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Recreational Vehicle Question and Answer with Attorney Mark Busch

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An owner of a mobile home park allows RVs to stay in spaces within his mobile home park. He has them sign an RV nonresident agreement which states that they are not residents and they sign a set of rules and regulations that are different from what the mobile home residents sign. Over the weekend the landlord called the sheriff to evict one of the RVs that had fallen behind in their rent. The sheriff refused to evict the RV as a squatter for trespassing and told the landlord that the RV tenant does, in fact, have certain tenant rights under the Oregon Residential Landlord Tenant Act. The landlord obviously disagrees believing that the RV is transient and since they have fallen behind in their rent, they are a squatter and should be immediately removed from the property for trespassing. How does the landlord deal with this? Does the RV resident have tenant rights even though it is an RV and they signed an RV agreement? How should the landlord proceed with an eviction since the sheriff will not remove the RV? Can the landlord turn off the utilities to the RV?Answer:The last thing the landlord should do is turn off utilities to the RV. Under Oregon law, RV residents do qualify as tenants