SUNCOMPLAINTS.COM · THE ALLEGED GAMES

Rent Hikes and the Datacomp Case

If your lot rent jumped far faster than the cost of living in the last several years, you are in large company — and a federal lawsuit says that was not a coincidence. In re Manufactured Home Lot Rents, filed in federal court in 2023 (Case No. 1:23-cv-06715), names Sun Communities alongside eight other major owners — Equity LifeStyle Properties, Hometown America, Lakeshore Communities, RHP Properties, YES! Communities, Inspire Communities, Kingsley Management and Cal-Am Properties — plus Datacomp, a pricing-data company serving the industry.

What the lawsuit alleges

The plaintiffs — residents suing on behalf of a class — allege that the owners used Datacomp's shared market data to coordinate lot-rent increases, pushing annual hikes from a historical norm around 2% to 9% or more in affected markets. The owners deny wrongdoing. Nothing in this article is a finding: it is a summary of allegations in a public court filing, and the defendants are entitled to their day in court.

Where the case stands — honestly

In December 2025, the court dismissed the complaint without prejudice — a procedural ruling that lets the plaintiffs try again, not a verdict that nothing happened. A second amended complaint was filed in January 2026, and the case continues. Anyone who tells you the case "proved" coordination is overstating it; anyone who tells you it was "thrown out and debunked" is too. Meanwhile, the scrutiny widened: in December 2025, Senator Maggie Hassan wrote to Sun and five other corporate owners demanding answers about their rent practices — a separate, congressional line of questions that does not depend on the lawsuit's outcome.

What you can do with this

Lawsuits run on documents. If you have kept your rent-increase notices over the years — the letters showing amount, percentage and stated reason — you hold exactly the evidence that rent cases are built from. Your community page on this site tracks a dated lot-rent history table for precisely that reason. File yours.

Sources: In re Manufactured Home Lot Rents, No. 1:23-cv-06715 (N.D. Ill.), complaint and docket reports as covered publicly; Sen. Hassan correspondence, Dec 2025.

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