Lawsuit claims mobile home park managers conspired to fix and inflate lot rental prices

CHICAGO (AP) — A lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses nine mobile home community management companies and a mobile home market data provider of conspiring to fix and inflate lot rental prices at more than 150 locations across the U.S. The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Chicago claims the management companies bought up mobile home parks and used “competitively sensitive market data” provided by Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Datacomp Appraisal Systems Inc. to exchange pricing information and conspire to raise rents. It says lot rents rose by 9% per year between 2019 and 2021. Datacomp and its parent company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.