Attorney

This article is informational only and is not intended as legal advice.  Always consult with a competent attorney before undertaking any legal action.

Question: Our park has some manufactured homes and some RV spaces. We are having problems with some of our RV spaces and late payments.  Can we use the “3-strikes” rent nonpayment rule?  If not, what can we do to avoid having to constantly deal with late paying RV tenants?

By:  Mark L. Busch, P.C., Attorney at Law

This article is informational only and is not intended as legal advice.  Always consult with a competent attorney before undertaking any legal action.

Question: We have a person on a vacation occupancy agreement in our RV park (MHCO Form 202).  The end date for the agreement is coming up, but this person says he is not going to move out with his RV and wants us to give him a regular rental agreement.  We don’t want him as a long-term tenant based on his behavior (dog loose, messy RV space, etc.).  Do we have to offer him a rental agreement?  How do we get him out if he refuses to leave?

This article is informational only and is not intended as legal advice.  Always consult with a competent attorney before undertaking any legal action.

The question often arises whether and how RV park landlords can change and update their park rules.  For manufactured home parks, the answer is clear – landlords can issue a rule change notice that allows tenants to vote on the proposed new rules (MHCO Form 60 – Notice of Rule Change).  However, there are no similar procedures in an RV park.

The following article is a discussion of the federal Fair Housing law governing 55+ communities.  The contents are not intended to constitute legal advice, and should not be relied upon by the reader as such.  All legal questions regarding this complicated and important law should be directed to legal counsel familiar with the area.

The Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) went into effect on March 12, 1989.  That Act amended Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin in the sale, rental, or financing of residential housing.  The FHAA added two additional protected classes; (1) persons with disabilities and (2) families with children.  Children include persons under the age of 18 years.

This article is informational only and is not intended as legal advice.  Always consult with a competent attorney before undertaking any legal action.

Unfortunately, it is not unusual to have someone simply pull into an empty RV space and refuse to pay or leave.  How does a landlord best deal with this situation?

Since there is no rental agreement and the landlord (presumably) has not accepted any rent or other payments, the person is technically a “squatter.”  Under Oregon law, a “squatter” means a person occupying a dwelling unit who is not so entitled under a rental agreement.  The “dwelling unit” in this case is the RV space.  Occupancy by a squatter is not governed by the usual landlord-tenant laws under ORS Chapter 90.

This article is informational only and is not intended as legal advice.  Always consult with a competent attorney before undertaking any legal action.

On January 1, 2024, Oregon House Bill 2634 went into effect.  HB 2634 contained some important changes to the laws governing RV parks and RV tenants.

First, HB 2634 cleared up an ambiguity regarding which landlord-tenant laws apply to RV tenants.  Even if an RV is located in a manufactured home park, the laws covering RV tenants are the same laws that cover tenants living in apartments, duplexes, single-family home

rentals, etc.  The specialized set of laws covering tenants who own their homes and rent spaces in manufactured home parks do NOT apply to RV tenants.

This article is general in nature and is not intended as legal advice for any specific issue that might arise, since every situation is different. Always consult a knowledgeable landlord attorney with your specific legal issues. 

A very recent court case highlights the ongoing importance of always conducting background checks on potential tenants.  This particular situation arose at an RV park when two overnight guests refused to vacate despite never being offered a rental agreement.  There were unusual circumstances that led to the situation, but the main point is to never let anyone become a tenant without running a thorough and accurate background report first.

Editor's Note:  In 2019 the Oregon Legislature made changes to mediation for Oregon Community owners and residents.  At the time time we published 17 Q&As for MHCO members by Bill Miner, Davis Wright Tremaine.  Here is a re-visit of an article published earlier.

One of the advantages of being a lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine, is we have lots of different lawyers with many different areas of expertise. To answer the questions below, I enlisted the help of my colleague Jim Oliver, who is a lawyer with substantial experience in the insurance industry. As with all of these articles, the following should not be construed as legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is created. If you have specific legal questions or concerns, please reach out to your attorney.

Question:  We have a couple living in a nice RV in our park on a month-to-month rental agreement.  They have been here for about two years, are retired, and have never had trouble paying the rent.  To make a long story short, we refused their rent earlier this year in January, February and March until we resolved a dispute with them regarding their dogs.  When we asked them to pay that rent, they refused because by then the statewide COVID-19 eviction moratorium had gone into effect.  Can we evict them for not paying pre-COVID rent that they still owe?