Mobile home rent discrimination case raises legal questions in Massachusetts
The state bans price discrimination at parks. Hometown America argues it should be able to charge new residents more than longtime ones.
Ed Bartok recently showed off the bit of land between his home and a winding brook in central Massachusetts. After he and his wife, Rose, retired from the U.S. Air Force, they sold a single-family house and decided to spend their golden years here at the Miller’s Woods and River Bend mobile home park in Atholin.
They had a brand new place, paid off already, and maybe the best part: Their monthly lot rent was just $650.
“We’re very, very happy,” Ed Bartok said. “We love the little house. It’s perfect.”
Still, the Bartoks found out some of their neighbors were paying hundreds less in rent — apparently in violation of state law. So, Ed Bartok and a resident at a different park sued the owner, Hometown America, which owns roughly 80 mobile home parks across the country and a handful in Australia.
“No one has twice the lot that someone else [has],” Ed Bartok said. “We all get water and trash and taxes [included], everyone gets the same access to the clubhouse. We should all be paying the same.”
Price discrimination is common in the U.S. economy. Ticket sellers charge different prices for the same seats. Uber commands more for rush hour rides. But different rents at mobile home parks are at the center of a legal battle unfolding in Massachusetts.
It’s the second lawsuit Hometown America has faced in the state, which bans price discrimination in parks. In 2020, the state’s highest court ruled against Hometown and upheld rent uniformity.
Even so, Hometown continues to argue it should be able to charge new residents more than renters who have been in place for decades.
The company declined to comment because of the ongoing lawsuit and redirected questions to Lesli Gooch of the Manufactured Housing Institute. She said price uniformity comes with unintended consequences.
“Massachusetts is an outlier,” Gooch said. “And this idea, while good on its face: ‘Oh, isn’t that nice? Everybody pays the same rent,’ It does impact the ability to manage the community.”
That’s because over time, having to equalize rents would result in higher prices for those least able to afford it, Gooch said.
But there’s also big money at stake for park owners. In court documents, Hometown claims the inability to raise rents for new residents, at one park, could cost it $81 million over two decades.
“This is going to sound bad, but you want to extract as much money from customers as a pool as you can,” said Eric Dolansky, a marketing professor at Brock University in Canada. “And you do that by getting the customers who are willing to pay the most.”
Dolansky said charging different prices for the same product is typical, like when a new iPhone comes out, the most enthusiastic customers pay most to get it first, then prices go down over time.
But smartphones and ballgames are one thing. Dolansky said there are ethical questions when you’re talking about a basic human need.
“The government will step in where they feel that, for example, there may be predatory practices, in situations where it is something that is needed by everyone,” Dolansky said.
Like a place to live.
In addition to making its case in court, Hometown America is trying to change Massachusetts law to do away with price uniformity.
And Ed Bartok, the park resident, said mobile homes are a great way for retirees like him to live affordably.
“The state has been talking a lot about affordable housing,” Bartok said. “Well, how about modular or manufactured homes?”
And Hometown America agrees; the company just said it wants to be able to raise rents as it sees fit.