The Four Seasons mobile home park in Fresno is operated by Equity Lifestyle Properties, which is named in a new federal lawsuit. Google Earth image

A lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses nine mobile home community management companies and a mobile home market data provider of conspiring to fix and inflate lot rental prices at more than 150 locations across the U.S., including Fresno.

The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Chicago claims the management companies bought up mobile home parks and used “competitively sensitive market data” provided by Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Datacomp Appraisal Systems Inc. to exchange pricing information and conspire to raise rents.

Clara Hajek and Gregory Hammerlund, on behalf of others similarly situated, brought the complaint to recover damages and seek injunctive relief, according to court documents. In addition to Datacomp, the mobile home management communities named include Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc.; Hometown America Management, LLC.; Lakeshore Communities, Inc.; Sun Communities, Inc.; RHP Properties, Inc.; YES! Communities, Inc.; Inspire Communities, L.L.C.; Kingsley Management, Corp.; and Cal-Am Properties, Inc.

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. operates the Four Seasons mobile home park in Fresno, which is named as one of the markets where manipulation took place.

“In the face of these significant manufactured home lot rent increases, some manufactured home residents were not only facing severe financial pressures, but even the threat of eviction,” Gregory Asciolla, an attorney with Chicago-based DiCello Levitt, one of the law firms filing the suit, said in a news release.

About 20 million Americans live in manufactured homes, which makes up 6% of U.S residents. According  to federal data, in 2022  nearly one-third of the 10.5 million adults living in these manufactured homes were over the age of 60.

It also listed that those individuals with a median household income of approximately $35,00 were being overcharged for what was meant to be affordable housing.

“Manufactured home lot rental prices were blatantly inflated at a staggering rate of 9.1% per year between 2019 and 2021,” said Adam Levitt,  DiCello Levitt partner.

Institutional investors led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds have swooped in to buy mobile home parks.

The purchases have put residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.

Telephone and electronic messages seeking comment were left for Datacomp and its Chicago-based parent company, Equity LifeStyle Properties.

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The Business Journal contributed to this report.