If you paid rent for a mobile home lot or manufactured home lot in a mobile home community after August 30, 2019, you may be entitled to recover financial compensation from a manufactured home lot rent price antitrust class action lawsuit case or settlement claim.
A team of class action attorneys and antitrust lawyers has been investigating potential class action lawsuit cases and settlement claims of individuals and families who rented mobile home lots located in certain mobile home communities and who may have paid too much in rent.
On August 31, 2023 a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against several owners of manufactured home communities and one of the nation’s largest provider of manufactured and mobile home data, styled as Ronald Kazmirzak and Carla Hajek v. Datacomp Appraisal Systems Inc., et al. Case No. 1:23-cv-06715 (Judge Franklin U. Valderrama) alleging, among other things, that Defendants engaged in a price fixing conspiracy to artificially inflate the price of manufactured home lot rentals, in violation of antitrust laws.
A copy of the class action complaint can be downloaded here.
Mobile Home Lot Rent Class Action Lawsuit Case
Manufactured home lot rental price antitrust class action lawsuit and settlement cases potentially being investigated include claims involving individuals who, after August 30, 2019, paid rent for a manufactured home lot to a manufactured home community owner, including:
- Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (“ELS”)
- Sun Communities, Inc. (“Sun Communities”)
- RHP Properties, Inc. (“RHP”)
- YES! Communities, Inc. (“YES! Communities”)
- Inspire Communities, L.L.C. (“Inspire Communities”)
- Kingsley Management, Corp. (“Kingsley”)
- Cal-Am Properties, Inc.’s (“Cal-Am”)
- Lakeshore Communities, Inc. (“Lakeshore Communities”)
- Hometown America Management, L.L.C. (“Hometown America”)
- Other manufactured home community owners
Manufactured home lots (a/k/a mobile home lots or manufactured housing lots) are plots of land where mobile home residents place their manufactured homes. Manufactured home lots are typically located in residential developments called manufactured home communities or mobile home parks. More than 20 million Americans live in mobile or manufactured homes, which make up about 6% of U.S. residences.
Although most manufactured home residents own their mobile homes, they usually rent the lots on which they set down their mobile homes from the owners of manufactured home communities. Unfortunately, however, in recent years, manufactured home lot rents paid by manufactured home residents have increased significantly. For example, manufactured home lot rental prices increased by approximately 9.1% per year between 2019 and 2021 (versus only 2.3% per year from 2010-2018).
Manufactured Home Lot Rent Antitrust Lawsuit
The mobile home lot rent price class action lawsuit was brought on behalf of, and potentially includes unless otherwise excluded, the following:
All persons and entities who paid rent directly to a Manufactured Home Community Defendant or an Unnamed Co-Conspirator for a manufactured home lot located in a manufactured home community which was included in a JLT Market Report between August 31, 2019 and the present.
Defendants in the manufactured home lot rental price class action have included Equity LifeStyle Properties ELS, Hometown America, Lakeshore Communities, Sun Communities, RHP Properties, YES! Communities, Inspire Communities, Kingsley Management and Cal-Am Properties (collectively the “Manufactured Home Community Defendants”) and Datacomp Appraisal Systems, Inc. (“Datacomp”).
According to the manufactured home lot rental price class action complaint, the Manufactured Home Community Defendants used reports published by Datacomp known as JLT Market Reports that contained non-public, competitively sensitive information about manufactured home lot rental prices and occupancy to coordinate and fix, stabilize, or maintain, at artificially high levels, the amounts they charged mobile home occupants to rent their manufactured home lots.
Mobile Home Lot Renters Seek To Recover Damages For Alleged Overcharges Paid On Lot Rentals
The manufactured home lot rental price class action complaint alleges that mobile home lot renters throughout the United States suffered damages in the form overcharges paid on mobile home lot rentals.
The manufactured home lot rental class action complaint asserts three claims for relief: Count 1 alleges a price fixing violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, against all defendants; Count 2 alleges an information exchange in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act against all defendants; and Count 3 alleges unjust enrichment against the manufactured home community defendants.
Plaintiffs in the mobile home lot rental price antitrust class action lawsuit seek to recover, among others things, treble (i.e., triple) the amount of damages sustained by them, the costs of the lawsuit, reasonable attorneys’ fees, pre- and post-judgment interest and injunctive relief.
If you paid rent for a mobile home lot in a manufactured home community after August 30, 2019, you may be entitled to recover financial compensation from a mobile home lot rental price class action lawsuit case or settlement claim. Contact an antitrust class action lawyer to request a free case review.
Please note: At this time, we are not accepting new client cases. However, if, and when, the Court certifies the case as a class action and notice is provided to the class, you may be included automatically as an absent class member at that time if you qualify.
*The listing of a company (e.g., Datacomp, ELS, Hometown America, Lakeshore Communities, Sun Communities, RHP Properties, YES! Communities, Inspire Communities, Kingsley Management, Cal-Am Properties, etc.) is not meant to state or imply that the company acted illegally or improperly; rather only that an investigation may be, is or was being conducted to determine whether legal rights have been violated.
**The use of any trademarks, tradenames or service marks is solely for product identification and/or informational purposes.
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