

Dead grass and foliage...a fire hazard in our recent heat spell or from a carelessly discarded cigarette.

Vacant, unimproved lots that sit in this state for years with "little more than dirt and weeds."

Dead leaves clutter this lot, again another fire and/or health and safety hazard.

 Three vacant lots right next to each other with weeds and rubble.

So go to the "community meeting" and keep all this in mind as park management tries to spin things in their favor.  Speak up and let them know what you think of them and their questionable business practices.  Remember...Residents should not fear their park owners, park owners should fear their residents.

Possible Failure to Maintain Lawsuit??? part 2

Well, well, well......In just a little over 24 hours after my previous post, look what appeared on Upland Cascade residents' mailboxes today:

Wow!  The "Resident Concern Form" that park management claimed they distributed on 7/1/10 suddenly appeared on our mailboxes!!!  What a coincidence!  Wait a minute.  You don't suppose that Mobile Community Management or even Tatum or Kaplan saw this post???  If that's true then I hope they will accept this blog and the concerns that I have expressed here in lieu of my completing their "Resident Concern Form."  Besides, all my complaints wouldn't fit on that tiny little form.

Possible Failure to Maintain Lawsuit???

It appears that residents of Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park are going to have a meeting with park management later this month.  (See copy of notice below.)  "The agenda will consist of discussing those topics raised in the law firm's questionnaire and any additional maintenance and rule violation issues raised in the Resident Concern forms."  First of all, do any residents know what the topics are that were raised in the law firm's questionnaire?  According to my information, not all residents received a questionnaire and those who did were not privy to what other residents claimed.  Secondly, there was no "Resident Concern Form" distributed to the residents by the park as the notice below claims. 

So, what will be discussed?  Park management wants you to point your finger at your neighbors for the problems we have with this park.  They want you to bring up "conditions of the Park, troublesome resident conduct issues that may arise, or the fact that not all residents maintain their mobilehomes and space the way they should."  Is it your neighbor's fault that there are many spaces consisting of only dirt and weeds surrounded by chains that "remain in a blighted condition as compared to being beautified, utilized and developed?" (Jeffrey A. Kaplan, 4/6/10)  Is it your neighbor's fault that many homes are now vacant because the residents were evicted or simply walked away from out of control rent increases and now their properties are filled with weeds and or dead foliage.  Park management knows these homes are vacant yet they do little if anything to clean them up until they feel they can sell them.  Is it your neighbor's fault that these blighted conditions are interfering with your attempts to sell your home?

If and when you go to this meeting, keep this all in mind.  Park management will do anything they can to spin our problems in their favor.  They will claim that they are professional and beyond reproach in managing all their parks throughout California. (Not true.)  They will do anything they can to dodge the responsibility of their deplorable park conditions and point the finger of blame at you and your neighbors.  But if you ask them anything at this meeting, ask them this...Why are they charging us the highest space rents in the city while our park appears to be the trashiest and poorest maintained?

In my opinion, a "failure to maintain" lawsuit simply does not go far enough for what is going on in Tatum-Kaplan owned parks. 

Upland...The City of Gracious Living Falls From Grace....

Many times I have pointed the finger at Upland City Hall as being part to blame for the problems Upland Cascade Mobile Home Park residents are facing.  For years they have been made aware of our park owners questionable business practices yet the City of Upland has failed to lend its residents any support.  In past posts I have pointed out that the City of Upland's motto is "The City of Gracious Living" and that to many of the City's residents, this motto appears only to apply to homeless animals and wealthy developers.  Well recent news indicates that the City of Upland has had a hard fall from grace and that my feelings about wealthy developers may not be too far off base.  

An excerpt from one of the recent Inland Valley Daily Bulletin articles follows: 

FBI probe involves several Upland businesses

"UPLAND - The FBI and IRS investigation that closed City Hall for an entire day Thursday is a far-reaching one that involves not only the mayor but a number of businesses and business owners in the region.
According to an FBI search warrant served to Mayor John Pomierski on Thursday to support the seizure of his cell phone, investigators were seeking records related to a number of businesses and people including Chronic Cantina, JH Builders, Upland Market Place and many others.
The records - including e-mails, text messages and address lists - are described as evidence of violations, including conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud, money laundering and racketeering, according to the search warrant.
When reached for comment on Friday, Pomierski deferred comments to his attorney Robert Schauer.
"I truly believe what's going to come out of this is nothing," Schauer said. "When all the smoke clears, you'll see there isn't anything there."

A team of more than 40 FBI and IRS agents on Thursday seized boxes of evidence at four locations - City Hall, Pomierski's home, JH Builders and Statewide Bancorp" 

Now this is exciting...I have always been of the opinion that our mayor is an arrogant buck-passing sob and it does my heart good to see that he is now caught up in something that could conceivably lead to jail time.   Possible "conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud, money laundering AND racketeering" sounds pretty serious to me and if they have or will invoke the RICO Act any who knowingly participated might find themselves cellmates with the mayor.

And what about the mayor's lawyer, Robert Schauer???  Isn't this the same Mr. Schauer who is a member of the City of Upland's planning commission and who caused such an uproar when he used the "N-word" during a February 8, 2010 city council meeting?  Class acts here.

Remember, it's the FBI and IRS (Federal agencies) that locked down City Hall from 9:00am to 10:00pm on Thursday while they searched for evidence.  This is not something these agencies do in a frivolous manner without some kind of proof of wrong doing.  City business came to a halt while the agencies searched and carried away boxes of material.   Who knows what will be found in those boxes?  I'll bet a lot of sphincter muscles tightened up at the news of this.

ARE THE RATS JUMPING SHIP???

Here's a little update for you.  This month I noticed more vacant homes and more homes up for sale. Another eviction took place at the end of March.    It now appears that our park manager has also quit and moved out of the park. 

So while our park's conditions continue to worsen, where is the City of Upland "our city of gracious living" when we need them?  The city knows full well what is going on in this park as it has been reported to them on numerous occasions by many of the residents yet the city fails to offer any real assistance claiming it is not their responsibility.  "City of Gracious Living???"  Again it appears that this is only true for wealthy developers and homeless animals...not for the middle and low income residents who are themselves about to be homeless at the hands of the questionable business practices of Jeffrey A. Kaplan, Thomas T. Tatum and their cohorts.  

How about our state officials...where are they?  They are aware what is happening to thousands of residents in the Tatum-Kaplan owned parks throughout the state yet everything still remains the same...abuses continue while residents feel trapped with little or no hope of rescue.

At least someone sent help when the Titanic was sinking...what about us?

Mobile Community Management Alleges "Interference with Sales/Leasing"

Earlier this year, MCM was at it again with their self-righteous bullcrap.  On January 11, 2010, they circulated a letter throughout Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park claiming that a resident approached a prospective buyer of a mobilehome and killed the sale with derogatory remarks about the park.  (A copy of their letter is posted below.)

 

As you read this you might want to keep in mind four possibilities may have taken place here.  The first possibility is that this allegation could just be made up by MCM in order to further intimidate residents into keeping their mouths shut about conditions in the park.  The second possibility is that maybe it is true and exactly as they have stated.  The third possibility is that maybe a resident approached a prospective buyer of one of the mobile homes that MCM (CMS) has for sale here and killed the sale with negative remarks and now MCM is pissed.  The fourth possibility would be that someone selling their mobile home in the park is claiming that the park management may have interfered with the sale of their home and the park wants to turn the blame around onto its residents.  I don't know what actually happened but why should residents have to take what the park says in their letters as fact?  Past experience has taught me that I must question and investigate anything that MCM states is true and you should do the same!


Let's look at the letter very closely and try to see what MCM is actually telling us.  In the first paragraph they say, "We have been informed about something disturbing that is happening in the Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park community.  We are writing to you out of a concern this has caused."  If our park owners and management are really concerned about your ability to sell your homes it's only because they hope you will play their game and sucker someone into accepting the terms of the long term lease from which you are trying to escape.


The second paragraph claims "that at least one resident who has negative feelings and thoughts about the mobilehome park had intentionally approached a prospective buyer and voiced their judgmental and derogatory opinions about the park to that buyer."  Again, do we have to take this statement by MCM as fact?  Remember and think about the four possibilities I have mentioned above.  The second paragraph continues, "Every person is entitled to their own opinion and freedom of speech; but to intentionally seek out a potential buyer of a neighbor's home and possibly kill the sale is just wrong and unkind."   Yes, we are entitled to our opinions and freedom of speech...no debate there however, based on all the information that has been provided previously in this blog, in your wildest imagination can believe that Jeffrey Kaplan, Thomas Tatum and MCM have room to preach about something being "wrong and unkind" in their parks?  Paragraph two ends up sounding a bit hypocritical when you watch your neighbors being unfairly priced out of their homes.  What is so righteous and kind about that?


Paragraph three then goes on to explain how potential buyers may visit the mobile home park several times to evaluate the possibility of living here.  MCM explains that potential buyers may "engage a resident in a conversation looking for some insight as to whether or not to buy in the mobilehome park.  We would ask residents to use their common sense and to not let their emotions get in the way of giving objective answers to any questions."  How on earth does one give an objective answer to a question without speaking the truth???  If you find yourself swimming in a pool of hungry sharks and someone on shore yells out to you "How's the water?"...do you set your emotions aside and reply "The water is fine." with no mention of the sharks?  This is what MCM and our park owners are asking you to do and this is totally absurd.


Paragraph four states: "Negative statements by current residents may not only stop a sale, but may eventually have the potential of decreasing home values throughout the park."  My God, how sickening that statement is in view of what MCM, Jeffrey Kaplan and Thomas Tatum have done to their park residents!!!  Our home values have already been decreased due to our park owners' greed, outrageous rents, unconscionable long term leases, deteriorating park conditions and questionable business practices.


In closing, I have not and would not intentionally seek out a prospective buyer with intent to kill the sale of a home in this park, but if someone approaches me and asks my opinion I would not hesitate to do the right thing, the honest thing and warn them about the "sharks." What would you do?

RAMBLE ON....

Thought I'd do some somewhat off topic rambling tonight. You see, sometimes the depression gets to me and I need to vent in order to sort things out and try to move on. At times I feel like I've been so unlucky. Poor choices? Too trusting? Naivety? My own stupidity? What has placed me here? I guess all of the above. *lol* But what has also placed me in this situation is the apparent insatiable greed of others. There are two diametrically opposite positions at work here of which I find myself on the short side. All I ever hoped for was to live comfortably, at ease with myself and to provide the same for my wife. (Could that be a much different than what Jeffrey and Thomas strive for?) I am most saddened by seeing my wife hurt, her pain, her heartache and I know she hides a lot from me so as not to bother or worry me. But still, she supports me and tells me no matter what she'll be with me, even when we lose our home to Tatum and Kaplan. That's one of the reasons I love her so much and that's why I will continue with this blog for as long as I am able. Maybe I am not quite so unlucky after all.

THEY CALL HIM FLIPPER...or Bring on the Clowns!!!

Jeffrey Kaplan and Thomas Tatum have once again shown us all that they are "extremely sophisticated property owners."  They have now joined the ranks of cheap insurance, furniture and mattress sales by hiring a "flipper."

 

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this guy gyrating on the corner of San Bernardino and Grove.  I wasn't laughing because the flipper was particularly good at his job, I just found this method so hideously foolish on the park's part. What next???  Circus clowns and cotton candy vendors???

FIRE!!!...News from Brookside Mobile Country Club in El Monte

On Easter Sunday afternoon, a mobile home in Brookside Mobile Country Club burned to the ground.  According to our on site contacts and a newspaper article approximately 30 firefighters showed up to put out the fire.  No one was injured and I was told that the home had been vacant due to a recent eviction.  One of Brookside's residents spoke with arson investigators on the scene and was told that it appeared the fire had been deliberately started.  If this is true then who did it?  The former owner?  A disgruntled resident?  Kids playing with matches?

Now if a former or current resident set this fire I can understand the frustration and anger that would lead them to do such a thing.  I can understand how park owners' and park management's abuses would push them to light a match to something they feel was being unfairly taken from them.  I can also understand how insensitive, ineffective city and state officials who are seemingly deaf to the problems of Tatum and Kaplan mobile home park residents would help lend a spark to this fire.  Residents want to be heard and although acts like this may call attention to our problems, they also endanger other homes and families.  Because of the possible danger to others, I do not support this kind of protest.  If this fire was the result of an accident, faulty electrical system or some kind of spontaneous combustion then an immediate and thorough investigation needs to be made to prevent this from happening again.

If this fire was intentionally set then that is a crime and if those responsible are caught they will most likely go to jail.  It's that simple.  The root cause of the crime is not quite so simple.

More Evictions, Empty Homes and Lots...Oh My!

I spotted another empty dirt lot in our park today and that raises the total to 14 empty lots.  There were also 4 evictions in December and January and that brings the empty homes total to at least 15.  If you are trying to sell your home do you think that so many empty lots coupled with eviction notices posted in windows would in some way interfere with your attempt to sell?  Every eviction, every empty lot, every empty home and every rent increase only further reduces the value and marketability of our homes.  To top this all off, Mobile Community Management warns residents not to participate in protests or say anything negative about the park owners and management becuase this could result in a "decreasing of home values throughout the park."  The core of the problems we face in Tatum Kaplan owned parks all boils down to egregious rents brought about by the unconscionable contracts used by our predatory landlords...not by our voicing our opinions.

HELD HOSTAGE IN OUR OWN HOMES

The following is paragraph 1.3 on page 1 of Tatum Kaplan "Standard Multiple Year Lease/Rental Agreement."  It explains what you can do to cancel the lease.  Let's take a look at this short paragraph.

"RESIDENT ACKNOWLEDGES THAT RESIDENT IS RECEIVING MANY IMPORTANT BENEFITS FROM THIS AGREEMENT, EXAMPLES OF WHICH ARE: PEACE OF MIND BECAUSE OF THE LONG-TERM RENT STABILITY AND KNOWLEDGE OF HOW RESIDENT'S RENT INCREASES WILL BE CALCULATED IN THE FUTURE;..."  In retrospect, I would really like to to question the important benefits we receive from this "agreement?"  The paragraph states that we will have "peace of mind because of the long-term rent stability." Ask any resident who has signed this lease and they will tell you that there is nothing further from the truth.  How can we have "peace of mind" with a contract that allows for anywhere between 10% to more than 70% rental increases?

"The knowledge of how resident's rent increases will be calculated in the future" is supposedly another benefit the contract claims we receive.  I have covered the rent calculations in a previous post however, with the confusing way in which this contract is constructed, how could a prospective resident foresee the possibility of the egregious increases we now face that force many of us out of our homes?

Another "benefit" that supposedly provides us with "peace of mind" is the "resident's ability to terminate this agreement without any liability to owner by selling/transferring residents mobilehome or assigning resident's right to occupy resident's space to someone who will accept an assignment of this agreement."  So, in order to cancel this contract, you must submit to playing the park owners' nefarious game by convincing someone else to accept this Trojan Horse contract.  If you somehow convince someone to buy your home and accept assignment of this agreement, then they will not be eligible to the benefits of rent control.  There is nothing in this contract that would indicate the difficulties we would face in selling/transferring our homes in the future.

The final section of this paragraph states that you can terminate this agreement without any liability to the owners by moving your mobilehome from the park and allowing control of the space to revert to the owners.  This is not as easy as it sounds since it may cost $15,000 to $20,000 to move a mobilehome.  If you can't afford the rent that has ballooned up beneath your home then where is $15-20,000 going to come from?  Also, it is my understanding that some mobilehome movers will not move a used mobilehome...depends on the age of the home.

There are two other ways you can terminate the contract.  One is to just wait and do nothing until the rent has been increased so much you cannot afford to pay it.  This will then result in an unlawful detainer being filed against you and most likely you will be evicted.  The end result is a judgment against you and the parkowners get your home.  The second way is to simply walk away from your home and this results in the parkowners getting your home.

So, does it feel like you are being held hostage in your own home?  Every month you pay Tatum and Kaplan ransom in order to keep your home which you are unable to sell because of their predatory contract.  You can't sell your home because at this point in time the rent far exceeds space rents in other parks in the City of Upland.  You can't move your home because of its age or the costs of moving it.  The ultimate ransom you must pay to escape these evil landlords is giving them your home.  Where are the "benefits?"  Where is the "peace of mind?"

Pictures from Brookside Mobile Country Club

The following pictures are from one of our sister parks...Brookside Mobile Country Club.  I'm not joking, "country club" is part of the name.  Tatum and Kaplan own this park and I am told that it was once a very nice park prior to their ownership.  At this time, many of the space rents far exceed $1500.00 per month and the park now abounds with a number of vacant homes and vacant spaces.  Imagine the difficulty of living in this park and trying to sell your home when empty dirt lots and boarded up homes surround you.  These empty dirt lots and boarded up homes in my opinion add up to slum-like conditions.  What do you think?

 

 

A lobbyist for the California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance claimed in front of an Assembly Housing Committee that Tatum and Kaplan are "extremely sophisticated property owners."  Look at these picutres.  Look around your Tatum Kaplan owned park.  Does it look like Tatum and Kaplan are "extremely sophisticated property owners?" Do our state representatives actually buy into CMPA's lobbyists' claims?  They need to visit our parks to see what is actually taking place.