I just purchased a small community and have learned that many of the residents do not have leases. I have presented leases to them to sign, but they are refusing. What can I do?
As you know, the Manufactured Homes Community Rights Act requires that all tenants have written leases. When you offer a new lease to the residents, they have the option to sign it or notify you that they intend to vacate the property. If the tenants do not vacate, you can evict them on the basis that they don’t have a lease. One alternative is to send them a letter stating that if they do not sign the lease and do not vacate, you will consider them to have accepted the lease terms and intend to hold them responsible under the lease as if they had signed it. Most judges will recognize the validity of the unsigned lease under these circumstances. However, some may not. In this event, you may have no choice but to evict the residents who refuse to sign leases.
My residents’ rent includes trash removal. Our Township has recently increased the trash removal cost, and I would like to pass the increase on to my residents. Can I do that? I just raised the rents in January.
Because your rents include trash removal, an increase in the trash removal fee you charge to your residents would constitute a rent increase. Thus, you will have to wait until January to do this. If you are concerned about future trash fee increases from the Township, you may consider “unbundling” the trash fee from the rent and charging it separately. You can do this at the same time as a rent increase in January. Once “unbundled”, the trash fee is no longer part of the rent, and you can increase it when you need to without regard to when you last raised the rents.
A home in my community is listed for a tax sale. If I buy the home, can I require that the residents vacate the home? I would like to demolish it so that a new home can be moved in.
A tax sale may or may not divest the residents of their tenancy rights. It depends on whether it is an upset sale or judicial sale.
An upset sale, which usually occurs in September each year, does not divest any liens or encumbrances. If you buy the home at an upset sale, the lease will continue, and you will be bound by its terms. A judicial sale, which usually occurs in the spring or summer each year, will divest liens and encumbrances, including the residents’ lease
In either case, though, the residents will no longer enjoy the protections of the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act since they are no longer homeowners. Due to this, in the case of an upset sale, you can non-renew their lease, and file for eviction if they do not leave. In the case of a judicial sale, since the lease was terminated by virtue of the sale, you can evict the residents on the basis that they no longer have a lease.
