LANSING, Mich., Feb. 26, 2020 — State Reps. Sheryl Kennedy (D-Davison), Darrin Camilleri (D-Brownstown) and a group of House Democrats unveiled a comprehensive package of bills today to improve consumer protections for residents in Michigan’s mobile home communities, a group that is too often overlooked and taken advantage of under current law.

“No one knows the unique challenges facing families living in mobile home communities than our neighbors that live there,” said Kennedy. “We need to ensure that residents have a place at the table when decisions are being made that affect their daily lives.

Among other vital issues, this 8-bill bill package would allow for increased resident representation on the Mobile Home Commission, prevent unfair and sudden surges in lot rent, and increase transparency and legal recourse for residents who currently have few options in large part because of the way the law is currently written.

“Michigan is one of the weakest states when it comes to consumer protection, and the way we regulate mobile home communities is no exception,” said Camilleri. “We have residents who own their mobile homes but see their lot rent rise year after year, and many of these people are on fixed incomes. We need to close the loopholes that allow wealthy management companies to take advantage of low-income residents across our Downriver community and around our state, and that’s exactly what this package would do.”

A brief description of each bill in the package can be found below:

HB 5562: Mobile Home Commission Changes (Rep. Sheryl Kennedy): Requires that at least two members of the 11-person Mobile Home Commission are actual residents of a mobile home park.

HB 5563: Mobile Home Public Safety Reports (Rep. Angela Witwer): Requires Mobile Home Commission public safety reports include input from residents.

HB 5564: Provide for Tax Incentives from Sale of Mobile Home Parks (Rep. Jim Haadsma): Allows park owners to take advantage of tax incentives by selling their parks to resident co-ops, nonprofit housing corporations, housing commissions, housing authorities or local governments in order to encourage ownership by local communities rather than private equity firms.

HB 5565: Mobile Home Air Conditioner Stipulations (Rep. Sara Cambensy): Requires that local mobile home ordinances guarantee residents are able to have adequate temperature control (heating and cooling) for the sake of public safety and health in mobile home communities across our state.

HB 5566: Prevent Mobile Home Park Owners from Collecting Rent if Licenses Lapse (Rep. Leslie Love): Bans owners/operators of mobile home parks from collecting rent if they let their licenses lapse for that park after the existing 30 day grace period has passed and the park has still not come into compliance.

HB 5567: Mobile Home Notice of Intent to Sell (Rep. Alex Garza): Allows for right of first refusal when a trailer park is to be sold to another management company and written notification to all residents.

HB 5568: Transparency in Lot Rent Increases (Rep. Darrin Camilleri): Requires the owner or developer to provide a written justification to the Mobile Home Commission and residents of the mobile home park not less than 6 months before lot rent increase.

HB 5569: Mobile Home Rent Control (Rep. Darrin Camilleri): Places caps on the “rent” of the land (lot rent) that mobile home residents can be charged by tying it to the consumer price index in order to prevent management companies from employing arbitrary rent hikes to effectively price residents out of the land even if they already own the trailers.

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