ALBANY — A tenants’ group representing residents in 16 Hoffman Homes mobile home parks has filed a class-action lawsuit to end what the group alleges is a conspiracy between lenders and the parks’ operators to trap low-income residents in high-interest loans for poorly constructed homes.
The petition filed in U.S. District Court in Albany alleges that parks’ owners “capture and exploit people of limited means and housing options who seek the dream of owning a home in a (manufactured home) park.”
“In the state of New York and in the Hoffman parks, instead of achieving the dream of home ownership, many wake up to the nightmare of an overpriced, unfit home, a long-term high-interest chattel loan, and unlawful charges and substantial rent increases, backed by the threat of eviction, in a poorly serviced park: a nightmare from which there is no practical means of escape,” the civil complaint states.
Hoffman Tenants Advocacy Group, represented by New York City attorney Scott Richman, seeks relief for tenants at 1,063 lots owned by Hoffman, mainly in Saratoga County but also in Albany, Fulton, Montgomery and Washington counties. It’s part of an ongoing struggle between the tenants and Hoffman and its management company, ASH Management and SCH Communities. The unrest began when Hoffman started passing its property tax costs onto the tenants who don’t own the land…