{"id":15782,"date":"2024-07-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/?p=15782"},"modified":"2024-07-01T22:29:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T02:29:38","slug":"trailer-park-residents-file-class-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/our-impact\/housing\/trailer-park-residents-file-class-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailer Park Residents File Class Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Mobile Home Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against Landlord Challenging Exorbitant Rent Increases<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Lawsuit Alleges Parakeet Communities Deceived, Exploited Vulnerable Residents<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents of two mobile home parks in Auburn, Massachusetts filed a class action lawsuit against the parks\u2019 owner, Parakeet Communities, Inc. (\u201cParakeet\u201d). The plaintiffs are all senior citizens and others living on low incomes due to disability or retirement. Their suit \u2014 filed in Worcester Superior Court by\u00a0<strong>Lawyers for Civil Rights\u00a0<\/strong>(\u201cLCR\u201d) and\u00a0<strong>Anderson &amp; Kreiger LLP\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 alleges that Parakeet is illegally exploiting and defrauding them by, among other things, charging unconscionable rents that vastly exceed fair market rates, withholding critical information about park ownership, and making false and misleading claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the term \u201cmobile home,\u201d residents of mobile home parks \u2014 who are typically senior citizens, disabled individuals, and others on fixed incomes \u2014 cannot feasibly move their homes. Massachusetts lawmakers have recognized that these factors create a power imbalance between residents and park owners and have, therefore, passed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/info-details\/manufactured-housing-law\" class=\"broken_link\">strict laws<\/a>&nbsp;to level the playing field. Among other protections, the laws dictate that owners must make substantial disclosures before raising rents and offer five-year leases to new and renewing tenants.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as outlined in today\u2019s complaint, Parakeet has repeatedly and knowingly violated the park residents\u2019 legal rights in an effort to hinder their bargaining position and exploit them for financial gain. Parakeet\u2019s unfair and deceptive practices include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Withholding information and documents that residents were legally entitled to have as they considered new lease or tenancy offers;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Refusing to provide mandatory five-year lease offers to renewing residents;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Subjecting residents to illegal lease provisions;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Making false and misleading claims as part of lease offers; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Charging unconscionable rent amounts that vastly exceed fair market rental rates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This is exactly the kind of unscrupulous business conduct that violates Massachusetts\u2019 expansive Consumer Protection Act. As Parakeet has imposed outrageous rent increases this year through its unfair practices listed in the complaint \u2014 including some as high as 40%&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;many tenants are facing imminent financial ruin and homelessness. The harm has been so acute that some residents have resorted to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/our-impact\/housing\/mobile-home-residents-demand-justice\/\">creating a food bank<\/a>&nbsp;for their neighbors. The Massachusetts Attorney General has recognized that mobile home community residents are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/doc\/attorney-generals-guide-to-manufactured-housing-may-2024\/download#page=8\" class=\"broken_link\">entitled to respect and deserving of legal protections<\/a>, but the Plaintiffs are currently getting the benefit of neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The park residents have repeatedly sought to resolve this matter amicably with Parakeet \u2014 sending letters to the company in both&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/our-impact\/housing\/mobile-home-residents-demand-justice\/\">January<\/a>&nbsp;and April of 2024 \u2014 but Parakeet has refused to engage with them in good faith and has now begun eviction proceedings against some residents. Given Parakeet\u2019s lack of responsiveness, and the ongoing harm it is inflicting on residents, the Plaintiffs have been left with no choice but to seek judicial intervention and relief.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis class action lawsuit will protect the vulnerable residents of mobile home parks\u2014one of the very last bastions of affordable housing in America,\u201d said&nbsp;<strong>Jacob Love,&nbsp;Staff Attorney at LCR<\/strong>. \u201cThese parks can only remain low-cost if community owners face consequences for illegal and financially exploitative practices. We won\u2019t let Parakeet, or other owners, flaunt the law.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is unconscionable for landlords\u2014especially large ones like Parakeet\u2014to take advantage of these vulnerable families.&nbsp;&nbsp;Massachusetts provides mobile home residents with special protections for good reason and Parakeet\u2019s refusal to comply with those protections must be rectified immediately,\u201d said&nbsp;<strong>Sean Grammel, an attorney at Anderson &amp; Kreiger LLP<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cParakeet has made life a living nightmare for me and my fellow residents\u201d said&nbsp;<strong>Amy Case<\/strong>, a&nbsp;mobile home park&nbsp;resident&nbsp;and&nbsp;named Plaintiff. \u201cIts actions have stretched our finances past the limit and created constant fear that we will lose our homes. We deserve to be treated with fairness and respect and brought this case to secure our legal rights.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trailer-Park-Complaint.pdf\">here<\/a> to download the complaint. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\"  class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trailer-Park-Complaint.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Trailer Park Complaint.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-d009280c-abc2-48b3-be67-f7bb431c54ba\" href=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trailer-Park-Complaint.pdf\">Trailer Park Complaint<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trailer-Park-Complaint.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-d009280c-abc2-48b3-be67-f7bb431c54ba\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile Home Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against Landlord Challenging Exorbitant Rent Increases Lawsuit Alleges Parakeet Communities Deceived, Exploited Vulnerable Residents Residents of two mobile home parks in Auburn, Massachusetts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15784,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions\/15784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersforcivilrights.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}