ORANGE CITY, Fla. — For months Deborah Carroll has been battling late-stage ovarian cancer. Now, she’s losing her beloved home.

“It’s been a literal nightmare for us,” Carroll said one recent morning, in the middle of packing her small collection of belongings after returning from a cancer treatment. “A lot of our people have packed up and left.”

 It’s all because of an increase in monthly lot rent that just took effect at Candlelight Mobile Home Community in Orange City. The amount of the increase — almost $200 per month — is significant for the seniors who call this community home. Many, like Carroll, survive on fixed incomes.

 Deborah Carroll

Though Carroll owns her mobile home, she still has to pay a monthly lot rent for the land, which is standard practice at mobile home communities. But even though she owns her home, Carroll can’t move it out of the park. That’s because of an agreement she and other residents signed when purchasing their homes at Candlelight. The home can’t be moved from the park for 20 consecutive annual lease terms, according to the purchase agreement.

It’s not unusual for mobile home parks to include a stipulation for how long a resident’s home must remain onsite, real estate and consumer attorney Charles Gallagher said.. A stipulation like that can, for example, prevent “vacation” crowds from popping in and out of what’s intended to be a stable, residential community. 

 A requirement to keep the home onsite for that length of time does seem unusual, Gallagher said.

“In some respects, you’re kind of binding somebody to a 20-year lease, if you think of it that way,” Gallagher said. “So that would be atypical in terms of length, I think.”

Agreements like the one Carroll signed can also encourage mobile home park residents to develop a real sense of ownership over their community, Gallagher said. But that’s not how many Candlelight residents feel — not solely because of the rent increase itself, but because of the way that increase was put into place.

Back in June, residents received a written notice from property managers, informing them a rent increase would take effect January 1. According to the notice, ownership had already met with homeowners who represented the Candlelight community a week prior and laid out reasons for the $190 monthly increase.

Residents were shocked to learn of this meeting that had apparently already taken place.

 “It just floored all of us,” Carroll said. 

Homeowner Doreen “Dee” Losi said residents were never informed of the opportunity to discuss rent increases with ownership before those rates were solidified.

“The choice had been made without us,” Losi said.

Under Florida law, any lot rent increase at a mobile home community must be communicated in writing to homeowners at least 90 days before the change takes effect. Also required is a meeting between park ownership and a representation of affected homeowners, to discuss the reasons for the increase.

But according to Losi and other residents, affected Candlelight homeowners weren’t given the chance to be properly represented at the June meeting with park ownership.

Florida Statute 723.07 reads that park owners shall meet with a committee of five or fewer people, “designated by a majority of the affected mobile home owners or by the board of directors of the homeowners’ association, if applicable.”

“It’s not an optional issue, where a park can say, ‘We don’t really need this, don’t really want this,’ ” Gallagher said. “No, [if] there’s an increase, you gotta form a committee. You gotta have that meeting with the ownership or developer.”

But Losi said a majority of Candlelight homeowners never even had the chance to elect a committee to represent them at the meeting — which they never heard about, until after it had already happened. 

That’s what they’re working on now: collecting a petition of signatures to elect Losi, along with three other residents, to such a committee. Already 100 individual signatures have been collected. With approximately 108 units on Candlelight property, those signatures represent a majority of residents.

“We just really wanted to meet with [ownership] to come to something fair. We get that it’s a business,” Losi said. “And we get that most properties increase anywhere from $5 to $15. That’s the average. But let’s say they had to do more, $25 even, if there’s a reason. We’ve never been shown that reason.”

A sudden monthly increase of $100 or more — like the one at Candlelight — would be on “the outer limits of being permissible or normal,” according to Gallagher. He said if more amenities were to be added, or if other improvements were to be made to the park, that might justify the lot rate increase.

But homeowner Kim Mueller said compared to other parks in the area, Candlelight does not offer many amenities. That’s becoming an issue for residents like her, who are now trying — and failing — to sell their mobile homes.

“We don’t have a pool. We can’t use the clubhouse. The laundry room is locked,” Mueller said. “There’s nothing here.”

According to a document obtained by Spectrum News, ownership would this spring begin planning to install a pool at the community. The park itself was sold by the previous owners for $7.5 million in March 2020, public records show.

Carroll hasn’t had any luck selling her home, either, even after marking it down to what she said is half price: $2,500. She said Candlelight’s high lot rent is largely to blame.

“We can't sell our homes because nobody’ll buy them, knowing what the lot rent is,” Carroll said. “Most people get in their car and leave.”

Carroll said she managed to scrape together enough to pay her now $700 lot rent for January but knew she wouldn’t be able to sustain those payments going forward. She decided to move in with a friend, who lives in another nearby community.

“I have a lot of stress because of it,” Carroll said. “I’m losing my home, and now my health is just deteriorating to the point where I don’t know how much time I have left.”

Property managers at Candlelight Mobile Community declined to be interviewed for this story, directing Spectrum News to instead contact a law firm based in Sarasota. An attorney at that firm, Jody Gabel, said she had no comment.

Molly Duerig is a Report for America corps member who is covering affordable housing for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.