Month: January 2019

This meeting was held in Salem with John DiLorenzo facilitating.

INFORMATION SHARING:

• Representative Fahey introduced HB2597 which would allows Park Tenants (excludes marina) to require mediation through the Office of Manufactured Dwelling Park Community Relations on rent increases of more than 2% above the Consumer Price Index. This would be a great benefit to Marina Tenants as well, however, we are not covered under this Office, so I don’t know if that prohibits us from using the service. I will follow up. More info about the Bill can be found here.
• Representative Fahey also introduced HB2596 which would allows cities and counties to adopt rent controls or limits on rent increases for floating home marinas and parks. This was done in the interest of maintaining some affordable housing. More info about the Bill can be found here.
• Representative Kotek and others introduced SB608 which limits rent increases for residential tenancies (floating home marinas included!) to one per year. Limits maximum annual rent increase to seven percent above annual change in consumer price index. More info about the Bill can be found here.

• AND………OUR BILL WAS DROPPED (meaning Introduced) – HOORAY!! Senator Prozanski is sponsoring our Senate Bill (SB) 586. Keep in mind that this current draft reflects language as we stood on the issues on November 12th (we had to meet our Legislative Counsel deadline). So, we will draft amendments that further sharpen our intent. More info about the SB 586 can be found here.

MARINA ISSUES:

If you will recall from last month, we were hoping that we could add the capital gains tax benefit to the marina purchase laws. But the final answer is: No, not at this time. It is too complicated to tackle this late, given the Ways and Means Committee isn’t readily accepting of it, and we cannot risk the entire bill to fight for it with the Ways and Means Committee at this time. So, we will try to open a conversation about it for the following Legislative Session.

Specifically, VanLandingham ran this issue by Taylor Smiley Wolfe, Speaker Kotek’s housing policy advisor. Taylor discussed it with the Speaker and reported back to me that the Speaker would support this only if there is some form of “means-testing” (regarding income) of the marina residents who want to qualify for this exemption and if the buyer is a nonprofit, housing authority, or the equivalent of the Manufactured Dwelling Park Nonprofit Cooperative Corporation; see ORS 62.800 et seq. VanLandingham can’t imagine that a (separate, non-affialated with a marina) nonprofit or housing authority would be interested in acquiring ownership of a marina. And creating the equivalent of the MDPNP co-op statutes would be very difficult to write and even more difficult to sell to the DCBS Division of Financial Services, which was extremely resistant when we created this entity for MH parks in 2007 and revised it in 2009. (This is an uphill battle and we) cannot make the time to work on this (at this late in the game). (Attempting it could) risk the whole coalition bill (the last 2 years of work) on this issue.

So, in summary, we are done making marina issues decisions for our 2019 bill.  If the MH Coalition agrees on the other outstanding issues and proposals a bill, then our Marina Issues will be a part of that 2019 bill!!  THIS IS BIG!!

CONGRATULATIONS MARINA TENANTS!!  WE DID IT!!!!!  

DISPUTE RESOLUTION:

We reviewed Draft 11 of the Dispute Resolution, Enforcement Issue. We have largely come to agreement on the concepts of this idea, summarized here:

1. BACKGROUND/RECAP:
   • This issue was introduced to the group by a long-time advocate for tenants as a proposed topic for our 2019 Legislative Session in May of 2017 (which coincides with when I first became involved with this group) and it as first discussed with the group on June 20, 2017 in Salem.
   • The concept of the original idea is that there are already great laws on the books. However, it is very costly to litigate (both in terms of money and potential retaliation) when a Tenants rights are being violated by a Landlord.
   • Many park tenants (and marina tenants) are on fixed incomes, retired, older, etc. and oftentimes allow their rights to be violated, rather than “stir the pot” with a Landlord who controls their quality of life. And the cost of litigating is too high.
   • Our objective over the next 21 months was to provide a system, tool, or resource that could help Tenants enforce the laws while reducing personal risk to the Tenants to do so.
   • The issue has evolved and there are now 2 parts: Enforcement (which is essentially what the original objective was) and enhanced Dispute Resolution to offer an additional tool for Tenants and Landlords besides either (a) Landlord-issued Termination Notices (aka Evictions) and (b) Tenants just accepting a reduced quality of life because their Landlord doesn’t want them to do something they want to do.
2. Here is where we are today with the concept:
   • DISPUTE RESOLUTION:
     • Tenants (and Landlords) will have the right to no-cost mediation services when resolving disputes with Landlords (or Tenants).
     • Both parties will be required to show up to mediation and attempt to mediate “in good faith”.
     • Both parties are not required to come to an agreement. But they must participate and talk and listen.
     • Either party may assign a representative but the representative is required to have the authority to make decisions for the Landlord at the mediations session (short breaks during the session for a representative to make phone calls back to an authoritative source are allowable).
     • Either party can invite an additional person to the mediation as long as the other side agrees. (The idea is that some Tenants may want a support person there so they are less afraid. We also acknowledge that Landlords will likely ask for their attorneys to be their ‘support person’ however, the Tenant does not have to agree to that.).
     • Each party is entitled to a quick scheduling of mediation and is only require to participate in one mediation session per dispute.
     • After receiving a 30-day Termination notice, a Tenant can request mediation as long as the request is made prior to the expiration of that 30-day notice. The parties will be required to mediate before an FED suit is filed but he Landlord. Likewise, If a Landlord requests mediation with a Tenant, that Tenant cannot file a lawsuit against the Landlord until mediation is complete.
     • If the landlord violates this law, then the Tenant is entitled to 1-months rent. If the Landlord does not show up to mediation and/or does not participate in good faith, then the Tenant will have a defense in any lawsuit filed by the Landlord regarding this dispute AND may have the claim dismissed.
     • There will also be mandatory mediation for Tenant versus Tenant disputes (e.g. from the Landlords: Tenant #1 has a child whose ball rolls into Tenant #2’s yard. Tenant #2 takes the ball and won’t give it back. And now, the two tenants’ rift is affecting the quality of life of other tenants.)
     • We will allow Landlords to unilaterally amend the rental agreement to allow mandatory mediation.
   • ENFORCEMENT:
     • We needed some additional tools for 2 reasons:
       • Some Landlord/Tenant disputes are not a good fit for mediation either because they are too complex, controversial, or extreme.
       • Tenants wanted legal representation to enforce some of the laws already on the books.
     • We explored as many as 5 different ways to achieve this and studied other states and what they are doing and what costs are associated with the variety of methods we explored. We arrived at one possible way that we could arrive at a legislative solution.
     • This legislation will be considered “experimental” and will expire in 4 years. This means that, if the way we intend for it to work is successful, then we can extend it or make it permanent. And if not, we can try to fix it, make it better or let it expire.
     • We will create a fund (suggested cap is $50,000 per year) to provide legal representation to Tenants for matters related to Landlord violations of ORS Chapter 90.
     • There will be an oversight committee to guide the process and determine which cases are a good fit (subject matter). The idea is to do the most good with the $50,000 allocated. We don’t intend for this find to be used to take on massive issues that will be tied up in the courts for years. But, rather, the intention is for the money to help cases which could benefit the most tenants and make the most impact regarding Landlords who are bad actors or who continue to ignore the laws.
     • Another benefit of this program is to have 1 attorney who we are, effectively, grooming/supporting who will become VERY familiar with the second have of ORS Chapter 90 (park and marina tenancies). Currently, there are very few attorneys who understand this law and who would take a Tenant case. Most of them represent the Landlord side because that is where the money is. So, this should allow us to grow an individual who is fluent in this niche law.
     • If the Tenant wins the case, prevailing party fees paid by the Landlord will go towards replenishing the fund. If the Landlord wins, the fund will pay the Landlord’s attorneys fees.

TERMINATION OF TENANCY:

We are in agreement to make a distinction between behavior violations resulting in Termination Notices served. Some violations are separate and distinct (not cleaning up after your pet or having a out party) and some are ongoing (having an inoperable vehicle or a barking dog). Landlords and Tenants have largely agreed to separate the two issues (you don’t need 30-days to quit having a party). Apartment tenancies defined the distinction and now we are looking to do the same.

On the Tenant side of this issue, is that we wanted to law to be more clear about what kinds of behavior can result in a Termination notice. Judges and attorneys understand the current law to mean it has to be a Material violation of a lease. But the law doesn’t specify. We want the word “Materially” added to the law.

If we have legislation which discusses material violations of leases (non payment of rents, not keeping your rented space clean), we should also address immaterial or minor violations (not picking up after your pet).

Over the last week, some Tenants and Tenant Advocates have expressed concern over potential landlord abuses regarding the 2 solutions we have proposed to address this: 3 strikes and your are out OR fees for minor violations.

John proposed removing it altogether. Tenants pushed back. It is clear that we need to do a little more work on this.

ORS 90.222(9) was brought up as a possible solution. John will keep working on the draft.

NEXT STEPS:

We are going to have another meeting on February 6, 2019. We will need to wrap up this discussion and ALL other issues then.