Willow Woods Rent Increase Appeal Set for February

An appeal on the rejected rent increase at Willow Woods will finally get heard by the , after it was rescheduled to February from a canceled Nov. 21 hearing.

California-based Carlyle Group, which owns the mobile home park, is appealing the rent control board’s , which would have amounted to an additional total of about $20 per month for many residents in the park.

At that meeting, Christopher Hanlon, the company’s attorney, argued that much of the increase was due to increased taxes and other feeds.

The company wasn't aiming to hike the rent to pay for other capital costs, Hanlon said, but was instead seeking an increase to cover those higher tax and water and sewer bills, along with a cost-of-living increase of 2.5 percent, which would've amounted to a total of anywhere between about $17 to $22 extra per month per home.

The increased costs from water and sewer and property taxes were simply the increase the park saw from the township, Hanlon said.

“We don't benefit one nickel from those components,” he said during the original hearing. “We've already spent it.”

The rent control board ultimately rejected the increase based at least partly on a litany of complaints from residents on everything from serious flooding issues, , to sewage backups and inattentive management.

The appeal is slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Feb. 11.