Landlord / Tenants in Mobile Home Park.

[USAviator]

What is the name of your state? Ohio

This involves a mobile home park with approximately 80 tenants. The owner of the park has been told by the department of health that he will lose his permits if certain work isn't completed by July 30. Issues include paving a road which is the only access through the complex, work required to be done on the Waste Treatment Plant , Cleanup of certain areas within the park. First, he and other management personel gave almost every tenant a list of things needed to be corrected on their own trailers, saying that the Board of Health required thes things to be done. We can understand his concern in some of the matters, but ask what some of the items have to do with the health department. He is now requiring tenants to sign a new lease with a 12 page list of " rules ". Many of us beleive that he is trying to find a way out of dealing with his own problems here, possibly sell the property or develop it for an apartment complex and wants to force everyone to move out.
The issue is that many of the tenants are on limited incomes, elderly, etc.
"The Rumor Mill " has it that in the event he does lose his permits, tenants will be required to move within 30 days. According to rumor, anyone who has been here for more than 5 years must be moved at his expense. Is this true ?
Many of the new rules do make some sense , however most just seem to be unwarranted to aggravate those who live here. Can anyone advise where we ( tenants ) might obtain a copy of rights specifically for Trailer Parks in Ohio ?? --- Thanks

 

[JETX]

Can anyone advise where we ( tenants ) might obtain a copy of rights specifically for Trailer Parks in Ohio ??

Yep.

Here is a link to the applicable Ohio Revised Code:
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3733

And to a very inexpensive book you can purchase:
http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/mobile_home.html

 

[USAviator]

JetX
I apprecieate your prompt reply , but was still unable to find any information regarding several of the issues involved in this " 12 page Commandments " deal. One of the new " rules " is that the park owner wants to acess a fee in addition to monthly " lot rental " if any tenant has people stay with them more than a week. We are questioning the legality of this based on the premise that :
1 ) The mobile homes are owned by the tenants.
2 ) Utilities , such as electricity , water ( etc. ) are paid solely by the tenants.
Since there would be no additional expenses to the operator of the park, and if there is sufficent space availible in a trailer for a guest , or relative to move in , it should be none of the park owners concern if the tenant / home owner choses to have someone move in.
After reading the information that you provided, we beleive that the " inspection " by the Health Dept. was preliminary to the park owner selling or developing the park, and the new " rules " are intended as a nuisance in order to encourage current tenants to move.

Thank you again for your information.

 

[Ohiogal]

If you already have a lease and it has not expired then you do nto have to sign a new lease.

 

[USAviator]

OhioGal
Would adding a name to the lease constitute a " new lease " ?

 

[USAviator]

Sorry . . . I should have mentioned that there are ( so far ) no annual leases. The lease under which we currently rent our lot was signed eight years ago by my fiance' , she wants to take her daughters name off , ( she has moved ) and add mine . Our concern in this case is that the operator may say that this is a new lease.

Thanks

 

[OHlandlord]

USAviator, you said, "Utilities , such as electricity, water ( etc. ) are paid solely by the tenants. Since there would be no additional expenses to the operator of the park, and if there is sufficent space availible in a trailer for a guest , or relative to move in , it should be none of the park owners concern if the tenant / home owner choses to have someone move in." While I agree that the utilties are none of the park owner's concern, there may be hidden costs involved with extra people. Each additional occupant equals another car that travels over the park roads each day = more wear & tear on the roads. The other issue would be parking. Where are all of those extra cars going to park? Usually there are only about 2 spaces per lot/trailer for parking. If suddenly everyone had 3 or 4 cars, where do they park at? Is there a guest parking area where they park? Or are they parking all over the grass? If they are parking on the grass, that will mean extra expense to the owner to replace that lawn area once they vacate. So maybe there would be some extra expenses. Just giving the opposite view point for discussion.

In this area, they issue parking stickers in these parks to fix this problem. Each trailer gets 2 stickers. Instead of paying for an extra amount for other occupants in addition to the lot rent, you have to buy an extra parking sticker or park your car in the guest parking lot all the way down by the entrance. Not many people want to do that and walk down to their car each day, so they buy the extra parking stickers. No parking sticker on the car in front of the trailer means it gets towed at the owner's expense. So either way, the owners get the money. Don't be surprised if your park doesn't start doing this. This is standard around here.

One other issue is knowing who is living in the park. Think about it. If you have kids there, don't you want to know who is living in there? I certainly would. Even if nothing else changed, I would want to know who those extra people are and register them as guests/occupants/something. You don't want a sex offender living in the middle of a park full of kids. If the owner allowed this and something happened, he may or may not be found liable for it. Even if it wasn't his fault, don't you think the parents would want to sue him? I'd want to protect myself if I owned the place.

It's hard to believe that the owner needs 12 pages of rules!!! My rules are only 2 pages long, and I thought that those were a lot. (They seem to get longer each year as someone does something that I then have to include in the next edition of the rules.) Are these rules outrageous or are they normal common sense stuff that you should know already (like putting your trash out and keeping your yard mowed)? Think about how long it took them to write all that stuff up!!! Just mind boggling!

As for the lease, unless that lease has an automatic renewal clause in it, you no longer have a lease. After 8 years, you are probably a month to month tenant. Rules are different for mobile home parks than for residential rentals. I doubt they could enforce a 30 day move out there. Moving a trailer entails a lot more than just packing up your clothes from an apt. As we both know, moving a trailer is a time intensive process and you need a special company to come in and perform it. You could pack all your stuff out of an apt. in a couple hours time. You cannot move a trailer in that amount of time.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[USAviator]

OHlandlord ,
Please e-mail or send me a PM , as I finally received a copy of these " rules " this afternoon. I'd be happy to send you a copy. Some I feel are well founded , but many are simply outrageous. Most residents are refusing to sign the " Commandments ", several have already placed their trailers up for sale. The problem is that being on limited income many are unable to even consider moving. What bothers me most is that this paper states " . . . resident agrees to abide by these and any other rules deemed neccesary by management , which shall be posted in an appropriate place within the community ." This would be like stopping a football game in the middle of a play, and declaring " Time out . . . New Rule ! " The worst thing is that even though most residents haven't received the " rules " until today, the Operator expects them to be signed by August 1st.

We've formed a committee , and representitives are going to seek legal assistance tomorow morning.

I should note that this "Operator " has allegedly made offers to purchase trailers at prices far below their market value. I personally think the Operator hopes to sell or redevelop the park.