Mobile Home Owners Are Hit With Rent Increase

For Carol Buechler, a resident of MacLeod’s Mobile Home Park in Riverside, a nearly $600 annual increase in her rent could force her to cancel her Cablevision subscription.

Ms. Buechler—who lives in a bright yellow mobile home, complete with a flower box full of multicolored plastic flowers—and her neighbors will be forced to absorb a $49.75 monthly increase in their rent starting in May, after their landlord decided in January to raise fees across the board in the 55-and-over community.

Like many of her neighbors who rent the land on which their mobile homes are located, Ms. Buechler is a senior citizen living on a fixed income. She said on Tuesday that the hike is something she did not anticipate when she moved into MacLeod’s in 2005, following her retirement.

“I hate it,” Ms. Buechler said while sitting in the kitchen of her home on Tuesday morning. “It’s not like I can put [my mobile home] on my back and move away.”

All of those living in the park will be subject to the increase as part of an across-the-board rent hike that will also affect the Riverhaven and Lakewood mobile home parks in Riverhead. All three are owned by the same company, MacLeod Communities Inc. of Riverhead, and residents of each park said they are angry about the increase.

They have already enlisted the help of State Assemblymen Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Dan Losquadro, who have cosponsored legislation that seeks to stabilize rent paid by the owners of mobile homes. If it becomes law, the legislation would give them 90 days to challenge future increases in court, as long as their home serves as their primary residence and the proposed increase pushes the rent above the state average for such communities.

Mr. Thiele said this week that he does not know when the State Assembly would vote on the bill. He did note, however, that similar legislation he introduced a few years earlier was approved by the Assembly but rejected by the Senate. State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle intends to reintroduce a Senate version of the bill once it passes the Assembly.

At the present time, those living in MacLeod’s and its two sister developments pay rental fees that vary depending on lot size and location. Ms. Buechler said she currently pays $630 a month, though that figure is going to climb to nearly $680 in May.

At the February meeting of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association, MacLeod’s Civic Association President Pauline Sandmann read a letter from Myron MacLeod, the owner of the three mobile home parks. In his letter, Mr. MacLeod states that while he knows many will not like the rent increases, he had no choice because he has to pay for nearly $2 million in renovations at the Riverside complex that have occurred over the past few years. He pointed out that he paid for improvements to the clubhouse and other park facilities.

Attempts to reach Mr. MacLeod for comment were unsuccessful.

Though she has two pensions—one from working at Northrop Grumman Corporation and another from her job as a medical assistant—Ms. Buechler said she still struggles to pay her bills. Though she has no children or grandchildren, she said the cost of veterinary care for her two pugs, Maxi and Bugzi, adds to her expenses. The fact that MacLeod’s allows pets was one of the reasons why she decided to move to the mobile home park after selling her home in Coram.

Ms. Buechler pointed out that rising school taxes, compounded by the rent increase, will cause her to cut back on the few luxuries that she has in her life, such as her television.

“It’s getting outrageous for someone who is on a fixed income,” she said. “May is coming, and I’m eventually going to have to come up with the money somewhere. Cablevision might have to go.”

While he understands that his legislation, if approved, will come too late to help those in MacLeod’s, Mr. Thiele said one of his goals is to give them some piece of mind knowing that such an increase could not happen again without proper notification.

“This legislation would simply give mobile home tenants a right of legal action to challenge unreasonable rent increases,” said Mr. Thiele who recently attended a rally at Riverhead Town Hall to discuss the upcoming rental increases. “They don’t have that right now.”

As for Ms. Buechler, she said she has invested too much money into her retirement home, noting that she just purchased a new dishwasher, washer and dryer and paid someone to remove her old orange shag carpet, to find another place to live.

“I have to pay LIPA. I have to pay health insurance,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do.”