Residents of a Bowdoin mobile home park are on edge after a series of rent hikes following the park’s sale to a New York-based real estate firm.

In June 2021, Maine MHP LLC, a subsidiary of the holding company Philips International in Great Neck, New York, purchased the park.

Jerry Highfill looks over the Facebook group he is putting together to fight against the recent rent increases for Mountain View Estates in Bowdoin. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

Jerry Highfill, a 78-year-old Air Force veteran who has lived in the Mountain View Estates mobile home park for 20 years, said his rent has increased several times since. Soon after the sale, residents were notified that their lot rent would be increasing $35. The next year, it increased again by the same amount. Most recently, Highfill said his rent went up again by $75, bringing his total lot rent to $525.

“Nobody from the corporation has ever been here,” Highfill said. “The only communication we have with the corporation is we have a phone number to call, but it is the same number for all the mobile home parks, and they never answer.”

Philips International did not respond to numerous requests for comment. The company owns 53 mobile home parks in 12 states, with seven in Maine.

Two residents of the park recently decided to move, and their lots are listed for $700 rent, leading to concern among other residents that their rent could be increased by as much as another $200 in the near future. Lot rent has already increased about $180 in three years, according to Highfill, a 52% increase.

These rent hikes come despite the fact that taxes on the property have dropped significantly. In 2023, taxes on the property were $14,234. This year, real estate taxes dropped by more than $4,000 to $10,141, according to municipal records.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Highfill said. “Or put it this way, it makes sense for the corporation, but it doesn’t make sense for the tenants.”

According to records from the Bowdoin Town Office, the park’s sale price in 2021 was $790,400, which includes the land and four buildings on the property. The property’s current value is $954,900, according to Ed Hodgins, the Bowdoin assessor agent.

Maine state Rep. Sally Cluchey, whose district includes part of Bowdoin, said in an email to The Times Record: “I am committed to doing more research on this complex issue and having in-depth conversations with my colleagues on the Legislature’s Housing Committee before taking a definitive stance.”

“I understand the significant challenges that tenants across Maine are facing as rent prices continue to rise, especially given the increased cost of living over the past few years,” she said.

In October 2023, a law went into effect that requires mobile home park owners to notify their tenants if they intend to sell the park and give tenants the opportunity to buy the property themselves. It came two years too late to apply to Mountain View Estates residents.

Cluchey said it’s important to note that there are no laws prohibiting Maine municipalities from regulating rental rates. This means that if local governments believe rent control is needed in their communities, they have the authority to pursue and implement such policies.

The only rent control ordinance passed in Maine was in Portland, going into effect in 2021, but it only covers apartment buildings, homes and short-term rentals, not mobile home lot rent.

Highfill has created a Facebook group, “Bowdoin mobile home tenants against unjust corporate lot increases.” He is still weighing his options on what to do about the recent rent increases.

“We live in a mobile home not because it is luxury living but because it’s all we can afford,” Highfill said.