A PUBLICATION OF CALIFORNIA MOBILEHOME RESOURCE & ACTION ASSOCIATION, INC.
P.O. Box 7468, San Jose, CA 95150-7468, Phone: (408) 244-8134
Email: CMRAA1996@yahoo.com Web Site: www.cmraa.org
January 2008 Newsletter
EMINENT DOMAIN ISSUE BEFORE US AGAIN, WITH A TWIST.
BECAUSE LAST YEAR THE EMINENT DOMAIN ISSUE WAS DEFEATED BY ONLY
5 PERCENT, THE JARVIS GROUP HAVE DECIDED TO PUT THIS ISSUE ON THE JUNE BALLOT AND WILL BE SPENDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TV ADS.
New Analysis from Western Center on Law & Poverty Underscores Hidden Agendas Scheme's "Devastating Impact" on California Renters, Seniors and Working Families
Measure Could "Undo Centuries of Real Property Law and Consumer/Tenant Protections"
Yesterday the Western Center on Law & Poverty, California's leading public interest and low-income advocacy organization, released a detailed analysis on the Hidden Agendas Scheme and confirmed our coalition's fears about the dangerous socio-economic consequences of enacting this bait and switch measure. The analysis found the Hidden Agendas Scheme - which proponents claim to be about eminent domain reform - would actually abolish rent control and severely threaten other affordable housing laws designed to protect renters, mobile home owners, low-income home buyers, seniors, the disabled, and working families.
The scope of the measure's impacts is wide. According to the analysis, the Hidden Agendas Scheme would eliminate rent control on dwellings and mobile home park spaces for more than several million California families. "Rent control and renter protections help ensure that seniors, working families and the disabled find safe, affordable housing," explained Christine Minnehan of the Western Center on Law & Poverty. "Mobilehomes are not mobile. A senior in a park who receives a huge rent increase has few options."
The analysis also outlined other harmful aspects of the Hidden Agendas Scheme, specifically a far-reaching provision which could prohibit almost all forms of government regulation of private property. Because of this single provision, all affordable housing zoning decisions, homebuyer protections, laws requiring the fair return of rental deposits, requirements for 60 days notice before a no-fault eviction, and other similar protections, could be outlawed. The bottom line: the Hidden Agendas Scheme would devastate our communities and erode our ability to make them affordable and pleasant places to live.
"Whether by oversight or design, the initiative could turn back hundreds of years of property law and consumer protections," said Minnehan. "Home buyers and renters would have to negotiate every detail of a sale or lease. Our clients, the lowest income Californians, don't have the bargaining power to get the protections now in law," she added.
A full version of the report is available at:
http://www.wclp.org/files/housing-effects-cpofpa-19dec07.pdf
There is also concern by the League of Cities and numerous other organizations that the infrastructure of the entire state would be compromised. Laws regulating water usage and preservation, land preservation, and any number of other laws, ordinances, and protections would be bombarded with multi-million dollar lawsuits from land owners declaring that those protections were an “unfair taking” of their profits. The most vociferous complaints come from Land Lords, Park Owners, and other Developers who knew what they were buying and the restrictions on their purchases prior to them laying out the cash. When they lost their challenges in the Supreme Court to rent control and other ordinances, they decided to take another path to get what they wanted. Eminent Domain is that path.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd, 2008, CMRAA WILL BE HOLDING OUR REGIONAL MEETING IN THE CLUBHOUSE OF CHATEAU LASALLE FROM 10 AM TO NOON.
Guests will include San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and District Councilman Kansen Chu.
COME SUPPORT CMRAA IN OUR EFFORTS TO EXPAND THE INFLUENCE OF MOBILE/MANUFACTURED HOMEOWNERS THROUGHT THE ENTIRE STATE.
LIFE IS NOT FAIR, THE UNIVERSE DOESN’T CARE
random thoughts
I have been reading a very interesting fiction story and in it, the author features three articles which really don’t exist, but should. While I won’t go into detail some simple “facts” jump out at me, and I wish to equate them to the situation facing mobile homeowners.
Life is not Fair. We know that, don’t we? We just never really stop to think about it. When Life happens to us, we have to deal with it. HOW we deal with it is something else again. Do we ignore it, hide from it, run from it, or face it head on, make choices and decisions that will allow us to make the right decisions to overcome it?
The Universe Doesn’t Care. No matter what we humans do to one another, it doesn’t matter one whit to the Universe. The Universe goes on whether or not we exist. To paraphrase the author, ask a rock if it cares about your life. The Universe is entirely oblivious to the treatment you receive at the hands of Park Owners, or any other human that would rob you of your dignity and self respect. Ask a rock, or the moon, if it cares that the pursuit of riches by one human can destroy your life.
You are Responsible for Your Own Happiness. If Life is unfair, and the Universe doesn’t care, then you need to deal with everything that life hands you and try to do what makes you happy, or, at the very least, what makes you the least unhappy.
If you do not try to alleviate a condition that is causing you unhappiness then you are being irresponsible. You therefore need to decide what could make you happy and act upon it. Which leads us to another fact of life and that is:
There is Always a Choice. A lot of people just take what Life hands out and never try to improve their condition. They settle and a lot of times because they don’t want to make a choice that could “rock the boat” and possibly lead to more unhappiness. If you allow an uncaring Park Owner or Manager to take away your right to live in peace then you are making a choice. What they fail to realize is another fact of life, and that is:
The Only Constant in Life is Change. They do, don’t they, and not always for the better, and
Wishing Doesn’t Make It So. Wishing for something never works and never gets anything done. It’s like buying a lottery ticket hoping, wishing, to win. You might win, if random chance favors you – but luck is just that, a random thing that might happen, but most often doesn’t. How often have you heard “You make your own luck”?
A MESSAGE FROM CMRAA VICE PRESIDENT URSULA HELSING
It won’t happen to me!!!
How many times have we heard this familiar phrase? More often than we care to admit.
The truth of the matter is that none of us are exempt from the ravages of Park owners who choose to harass and intimidate the residents of Manufactured Housing Communities. (Editors note: Life is not fair/The Universe Doesn’t Care)
In the past few months, while manning the CMRAA phone lines, I have heard such awful stories from many residents throughout California who are being treated very unfairly by Park Management who have shown a blatant disregard for the Mobile Home Residency Laws, which by the way, are in existence for the protection of all Mobile home residents.
Many residents here in California are living in fear of retaliation if they should speak up in regards to unfair treatment and abuse. This is no way to live, especially in the so-called “Golden Years”. (editors note :Life Is Not Fair/ The Universe Doesn’t Care)
O.K! So what can we do about it when this happens to us or a loved one? Two very simple words come to mind. JOIN CMRAA or renew your membership. When faced with issues that crop up and you feel that you have nowhere to turn CMRAA is there for you. (editors note: You Are Responsible for Your Own Happiness)
CMRAA is comprised of volunteers who care about what happens to you. When contacted by residents, CMRAA provides a listening ear and jumps into action providing resources to you and advises you of what can be done to correct your given situation. In many cases the CMRAA volunteers will meet with you and fellow residents and provide you with the much needed information to deal with a wide variety of situations. CMRAA also has legal counsel who can help. (There is Always a Choice)
So – What are you waiting for? Protect yourselves and your loved ones. There is only a very small cost for this protection. $12.00 per year for protection you or a loved one may need. Encourage your friends, neighbors and loved ones to join. Remember, there is strength in numbers, be a part of the solution.
CMRAA is not only helping you on a local level, but also works diligently in the legislature to protect you from Bills being passed that can adversely affect your way of life and works to support Bills that are beneficial.
Don’t wait until you are in crisis, be prepared. Join us in fighting the battles. Remember,
YES IT CAN HAPPEN TO US!!!!!!!! (editors note: You are Responsible For Your Own Happiness)
Tie these articles together – and think. If you are unhappy with the way you are treated, the way your neighbors are treated, then change it. You have a choice, do nothing and accept your unhappiness, or choose to fight back and change the cause of your unhappiness. Life May Be Unfair, but you don’t have to lay down and take it either because The Universe doesn’t care.
YOUR Duties as A CMRAA Member
Merely joining CMRAA knowing we will do all we can to help you and your neighbors is fine, but we need more help. First of all, you need to help us recruit new memberships. It is the membership dues that keep us afloat. So talk to your friends and neighbors and ask them to join.
However, even that is not enough.
Quite frankly, financial restraints keep us from doing a lot of what needs to be done. We need to be able to travel all up and down this state to attend meetings; to support communities seeking help from City and County government in their fight to protect themselves, and to be in Sacramento during legislative hearings. We need to be able to send our Corporate Attorney out to talk and help communities. We need to be able to walk the halls of the Capitol seeking support for the Bills that would aid us. While none of the Board gets paid for the work we do, we do have to be reimbursed for our expenses. The costs of gasoline has, as you know, risen tremendously this past year. No one should have to bear the burden of a hundred or more dollars a month in gasoline, so CMRAA reimburses that cost.
When someone, usually the President, stays overnight in a motel, that is paid for by CMRAA. Granted, there are times a community passes the hat and contributes to his expenses, but more often than not, we pay.
On top of that, we pay thousands of dollars a year to keep our Corporate Attorney, Bruce Stanton, on retainer and to pay his ongoing expenses incurred helping us. Many times our President, Gus Colgain, will get requests for help and he authorizes Mr. Stanton to give someone up to an hour “on our dime” so he can decide whether or not we can help.
Then, there are related costs, like this newsletter that is printed and mailed or otherwise delivered to our membership statewide. While the day to day expenses are generally low, they do eat into the bank account – so much so that our Treasurer, Elaine Derrick, worries about keeping solvent.
So, we are reduced to asking you for help. Donations to our General Fund would be nice. Having Fund Raisers such as Pancake Breakfasts or Spaghetti Feeds would not only give you an excuse for a social gathering, but raise much needed money. What we do NOT want is for you to hurt yourselves financially.
In addition, come this spring, we would like for CMRAA members to travel, on occasion, to Sacramento to attend Legislative Hearings and give body support to our Bills. Quite frankly, without the Membership supporting our efforts and those of GSMOL and CoMo-Cal, none of us will succeed.
As long as we are on the subject of money, at a recent Executive Board Meeting, the majority voted to end the current membership dues of 12 a year, 22 for 2 years, and 30 dollars for 3 years as of June 1st. Membership dues will, after that date, be raised to 15 dollars a year, primarily for the reasons talked about above.
However, if our efforts to raise funds through donations or fund raisers succeed, we will most definitely rethink that position. President Colgain would prefer the current membership dues structure to remain in effect.
We would also like those of you who have Email Accounts to email us requesting you be placed on our Notification Folder so you will get not only our newsletter first in your email, but be advised of any current situation where we need your support, such as the Eminent Domain issue now before us.
Butte County Mobilehome Owners Association (BCMOA) – Paradise, CA
This has been a fast three months but we have accomplished a lot. Officers and Board members of the Butte County Mobilehome Owners Association (BCMOA) have been appointed and ready for work. They will be selecting committees to work on fundraisers, membership drives, publicity, study groups, social functions, etc.
The long-term goals of BCMOA are: 1) To grow and get stronger through increasing memberships. Our goal is to double our membership by December 2008. 2) To help mobilehome owners know their rights and the laws that govern them. 3) For BCMOA to become financially independent. 4) To get our members more actively and positively involved in any way they can to ensure their organizations success.
What has BCMOA been doing?
1. Helped two homeowners with tree problems.
2. Aided residents in one park to get an old, non-working refrigerator replaced in their clubhouse.
3. Helped several homeowners in one park understand the 7-day notices they received to comply with park rules.
4. Directed several park residents to the MRL’s pertaining to their questions – i.e. rent increases, park management entry onto their mobilehome BCMOA Executive Director
space, significance of 7- day notices to comply with park rules, use of clubhouse, and right to canvass and distribute flyers. Some of these questions were referred to our attorney for interpretation.
5. Initiated some study groups for mobilehome owners who have expressed interest in knowing more about their park rules, the MRLs, and HCD codes.
We hope to be even more successful in achieving our goals during 2008.
Marty Struve
(Editors Note: Marty has accepted the position as CMRAA Deputy Director of Northern California, assisting Bill Burnett in his duties as the Director. CMRAA and Bruce Stanton assisted the Struves in organizing the BCMOA. )
CAN A PARK OWNER REQUIRE REMOVAL OF A MOBILEHOME FROM THE PARK AT THE TIME OF SALE?
2007 Legislation Attempts to Strengthen Resident Rights
By: Bruce E. Stanton, Corporate Counsel
In recent years, as the mobilehome stock continues to age and deteriorate, there has been an increase in attempts by park owners to require that mobilehomes be removed from the park as a condition of sale. This is obviously a critical issue for California mobilehome owners, for it is well known that a mobilehome has virtually no value once it is removed from a park. Regardless of age, mobilehomes derive almost all of their value from the “site” where they are located. When a home is located on a landscaped site, with deck, awnings and porches attached, within a community which includes all of the customary common area improvements such as a clubhouse, a pool, roadways and exterior fences, that home derives a certain value from its location, and might be worth $50-100,000.00. But move that same home out onto the street and advertise it for sale, and you would probably have to pay someone to haul it away. Unless a mobilehome can be sold “in place”, on its rented space, it might be worth $0. This is why we seldom see homes moved from their location at the time of resale. And it is why the ability to sell a mobilehome “in place” is of vital importance to mobilehome owners.
Park owners might have legitimate reasons for requiring that a mobilehome be moved from the park when it is sold. There could be significant code violations that make the home a hazard to the others within the community. Or its condition might be so deplorable that it is beyond repair, and would negatively affect the equity value of the park and the other homes within the community. Few would argue that in those circumstances, the home should be allowed to remain in the park. Unfortunately, some park owners have another agenda. They wish to frustrate or even block entirely the ability of a homeowner to sell, so that one of two things will happen: (1) the selling homeowner will become so frustrated that they will agree to sell the home to the park for a few thousand dollars, thereby allowing the park to gain control of the space and either re-sell or rent out the home; or (2) the selling homeowner will not be able to fight the park, and will simply abandon the home, which allows the park to impose a warehouseman’s lien, foreclose upon the lien and gain control of the home for the same purposes. Whenever a home is abandoned or given over to the park owner, the space is also “decontrolled” in most local jurisdictions which have a rent control ordinance, thus allowing the park owner to raise the space rent to what it deems to be a “market” rent. This is also a prime motivator for some parks to prevent “in place” mobilehome resales.
The California legislature has recognized the need to protect homeowners from unfair park owner resale practices. Civil Code section 798.73, which sets forth the conditions upon which a mobilehome can be removed upon resale, is fast becoming a key component of the Mobilehome Residency Law. According to the statute, there is no automatic right of the park owner to require that a home be removed. Rather, the park owner must bear the burden or showing either that (a) a mobilehome of certain age does not comply with health and safety codes following an inspection by the appropriate enforcement agency, or (b) that regardless of its age the home is “in a significantly rundown condition or in disrepair”, as determined by its general condition and acceptability to occupants. Residents would hope that a park owner would follow this law in good faith. But of course this is not always the case with some park owners.
I am currently involved in litigation which involves this very issue. An elderly couple needed to move from their home so that they could move closer to their children. But when they attempted to sell, the park owner refused to even provide a residency application to the proposed buyers, and informed the listing agent that the home could not be resold within the park. When pressed to give a reason for the refusal, the park simply stated that the home was “too old”, and was inherently unsafe because it had been manufactured prior to a certain date. The park did not rely upon an inspection to come to this conclusion, and refused to change its position even after the residents own inspections revealed that the home was not in bad condition. Only after a lawsuit was filed did the park owner come up with the argument that it believed the electrical system was too old and unsafe to allow the home to be resold, since any home manufactured prior to 1973 is presumptively “unsafe”. There was no advance notice of this argument which would have allowed the resident to quickly obtain an electrical inspection so as to prove the fitness of the home. Nor was the park’s position proven by any electrical expert. These poor residents continue to pay rent for a home that they cannot sell.
During the 2007 legislative session, only one significant amendment was made to the Mobilehome Residency Law. Civil Code section 798.73 was amended to beef up protection for residents, and make it harder for a park to require removal of a mobilehome upon resale. New subsection (e) to 798.73 now provides as follows:
(e) The management shall not require a mobilehome to be removed from the park, pursuant to this section, unless the management has provided to the homeowner notice particularly specifying the condition that permits the removal of the mobilehome.
This new language was added by AB 446 (Soto) for the purpose of requiring a park owner to state its position “up front”, so that the selling resident can address or contest any argument about the home’s condition. Presumably this notice will need to be given by the park owner any time it is requested and most likely at the start of the listing process. No longer can a park owner simply refuse to allow an “in place” resale without providing a reason in writing. And if that reason turns out to be bogus, the park would either have to withdraw its position, or risk that it will be sued for a willful violation of Civil Code 798.73. This would allow the selling homeowner to recover damages for any lost sale, as well as attorney’s fees (798.85) and a penalty of up to $2,000.00 for each willful violation (798.86).
It is important that residents understand and enforce their Civil Code rights. No one else is going to do it for you, and you cannot routinely count upon a District Attorney or a City attorney to protect you. If any CMRAA member believes that a park owner is unlawfully interfering with your ability to sell your home, you should contact CMRAA at once. We are here to protect you and your investment to the best of our ability.
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