WZP Legal Update--MHC and RV Park Edition                          Issue 1                         March 11, 2016
   Legal Issues for Community Managers   
  Manufactured Housing Communities and RV Parks
  Trees in MHC’s 


For years the law has been that maintenance of trees on tenant spaces in MHC’s was the responsibility of the tenant. This results from an ALJ decision in a case handled by Mike Parham. Since that decision, however AAMHO has been trying to get the legislature to reverse that decision and place responsibility for trees on tenant spaces on the landlord.

This year it appears they are going to be successful. A bill is sailing through that will change ARS §33-1434 to make landlords responsible unless the rental documents specifically place this responsibility on the tenant.  The only question now is whether the rental agreement or park rules will need to make this statement. AAMHO wants the rental agreement to do this since it will be far more difficult for landlords to get tenants to sign new rental agreements agreeing to tree maintenance than to impose it in the rules.

The legislature is sympathetic to AAMHO so it is likely that the rental agreement will need to do this.  The deadline will be January 1, 2017 or the next rental agreement renewal date.

The MHCA Blue Book rental agreement forms and park rules already have such provisions in them and parks enforcing tree maintenance on tenants should be sure they have new rental agreements with similar provisions signed by January 1, 2017. Tenants refusing to sign can be given a NOTICE OF IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF TENANCY (REFUSAL TO EXECUTE NEW RENTAL AGREEMENT). A form is in the MHCA Blue Book.

This is a good time to plan on dealing with this new law since it will be effective in just a few months if it passes.      
                        Park Sales

Arizona parks have been very popular as investments to community operators from out of state. It started when Sun bought the entire American Land Lease inventory of ten parks over a year ago.

Then Tricon, a large Canadian based firm partnered with Cobblestone and accumulated ten MH and RV parks over the past 18 months.

Zeman Homes out of Chicago bought a two park package earlier this year.

Caddis Capital out of the Denver area bought three parks over the past year.

And major operators already doing business here have been adding to their existing inventories as well.

This confidence in Arizona parks indicates an appreciation of the friendly legal and business climate here for this industry. Although we have our problems, compared to California and other states, we look pretty attractive.
We write the publications for MHCA and have been doing so since it first published the Blue Book in 1987. These are very important to the proper operation of any MHC or RV Park. As laws change or courts re-interpret them, we update these publications. Often using an old form from an obsolete publication can get a park in trouble. It is a false savings to refuse to buy a new book just because an old version is on the shelf.

The Blue Book is a publication containing all sorts of forms for the operation of a MHC, from statements of policy and rental agreement templates to a wide variety of notice forms. The front contains detailed information on the use of these forms and each form has abbreviated instructions accompanying it.

The Orange Book is similar to the Blue Book but is for RV Parks. It has forms for both long term and Short term RV space rentals and the 2016 edition has forms for park owned RV rentals.

The Green Book has forms for MHC owned manufactured home rentals. In addition the first section has an understandable explanation of how the landlord tenant laws for such rentals work.

The Grey and Turquoise Books are manuals explaining how the landlord tenant laws work for MHC’s and RV Parks. They are written in a way for managers to understand and are not loaded with legal jargon.

The Red Book is an explanation of how Fair Housing laws apply in these communities.

These publications are available for purchase from MHCA. There are discounts for MHCA members. Since we prepare them for MHCA, they have the rights to the sale of them and we cannot directly sell or give them away.

You can contact MHCA at (480) 345-4205 to arrange to purchase these publications.  
Potlucks
Potlucks held outside the workplace are illegal in Arizona unless the sponsor complies with burdensome food handling regulations including training and licensing of people involved with it. Pima County, however allows them in MHC's.
 
A bill is going through the legislature that would allow potlucks anywhere. as a result of local government bans on potlucks in MHC's.  Right now p otluck hosts may face a fine or even a possible arrest if someone decides to complain.

MHC's have been pushing for a change in recent years because local authorities insist their kitchens be upgraded to commercial restaurant standards   for them to be permitted. The costs of that are enormous and this has resulted in closure of many clubhouse kitchens. We should seem them reopening by fall.
Social Media
We use social media and the internet to keep in touch with our clients and friends.

Our Facebook page is updated several times a week to report what we are doing as well as legal developments in the residential rental housing business. You can "Like" us on Facebook to get our updates in your home feed.

Mike's website has years' worth of articles on MHC and RV Park law that cover almost anything a manager may need to know. His current year blog keeps parks up to date on latest developments in the industry in Arizona.

The WZP firm website gives a comprehensive overview on what areas we practice in. It also links to our evictions site where clients can electronically submit eviction cases and access case information 24/7.