There is no joy for a pro-manufactured housing trade media to report any bad news about problematic cases. But ignoring bad news is debatably worse for the industry than not stating what the facts, concerns, and often mainstream media reports reflect. In this case, the jury has ruled.
As the late Howard Walker – ELS Vice Chairman – once said, if there is bad news, get it out there. If there is good news, get it out there. At a minimum, that practice enhances credibility.
With that understood, the sad saga of Kort & Scott’s Friendly Village manufactured home community has turned the page on its latest chapter. “A Los Angeles County jury has awarded $34 million in damages to 51 people who live or used to live in a troubled Long Beach mobile home park1 that residents say has been decaying for years without repairs,” per the left-coast’s LA Times.
The video below tees up the issues, prior to the ruling, from the perspective of local media.
“The damages, issued Tuesday, come a week after the jury hit the mobile home park owners with a $5.5-million judgment for negligence and violations of the state’s mobile home residency laws, said Brian Kabateck, an attorney for the current and former residents,” wrote Javier Panzar for the LA Times.
Jury Awards Millions to Residents in Suit Against Controversial Community Operator
A prior report on the Daily Business News on MHProNews – which outlined the original 5.5+ million dollar judgment, along with numerous additional case and background details – is found at the link above.
Kabateck said that 120 more cases are set for trial in 2019. All but four residents are still living at Friendly Village, and they plan to use case proceeds, once collected, to move. Collection of the judgment, of course, is another question. For more insights on that, not noted in the LA Times or video reports linked above, see the linked MHProNews report above.
Issues like this troubling one from LA in one of the top ten manufactured home states are among the many that the national association in Arlington, VA routinely fails to publicly grapple with. In doing so, they arguably dishonor the memory and wisdom of their former MHI Executive Committee board member’s advice.
See the tangentially related report about the need for reliable information, linked further below. “We Provide, You Decide.” © (News, analysis, and commentary.)
Footnote 1: The terminology miscue is in the original report.
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MHARR Recommending Independent Collective Representation for Post-Production
Washington, D.C., November 15, 2017 – The Board of Directors of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) has authorized the public release of a comprehensive internal study by the Association of the past, present and future representation of the post-production sector (PPS) of the federally-regulated manufactured housing industry.
