AB 930 (Keeley)
Original bill gutted and amended in June to address "sham" issue. The bill tries to assure that parks converted to resident ownership are bona fide resident conversions. The bill was amended again in August to provide that in a rent control jurisdiction, the state’s 4-year rent mitigation formula for non-purchasing residents shall not become effective until 50% plus 1 of the spaces are sold to the park residents.
SUPPORT: Attorney Bill Constantine, California State Association of Counties, California Mobilehome Resource & Action Association, Congress of California Seniors, Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League, League of California Cities, Western Center on Law & Poverty.
OPPOSITION: California Mobilehome Park Owners Alliance, San Diego Assessor, O’Melveny & Myers, The Loftin Firm, Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association.
STATUS: Assembly vote not relevant. Pending Senate Floor.
AB 2079 (Jackson) – Prospective Homeowners – Agreements of 12 Months or Less
Currently most parks require prospective homeowners, buyers of mobilehomes in the park, to sign a rent control-exempt lease over 12 months as a condition of tenancy. Homeowners contend parks thereby make it more difficult for them to sell their homes and that prospective homeowners should have the same right as homeowners to opt for 12-month or lesser term agreements. This bill would prohibit a park from requiring a prospective homeowner to sign a long-term lease as a condition of tenancy and provides that prospective homeowners shall be offered a rental agreement for a term of 12 months or less if they request it. The bill also permits a park to offer a long-term promotional lease agreement that includes lower rents during the first 12 months of the lease.
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association.
OPPOSITION: Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, California Association of Realtors, California Mobilehome Park Owners Alliance.
STATUS: Failed passage Assembly Floor: 29-27.
AB 2298 (Bogh) – Senior Housing.
The Unruh Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in housing against families with children but permits senior housing developments that are designed to meet the physical and social needs of seniors. Mobilehomes are exempt by definition as a "dwelling unit" under the senior requirements of the Unruh Act, but mobilehome parks are subject to the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act – requiring a senior park to have at least one person 55 and older in no less than 80% of the units in the park. Parks do not have to have special facilities for seniors under the federal act. This bill repeals the special facilities requirements for senior housing under the Unruh Act and adopts the federal act’s standard for senior housing in California. This bill also repeals the exemption for mobilehomes defined as "dwellings" – bringing mobilehome parks under the Unruh Act for purposes of senior housing.
SUPPORT: Author, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association.
STATUS: Pending Senate Housing
Committee, dead.
AB 2382 (Corbett) – Civil Enforcement by Public Officers.
Currently the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) provides that the substantial failure of the park management to maintain physical improvements in the common facilities in good working order and condition or the substantial violation of a park rule to be a public nuisance and authorizes a district attorney or city attorney to bring a civil action for abatement of such a nuisance. Current law also authorizes a district attorney to bring a civil action against a park operator to abate any nuisance pursuant Mobilehome Parks Act (MPA), i.e. park health and safety violations. This bill would also permit a county counsel, city attorney or the state Attorney General to pursue civil nuisance violations of the MPA and the MRL.
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured Home-Owners League, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, Congress of California Seniors, Gray Panthers of California.
OPPOSITION: Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance.
STATUS: Passed Assembly 47-24, passed Senate 22-9, Chapter 141, Statutes of 2002. Governor Davis recently signed AB 2382 into law. The measure will become effective on January 1, 2003.
AB 2500 (Corbett) – Violation of Mobilehome Residency Law - Damages.
Current law provides that, in
addition to damages afforded by law, a court may award a homeowner up to $2,000
for each willful mobilehome park owner violation of the Mobilehome Residency Law
(MRL). A recent state appellate decision held that
"damages afforded by law" that can be recovered in addition to willful
damages under the MRL do not include punitive damages. This bill clarifies that
a prevailing homeowner in an action under the MRL who collects punitive damages
cannot also collect the $2,000 award for willful damages. The bill also provides
that any MRL cause of action shall be filed in the county where the mobilehome
park is located, regardless of whether it is related to other causes of action
that could be filed in other counties.
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, Congress of California Seniors, Consumer Attorneys of California, Gray Panthers of California.
OPPOSITION: Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance.
STATUS: Passed Assembly 48-26, passed Senate 21-13. To Governor.
AB 2866 (Keeley)- Right of First Refusal
Currently, the Mobilehome Residency Law requires a mobilehome park owner, who lists or offers a park for sale, to provide a 30-day notice of intent to sell to a resident organization formed to buy the park – where the organization has complied with certain requirements, including notice to the park owner of residents’ desire to buy the park. This bill repeals these requirements and instead provides that a resident organization, which has complied with specified notice and other provisions and where low-income persons occupy 30% of the spaces or the park is proposed to be converted to another use, shall have a 30-day right of first refusal to buy the park on the same terms as offered by the park owner to another party.
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured Home-Owners League, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, Congress of California Seniors, Gray Panthers of California, JERICHO.
OPPOSITION: Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance.
STATUS: Failed passage Assembly Floor: 27-32.
SB 1410 (Chesbro) – Homeowner Subletting
Current law provides that a park or park employee is subject to the same park rules and regulations as park residents, with specified exceptions, and that these requirements do not validate or invalidate park policy with regard to a homeowner subletting his/her mobilehome in the park. This bill repeals that language and provides, instead, that if the park prohibits renting of mobilehomes by homeowners the park would also be precluded from renting homes that it owns in the park. The bill authorizes management to adopt reasonable subletting rules, including a rule fixing the minimum term of rental or subleasing at 6 months and provides that the management may not reject a sublessee for residency unless he/she does not have the financial ability to pay the rent or charges or, based on prior tenancies, will not comply with the park rules. The bill provides that the subletting requirements do not affect rental agreements entered into before January 1, 2003 that prohibit subletting. The bill also expands the definition of a mobilehome park from a tract of land where two or more mobilehome sites are rented for human habitation to include land where two or more mobilehomes are rented for human habitation. The bill is sponsored by mobilehome owners, who contend that mobilehomes in parks are not always easy to sell, and park rules prohibiting homeowners from subletting their homes can create a hardship for those who must move quickly due to a job change, military re-assignment, or health reasons but must continue to pay rent on an empty home until sold.
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured Home-Owners League, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, Gray Panthers.
OPPOSITION: Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, California Mobilehome Park Owners Alliance.
STATUS: Passed Senate 22-11, Assembly floor – failed passage, reconsideration granted
SB 1556 (Dunn) – Speeding Enforcement in Mobilehome Parks.
Current law permits local governments to enter into agreements with private property owners to enforce traffic laws on private roads, subject to specified conditions, and pursuant to a traffic survey. This measure would avoid the cost of traffic surveys for this purpose by authorizing cities and counties, after notice, hearing and enactment of a local ordinance, to enter into agreements with mobilehome parks to have local police enforce traffic laws, using a presumptive 15 mph speed limit established by this bill. If parks wish to use another speed limit, a traffic survey would have to be conducted to support it. The bill comes about as the result of the inability of park management to enforce speed limits or stop sign requirements on the public use of park roads.
SUPPORT: California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League.
OPPOSITION: Unknown
STATUS: Passed Senate 38-0, passed Assembly 74-0. To Governor.
SB 1564 (Polanco) – Task Force on Financing of Manufactured Homes.
With the increasing cost of housing in California, lower income families and seniors are finding it difficult to find affordable housing. Although manufactured homes offer the prospect of a more affordable price, when consumers cannot obtain financing or can obtain financing only at higher interest rates, consumers find that manufactured homes are really not all that affordable. This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to convene a task force of industry, financial, consumer and governmental representatives to come up with strategies to lower the financing costs of manufactured housing, including long-term financing and more attractive amortization schedules for low and moderate-income buyers, and report their recommendations to the Legislature by July 1, 2003.
SUPPORT: California Manufactured Housing Institute, California Mobilehome Resource and Action Association, JERICHO.
OPPOSITION: Unknown.
STATUS: Passed Senate 29-7, pending Assembly floor.
Late Session Addendum – July- August, 2002
‘SHAM’ PARK CONVERSIONS to AVOID RENT CONTROL
Background: Rental mobilehome parks can be converted to resident ownership (ROP’s) as a non-profit corporation, a stock cooperative, a condominium or a subdivision. If a mobilehome park is subdivided into lots for sale to residents, the subdivider has to comply with the Subdivision Map Act, requiring a subdivision map to be filed and approved by the local jurisdiction, which can impose various conditions. But for park conversion to resident ownership state law limits these conditions to providing that residents must be offered the option to buy their lots or continue to rent using a specified rent formula. The formula specifies that rents of low-income residents can only be increased by the percentage of the consumer price index (CPI), but rents for non low-income residents can be increased to market level in equal increments over 4 years. In 1993, the owner of the Eldorado Mobile Country Club Park in Palm Springs filed a tentative subdivision map as a first step in converting the park to an ROP. The city council, concerned about protecting non-purchasing residents, imposed three additional conditions on the map not provided for in state statute, one requiring that the date escrow closed on 120 lots in the park would mark the date the state’s rent mitigation formula would supercede the city’s rent control formula for that park. The park owner sued to compel approval without the three conditions, claiming the effective date of conversion was when one lot was sold and that the city did not have the power to impose more stringent conditions. The lower court ruled in the city’s favor, but this year the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed (El Dorado Palm Springs, Ltd., v. City of Palm Springs), ruling the city was limited to the scope of assuring there was compliance with requirements of state statute and opining that the question of whether more protections are needed to prevent "sham" resident conversions is a legislative, not legal, issue.
An updated list of 2002 bills will again be available on the committee website after the end of the 2001-2002 session, in October 2002 at: