SB 5198 – Sale or lease of manufactured/mobile home communities

Concerning the sale or lease of manufactured/mobile home communities and the property on which they sit.

Sponsors: Frame, Kuderer, Hasegawa, Hunt, Keiser, Lovelett, Nobles, Valdez, and C. Wilson

Status: House Rules 2 Review

Summary

• Requires landlords to provide three years notice for closure or conversion of a manufactured/mobile home community (MHC), with limited exceptions.
• Requires landlords to provide a written notice of opportunity to purchase when selling or leasing an MHC.
• Provides that if a landlord receives notice of intent to consider purchasing or leasing an MHC from a qualified tenant organization or other eligible organization, the landlord may not make a final unconditional acceptance of an offer to purchase or lease the MHC from a person or entity other than a qualified tenant organization or eligible organization for 12 months. 

Talking Points

• Attempts “reasonable balancing of rights” by forcing 3-year notice before MHC can be closed.
• Requires TWO separately-delivered certified mail notices each with common and a few different requirements based on landlord publicly announcing MHC is for sale.
• If for sale, requires landlord wait 45 days to make any final sale agreement with anyone else during notice period; IF an eligible organization gives notice of interest to purchase MHC during those 45 days, landlord must wait 12 months more to sell to anyone else besides the eligible organization that expressed interest.
• $10,000 fine for not doing the opportunity to purchase process correctly or at all.
• Closure of an MHC notice period goes from one year to 3 years.
• The 3-year closure notice does not apply if the landlord agrees to pay each tenant “relocation assistance” of $17,000 for multi-section and $11,000 for single-section home, and agrees to compensate tenants for “loss of home” by paying the GREATER of market value and $5,000 during what would be the closure notice period. In such case, tenants will have 12 months to RGC 12 vacate, while paying rent. At the end of 12 months, tenants may walk away from the home with the money they were paid, and the landlord is responsible for disposing of the tenants’ homes.
• OR, the 3-year closure does not apply if the landlord provides relocation assistance of at least $17,000 for multi-section home and $11,000 for single section home during what would be the closure period, and instead of paying for “loss of home”, the landlord allows the tenants to stay and pay rent for 24 months. At the end, the tenants may walk away from their homes with the money paid them, and the landlord will have to dispose of the homes.
• In either case where the landlord provides “relocation assistance”, the tenants are still eligible for RCW 59.21 state relocation fund assistance.
• Expands “eligible organization”.