The new owners of a Northfield mobile home community will revert to the park's previous rules and existing lease agreements after the Minnesota Attorney General's Office stepped in to protect residents from what they said were unreasonable changes that infringed on their rights.

Residents of Viking Terrace, a community of 185 mobile homes, formed a homeowners association and spoke at a City Council meeting earlier this month to protest the new leases and 40-page book of new regulations made by Lakeshore Management, an Illinois-based company that purchased the park in April.

"Here's what we're saying: Landlords, thank you for doing the right thing, if you are," said Attorney General Keith Ellison. "But the ones who are not, we're not going to let you mistreat people. Housing is too expensive and it's too important."

Ellison said he also hopes Lakeshore has a "change of attitude" and will start working collaboratively with residents.

Ellison said reaching a resolution at Viking Terrace didn't require a lawsuit, though they would have sued if necessary. His office is making fair, affordable housing and tenants' rights a priority, he said.

Examples of new rules at Viking Terrace included banning specific dog breeds, imposing a 10 p.m. curfew, requiring residents to get rid of certain lawn furniture and children's toys, forbidding children from playing in other residents' yards for any reason, prohibiting laundry lines and restricting residents from having guests for more than 10 days.

Many of the new rules contradicted what residents had been allowed to do for years under the previous lease.

Residents also reported that the rules were "being enforced against them aggressively," the Attorney General's Office news release said, with a "threat that failure to comply could result in an eviction."

Advocates and residents, who are mostly low-income and Latino, said they don't believe the struggle with Lakeshore is over.

"We're relieved ... but now it's like, what's next?" said longtime resident Jorge Zuccolotto , also president of the homeowners association. "We're happy for the moment."

According to Minnesota law, the news release said, any new regulations at mobile home parks must be "reasonable" and may not be "substantial modifications" of existing rules. New regulations cannot take away rights or privileges that residents were given previously.

In the last few months, residents have received letters and photos of their properties from Lakeshore with violations of the new rules circled in marker. The letters were intimidating, residents said, as was having Lakeshore staff take frequent, up-close photos of their properties at all hours.

Lakeshore didn't respond to a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

Mar Valdecantos, a school district translator and housing advocate with Rice County Neighbors United, has said Viking Terrace's actions are part of a nationwide pattern in which companies buy up mobile home parks, make some aesthetic improvements and then raise rents.

Higher rents eventually displace tenants, many who leave their mobile home behind because it is not structurally sound enough to be moved — and there's no other park taking new mobile homes, she said.

Valdecantos said a Lakeshore representative is coming next week to visit the community.

"We're looking into the next steps and how we tackle this," she said. "We remain very vigilant and not everything is going to be smooth sailing."

Even if Lakeshore reverts to its old rules, some residents may not be in compliance because they had verbal permission from the previous owner to do or have certain things, she said, such as a third parking spot.

Zuccolotto said he worries that Lakeshore will enforce unfair rules in other communities that may not be able to fight back. The company has other parks in Minnesota and in eight other states, according to its website.

He also said the company can raise rent and he believes it will do so soon. Rent has already increased $65.

"This is going to be a long journey — it's not over," he said. "I can see our future and it's not great."

Erin Adler is a suburban reporter covering Dakota and Scott counties for the Star Tribune, working breaking news shifts on Sundays. She previously spent three years covering K-12 education in the south metro and five months covering Carver County.

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