Just to emphasize, this meeting and the topics discussed are important to you. What is discussed and drafted about floating home law affects you and your property. This is no joke.
WHY THIS MEETING MATTERS
Even if you love your marina owner and have no issues whatsoever, there is nothing stopping a marina owner from selling the marina to someone who runs it like a tyrant.
To be clear…the law (ORS 90.630) currently allows a marina owner to deliver an eviction notice to a floating home owner for breaking a marina rule. This doesn’t have to be a severe rule such as physically threatening another tenant. An eviction notice can be served for small infractions such as driving too fast through the marina parking lot. You will then have 30 days to stop doing whatever it is that you received the eviction notice for and then the cause of the eviction is cured and there cannot be a legal eviction.
THIS IS WHERE IS GETS SCARY….if you commit the same rule infraction within 6 months, the law says that you can be evicted and your lease with the marina will terminate in 20 days…a lease termination doesn’t just mean that your person must vacate the premises, that means that as long as you own your home, your home is illegally occupying a slip upon termination. You do have the right to court hearing, but it is not up to the judge to weigh in on the morality of the law. Judges are there to uphold the law as written. Most judges don’t understand floating home laws and what is at stake for floating home owners facing eviction…
A floating home which continues to occupy a slip after a successful eviction proceeding is deemed “abandoned property.” The law basically goes on to state (ORS 90.675) that within about 65-75 days from the time of the eviction, you have to either (1) complete the move of your floating home out of the marina, or (2) complete the sale of your floating home to a new owner, or else your floating home is considered abandoned property and becomes the responsibility of the marina owner to dispose of. Yes, that is correct. You have about 65-75 days to to vacate or lose control of your property.
This can have devastating financial, personal and health impacts to you and your family. And, at this meeting on April 17th, the landlords wish to discuss ways to make it easier to evict tenants and other issues important to floating home owners.
We are Thrilled that You are Coming to the Meeting to Defend your Rights
We’ve put together a primer on what to expect at the MHC meeting on Tuesday, April 17th, 9am to noon, at MultiFamily NW (16083 SW Upper Boones Ferry Road, Suite 105, Tigard, OR).
When you arrive at MultiFamily NW, greet the receptionist and she will direct you to the conference room behind her where the meeting will be held.
There will likely be some coffee and water, and sometimes there are snacks. Feel free to come a few minutes early and introduce yourselves to other meeting attendees.
WHO WILL BE THERE?
Typically, attendees fall into 4 categories:
(1) Landlord representation (park and marina owners, their attorneys, and leaders from associations which advocate for landlords rights)
(2) Tenant representation (manufactured house and floating home homeowners, and leaders from associations which advocate for tenant rights) / NOTE: Typically, other than one of the leaders of the meetings (John VanLandingham), there is no contingency of attorney representation for tenants. If you are a tenant and an attorney, would love to have more representation to advocate for tenant rights under ORS 90.505.
(3) Association Leaders (representation from nonprofit associations which advocate for landlords and tenants like OSTA, MHCO, CASA, and others)
(4) Elected Government Official Representation (representatives from the offices of our elected officials in congress)
In a typical MHC meeting, there are more landlord attorneys present than there are landlords. You can identify them fairly easily because they are typically dressed up for the occasion – cufflinks, designer watches and suits, ties or jackets. You can identify many of the tenants because the majority of the tenants come from retirement parks and do not sport business attire.
Sit anywhere you want. Landlords seem to collect together on one side of the room while tenants take the other. But there is no rule, it is just something we’ve observed.
Two attorneys lead the meetings. John VanLandingham (representing a voting member for the tenant side) and John DiLorenzo (representing a voting member for the landlord side) take turns facilitating the meeting. April 17th will be hosted by John DiLorenzo.
INTRODUCTIONS
When the meeting starts, there will be introductions – we all go around the room and introduce ourselves. Typically, attendees state their name and whether or not they are a landlord or tenant (or attorney or association representative) and many state which park or marina they are from. You do not have to offer information about which marina you live in, if you are not comfortable sharing that information, but we’d love to know that you are a marina resident.
INFORMATION SHARING
This is a time where anyone can bring up new events that have happened in the last month. This could be an update on the edits to the laws as they move through legislative sessions, or perhaps someone from Congress has tasked this group to focus on a particular issue, or someone reports back in on an assignment given during a previous meeting.
AGENDA
There are 3 major topics on this meeting’s agenda. This is a very special meeting for marina tenants. This is the first-ever meeting focused on marinas.
(1) Marina and Floating Home Law
(2) Terminations / Evictions
(3) Future Legislative Issues identification (which are not already being discussed)
The first 2 agenda items above are extremely important to floating home owners. Following is a list of topics that are on the agenda for April 17th and why they matter to you.
During this portion of the meeting, do not be shy, speak up. If you have a perspective to share on one of the specific topics being debated, let’s hear it!
AGENDA ITEM 1: Marina and Floating Home Law
- Landlords would like to be able to require you to perform float work as a contingency to moving in. Currently, landlords do not have the right to force a floating home owner to do work on the float prior to moving in. Landlords are not experts on floats and it could lead to a gross abuse of power by allowing another excuse for a marina owner to be able to reject a new tenant or stop a floating home purchase.
- Manufactured home tenants benefit from a variety of laws regarding submetering of utilities. Some marina tenant utilities are submetered. If you are experiencing any issues with landlords not being transparent about sub metering billings, please come to this meeting and let us know! Currently, we have not heard of any issues, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
- If a marina owner decides to close the marina, the current laws which guides this process are inadequate (ORS 90.671) and can bankrupt a floating home owner if a marina owner chooses to repurpose the marina. The law states that the marina owner must give the floating home owners a 365-day notice so that the home owner can find another moorage to move the house to. Currently, there are about 30 potential slips that could be either rented (floating home owner to bear the move in fees ranging from $20,000 to $50,000) or a slip can be purchased (floating home owner to bear the slip purchase amount from $100,000 to $450,000) IF your floating home can tolerate being moved and if your house fits into one of these slips. So, if your marina has more than 30 houses in it when it is converted to another use, then some of the floating homes will need to be disposed of – essentially taking your home to a negative value. The current majority thought about this topic from MHC meeting participants (landlords) is that this isn’t an issue because a marina owner probably would not close a marina or convert the space to another use. However, no one can stop a marina owner from making a bad business decision and taking our floating homes with him. Additionally, this is precisely the issue that almost brought down Seattle’s floating home communities in the 1980s. So, it IS important that we address the current law’s inadequacy.
- A landlord’s duty to maintain habitability of the rented space has a different dynamic for floating home owners than it does for manufactured home parks tenants and the current law (ORS 90.730) does not address some very key ways in which marina landlords could and should be responsible for habitability conditions. Currently, landlords have no legal responsibility to maintain safe ramps, docks and parking areas, or access roads – which are our only means of accessing our rented slips. When emergency crews cannot get to our houses during periods of snow or ice because a landlord was too cheap to shovel, plow or salt access roads and common areas, the result could be death. Nor do marina owners have any legal responsibility to ensure that the slips we rent are deep enough that our homes do not hit bottom. When a floating home hits bottom, it can cause considerable damage to a floating home in addition to all sorts of plumbing and standard of living issues. While landlords contend that it would be “ridiculous” for marina owners to be held responsible for dredging, we feel that it is a topic that is worth being considered. Additionally, many marinas have issues with No Wake zones being enforced and, as many of us have have experienced, a boat traveling fast can damage a floating home. Currently, the law (ORS 90.730 [3][g]) makes it the park landlord’s responsibility to maintain the rented ground and space in a safe condition to be deemed habitable by a manufactured home, but there is no law that requires a marina landlord to ensure the slip is deep enough nor to take steps to protect floating homes from damage by posting No Wake signage or buoys.
- Manufactured dwelling park owners are currently required by law to register with the state (ORS 90.732) and take continuing education classes (ORS 90.734) in order to help them keep up on laws and management issues. There is no such requirement of floating home marina owners or managers. We have heard enough horror stories of marina landlords violating the rights of tenants, that we think it would be wise for landlords to register and take education classes so that they keep up with current laws and landlord-tenant requirements.
- Floating home owners lack protections from marina owners selling the marina. Most of Seattle’s floating home communities are owned by their residents – they own their floating homes and their slips. They enjoy a stability that floating homes in rented slips do not – not only increased home value, but peace of mind, as well. In 2014, new Oregon law (ORS 90.840 – 90.850) was passed to help manufactured housing park tenants buy their parks. Tenants benefit from learning when a park owner intends to sell, gives them an opportunity to purchase the park before any outside buyer, allows them additional time to organize and helps them find funding to purchase their own parks. Floating home owners would benefit from the same laws to help us buy our marinas and create housing stability. Current laws (ORS 90.805 – 90.830) about marina owners selling the marina only require notice to be given if there is a tenant’s association and that association has requested notification. Your marina could be sold without you knowing it, if your marina does’t even have an association.
- Manufactured housing parks and marina tenants are given the same legally protected process (ORS 90.600 [5]) to resolve issues with their landlords – The Committee of Seven. However, unlike park tenants, the laws don’t protect marina tenants when the marina owner won’t meet with or consider the issues the Committee raises. For parks tenants, the law (ORS 90.600[5][b]) goes a step further and provides consequences if the landlord refuses to work with the Committee of Seven, and further protect tenants by giving them access to free resources and mediation they can use to help work through their landlord-tenant issues when a landlord isn’t following the law. It is a great benefit to park tenants to have access to knowledge and expertise they can use without having to retain legal representation in order to ensure their legal rights are not being violated, and floating home marina tenants serve those protections and helpful resources, too.
AGENDA ITEM 2: Terminations / Evictions
Landlords want to make it easier to evict tenants. They want as many possible reasons to evict you as they can get. They do not like limits placed on their ability to evict a tenant.
- Currently, as stated before, a landlord can begin the eviction process for a violation of any marina rule (ORS 90.630), but there is some ambiguity about what a ‘material violation’ of a marina or park rule means. This ambiguity can be misinterpreted by marina owners and tenants. We are in the process of negotiating with landlords to try to clear up the confusion and further define which rule violations could trigger an eviction proceeding and which rule violations would not. It is not ok to lose your floating home because you were seen speeding in the marina parking lot twice within 6 months.
- Currently, you can be evicted is your house is in disrepair (ORS 90.632). There is some ambiguity around the language legally required to be in the notice of termination when the reason is for disrepair. This can lead to tenants not knowing what they need to do in order to not be evicted. We are trying to clear up this language.
- Currently, the law does not require a landlord to tell you what they expect you to do to “cure” a violation when giving an eviction notice for any reason. This can lead to a tenant resolving the issue in a way that is unacceptable to the landlord and can result in a subsequent eviction. We are trying to clear up this language.
- If you are served an eviction notice, you are given 30 days to cure the violation. There is some ambiguity in the language because it doesn’t address violations which are separate and distinct (e.g. physically threatening another tenant) and continuous (e.g. unpaid property taxes). While separate and distinct violations could have a shorter eviction period to cure, some ongoing violation might need longer periods to cure.
- This question has been raised – Should pet violations be treated differently altogether and given longer time periods to cure since removing a pet may put its life at risk. YES!
- This question has been raised – Should we consider warning notices or fees, rather than eviction notices for minor rule infractions? YES!
- Currently, a landlord who sends an eviction notice does not have to tell you that you have cured the violation to their satisfaction. This can lead to a tenant who think they have cured it until they are served eviction papers. We want to require landlords to approve the cure in writing.
AGENDA ITEM 3: Future Legislative Issues identification
If you have an issue that is important to you and has not been covered in the previous agenda items, this is a time to bring it up.
Given the laws in other states, and given the available slip shortage on the Willamette, the Columbia and the Multnomah Channel, and the lack of any future slips being permitted at this time, it is imperative that we do more to protect our assets and ourselves from evictions. California has laws which describe a short list of things you can get evicted from a floating home marina for – thereby taking some power out of the hands of landlords, whereas in Oregon, you can get evicted for violating any number of marina rules. California also doesn’t allow landlords to restrict a floating home owner’s ability to rent out their own floating home. Seattle law allows is more lenient with regard to rule violations – tenants there can violate a marina rule up to 3 times in a 12-month period before an eviction notice is served, compare that to Oregon which is 2 times in 6 months and you are out. In Idaho, floating home owners are given 90 day eviction notices, compare that to Oregon’s 20- and 30-day evictions. It would be interesting to see what other legislation we can propose to protect the investments in our homes.
We know this is lot to digest, especially if this is your first time. But legislative changes will be made in 2019 on these very topics. This is the group that drafts that legislation. We hear ideas and draft the legislation. Then when we reasonably agree on the draft, we present it to the legislators who present it for consideration and a vote in Salem.
This group is now calling on marina tenants to share their thoughts and ideas. Your input can directly affect your rights. Please come and tell us what experiences you are having related to these issues. Other issues regarding floating home law are not currently up for debate for the 2018-19 legislative session, but can be mentioned and considered for the following legislative session. There is only so much we can do in a year.
In-person participation is always better – it is difficult to follow who is saying what when you participate remotely. That said, we understand that not everyone can allow the time to participate in person. If you must call in, please remember to mute your phone. Call-in number: 515-604-9000; passcode 948800
We can’t wait to see you on Tuesday!