Levald, Inc. v. City of Palm Desert

We are called upon to consider, yet again, a takings challenge to mobile home rent control laws.

I

Levald, Inc. owns a mobile home park in the city of Palm Desert, California. Residents of the park own their mobile homes but rent pads from Levald. Levald provides private streets and common areas, along with other lesser amenities. The vast majority of mobile homes are never moved once they are placed in the park.

The park is subject to California’s Mobile-home Residency Law, California Civil Code § 798 et seq. (“the residency law”). The impetus for the residency law was the legislature’s finding that “because of the high cost of moving mobilehomes, the potential for damage resulting therefrom, the requirements relating to the installation of mobile-homes, and the cost of landscaping or lot preparation, it is necessary that the owners of mobilehomes occupied within mobilehome parks be provided with the unique protection from actual or constructive eviction afforded by provisions of this chapter.” Cal.Civ.Code § 798.55(a). The residency law severely limits the ability of the mobile home park owner to terminate the tenancy of the mobile home owner, and provides that the park owner…