Another year and another bill that tries to tackle the process behind manufactured homes rental increases. Manufactured homes are the double or single wide mobile homes that are placed semi-permanently on plots of land in a community. Think of the Park Place Mobile Home Community in Stanton or the Waterford Estates Mobile Home Park in Bear. Usually, there is a single owner of all the plots of land in a community, and they charge rent for you, an owner of a manufactured home, to place your mobil home on that plot of land.
House Bill 5 will provide process whereby, if a community owner proposes a rent increase that exceeds the Consumer Price Index For All Urban Consumers in the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City area (CPI-U), then the Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Authority is mandated to hold a final meeting between the community owner and the affected homeowners, and the homeowners’ association to discuss the reasons for the proposed increase.
This Act allows the following to attend the final meeting: (1) the homeowners’ designee; (2) the homeowner’s attorney; (3) The attorney for the homeowners’ association; (4) A representative from the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association; and (5) Elected Delaware officials.
I guess this is better than not hearing a reason for the rent increase, but what is missing is what comes next after the ‘reasons’ are offered in this meeting. The rent increase just happens, even if the reason is arbitrary or not justified by facts?
Update: Mitch Crane answered my question: “Chapter 70 of Delaware Code already provides for a meeting whereby community owners explain to homeowners the reason why a rent increase above the CPI-U is being proposed. If, after that meeting, homeowners still oppose the increase, they may file for arbitration. HB 105 amends Code to state who may attend that meeting, nothing more”
| House Bill 5 Sponsors | Yes Votes | No Votes |
| K.Williams, Carson, Baumbach, Brady, K.Johnson, Kowalko, Lambert, Longhurst, Lynn, Mitchell, Morrison, Osienski, Wilson-Anton | ||
| Walsh, Ennis, Lawson, Pinkney, Sokola | ||
| Current Status — House Manufactured Housing 3/9/21 |
Chapter 70 of Delaware Code already provides for a meeting whereby community owners explain to homeowners the reason why a rent increase above the CPI-U is being proposed. If, after that meeting, homeowners still oppose the increase, they may file for arbitration. HB 105 amends Code to state who may attend that meeting, nothing more
Thank you, Mitch. I stand corrected.
I filed this bill because Sen. Walsh and I attended a Rent Justification meeting for Murray Manor which is mobile home community by Delaware Park. The attorney for the landowner came over to me and asked me to leave and if I did not leave, he was going to call the authorities. Sen. Walsh came in after me and he was asked to leave as well. We stayed and the authorities did not come. I am there to represent my constituents and should have access to these meetings not be harassed by the landowner’s attorney.
Speaking for myself as an individual, and not for the Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Authority (DEMHRA), which I chair, though the community owner currently has the legal right to determine who, outside of the effected homeowners, can attend these meetings, Representative Williams’ position that the elected officials who created and can amend the Rent Justification Law should be able to observe the process is a logical one. It has been the position of DEMHRA, which oversees the implementation of the Rent Justification Law, that member of its board and/or its staff, have the right to observe every step to make sure the law is properly filed.