PARK MANAGER INTIMIDATION
Q. The park manager says that if we won’t do what he says, we will be evicted. He yells and swears at some of the residents, including elderly widows who are afraid to come out of their homes. He makes up rules for his convenience as he goes along, follows our visitors and tells them they are not allowed in the park, and refuses to give us the name, and phone number of the park owner as required by the MRL. What can we do about such manager intimidation and harassment?
A. This is one of the most difficult issues to resolve and there are no easy answers. Recent legislation to initiate a mandatory educational training program for park managers (AB 1469, Negrete-McLeod) was vetoed by the Governor. There are no qualifications to be a mobilehome park manager. Many are good managers, but some are unprofessional and arbitrary in dealing with residents. The Mobilehome Residency Law gives residents certain rights, but when difficult issues have to be resolved, residents need to form homeowners’ organizations or affiliate with mobilehome groups that advocate for mobilehome owners interests and work as a group in dealing with the park management. The best defense is a good offense, but don’t confront the manager in a belligerent or overly argumentative fashion to make matters worse. If the manager won’t let you use the clubhouse for your meetings, to get organized use one of the residents’ homes or meet at a nearby restaurant, community center or meeting place outside the park. Keep a diary or document as evidence all manager violations. Consult an attorney, victims’ rights groups, local fair housing organization or the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) about your rights as well and those of others in the park relating to possible violations of protected classes (discrimination), elder abuse laws, unfair business practices, or the Mobilehome Residency Law. If you prevail against the management in court, you can ask the court for attorney’s fees. If you can prove willful management violations of the MRL you can obtain up to a $2,000 penalty for each violation. Talk to the local newspaper or TV news about doing a story about conditions in the park. Have an attorney send a letter to the park owner about the manager’s behavior and request a meeting with the owner or another representative of the owner, other than the manager. At such a meeting appeal to the park owner’s practical side. Be firm but polite and stick together. Ask the owner to consider that the manager be replaced before he becomes a liability to the park owner.
PARK VIOLATIONS OF THE MRL
Q. When park management violates the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL), the landlord-tenant law for mobilehome parks, there is no government enforcement but residents have to go to court to protect themselves. What good is the MRL if there is no government enforcement?
A. The MRL is part of the Civil Code. Like conventional landlord-tenant law and other civil provisions, the enforcement mechanism is through the civil courts, not law enforcement or another government agency. Except with regard to public nuisance and health and safety issues in parks, legislative attempts to have district attorneys or city attorneys enforce all or part of the MRL have failed in the past. There is no mobilehome “police.” Courts are a governmental agency, one of the three branches of government saddled with, among other things, resolving or deciding civil disputes. When faced with a problem, residents need to network through mobilehome advocacy organizations or by forming homeowners associations to protect themselves as a group. Few attorneys are familiar with mobilehome law or are interested in practicing it, but as the number of lawsuits against park owners/managers grows, more attorneys are starting to deal with those issues. Some mobilehome organizations or the County Bar Association can provide references or lists of attorneys who take mobilehome cases. Ask neighbors and friends for such references. In some cases, simply hiring an attorney to write a letter on his/her firm’s letterhead to the management will do the trick. In other cases, Small Claims Court may have jurisdiction over cases involving damages of less than $7,500, and, with preparation and advice from mobilehome advocates or attorneys, one can appear in court on one’s own behalf. All park violations should be documented for evidence in court. MRL provisions allow a successful plaintiff to ask the court for attorney’s fees if he/she prevails and obtain up to a $2,000 penalty against the park, at the discretion of the judge, for each willful management violation of the MRL that is proved.
WHO OPERATES OR OWNS THE PARK?
Q. The park manager refuses to talk to us about any problems in the park or give us the name and address or phone of the owner so we can contact him about these issues. How can we find out who operates and who owns the park?
A. Finding who operates the park can be obtained by going to the Department of Housing’s (HCD’s) Mobilehome and RV Parks Search listing on-line for your park at http://www.hcd.ca.gov/ParksListing/faces/parkslist/mp.jsp. One can find a park by name, or by city or by county listings. Finding the actual owner may be more difficult and requires research of property tax records, deeds of trust and similar records at the county tax assessor’s and county recorder’s offices. If the name turns out to be a business, corporation or trust – one will have to do more research using the Secretary of State’s “Business Portal” at http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/business.htm. Here there are listings of business organizations that have been formed as limited liability corporations (LLC) or limited liability partnerships (LLP). If the corporation that owns your park is itself owned by two LLC’s, which are in turn owned by a limited partnership or trust, you can use the Business Portal information, one LLC or partnership at a time, to see if you can find a common link or name. This can be complicated and not always successful. As a last resort, where the manager refuses to provide the name and address of the park owner to residents, as required by Section 798.29 of the MRL, residents may wish to consider the cost of taking legal action to get a court to compel the manager to provide the information.
MANAGEMENT NOT AVAILABLE IN EMERGENCIES
Q. Recently a water pipe broke in our park, but there was nobody there who knew how to turn the water off, and extensive flooding occurred. We called the park manager’s number, but received only an answering machine message. This is not the first time we have had a sewer or water pipe break or other emergency and the manager wasn’t available to respond. Doesn’t the law require a manager to be on the premises at all times to handle such emergencies?
A. Not exactly. Health and Safety Code Section 18603 requires a manager or
his/her designee to reside in parks with 50 or more spaces, but does not require them to be on the premises 24 hours a day. The code does require a person to be available by telephonic means, including telephone, cellular phone, pager, answering machine or answering service, to reasonably respond in a timely manner to emergencies concerning the operation and maintenance of the park. The agency responsible for enforcement of park health and safety requirements (either local government or HCD) should be contacted about citing the park for this possible violation, although some enforcement agencies are reluctant to cite for this violation because it is difficult to prove. Additionally, residents may have a legal cause of action against the park for damage from flooding due to the park’s negligence in not being available to shut off the water in a timely manner.
PARK MANAGER ENTERING LOT
Q. Does the park manager have the right to enter my lot without notice to inspect my home and look in the windows?
A. Yes and No. Section 798.26 of the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) provides that the park manager has the right to enter the lot at reasonable times and in a manner that does not interfere with the resident’s “quiet enjoyment” for the purpose of maintaining utilities, trees and driveways, protection of the park, and for maintenance of the premises where the resident has failed to maintain them in accordance with the park rules. The MRL does not require the manager to give the resident a notice for this purpose, but manager has no right to enter the home without prior written consent of the homeowner except in an emergency or where the resident has abandoned the home. Whether the manager can look in the windows of the home is a legal question, but if the home is occupied, there may be an issue of violation of the resident’s quiet enjoyment or privacy.
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