The complaint alleges that “[d]efendants[’] continuous actions from May 2009
through the present unfairly and in bad faith interfere with plaintiff’s right to receive the
benefits of residency in Park Granada.” Defendants’ actions include “delaying and
discouraging [Banuelos’s tenancy] applications in 2009; refusing to process his
applications, in 2009, as required by law” and acquiescing in his occupancy and repairs
of his mobile home, accepting his $4,200 rent payment and then serving him with an
eviction notice.
A cause of action for bad faith cannot be based on defendants’ delaying,
discouraging or refusing to process Banuelos’s 2009 application to rent Space 23.
The protection against delay and denial of such applications contained in section 798.74
did not apply to Banuelos because he was not a “purchaser” of the mobile home until
June 1, 2010.
Contrary to Banuelos’s assertion there is no common law duty on the part of a
lessor of residential property to act reasonably and in good faith in exercising its right to
approve or disapprove the transfer of a leasehold. (Kendall v. Ernest Pestana, Inc. (1985)
40 Cal.3d 488, 492, fn. 1, 506-507.) Even if such a duty could be established (see
Coskran, Assignment And Sublease Restrictions: The Tribulations Of Leasehold
Transfers (1989) 22 Loyola L.A. L.Rev. 405, 480), it would not apply here because the
lease of Space 23 was not transferable from the former lessee to Banuelos. Rather, a
lessee’s conveyance of title to a mobile home terminates the ground lease and requires a
new lease between the new owner and the park. (§ 798.75, subd. (a).)