MHCO Legal Counsel

Question: A resident stops by the manager's office on the 5th of the month and offers to pay $150 of the $350 of rent that is due, and promising to pay the remaining $200 by the 15th of the month. The tenant claims that the landlord must accept the partial payment. What are the landlord's options? Can the landlord refuse the partial payment? Where do you draw the line - say a 72 hour notice has been issued - does that change the partial payment scenario?

Question: We recently had an applicant (with a criminal history) that management rejected for an RV spot we had available. The criminal background check disclosed that the applicant had a prior burglary and criminal mischief conviction in 2008. He pled guilty and was given a 20-day jail sentence, with 18 months’ probation. He accepted our rejection without argument, but upon reflection, I’m concerned whether our manager may have been too hasty in light of the recent court rulings and Department of Justice pronouncements on how we should use criminal background information when one applies for housing.  Should we have handled this any differently?

When understanding tenant responsibilities in manufactured housing communities, it is important to remember those statutes found in Oregon's landlord-tenant law. One such statute, ORS 90.740, bears closer examination. Under this statute, there are several obligations that frequently are not contained even in the community's own rules. This means that even though the rental agreement or rules fail to address the issue, it is still something that the landlord may enforce if violated. Conversely, of course, if the rules or rental agreement impose less stringent requirements upon the tenant, those provisions in the community documents will control. What follows is a summary of the law:

Oregon landlord-tenant law is complicated.  And mistakes in understanding the law frequently work against landlords.  The basic rule-of-thumb to remember is that the written document which defines the landlord-tenant relationship must be complete and must be followed.  While Oregon law does contain some restrictions upon what landlords can put into their rental agreements,[1] generally, they are far better off commencing the rental relationship with a strong, clear and fair written document. MHCO has gone to great lengths in making sure that its forms meet these criteria.  What follows is a list of ten tips and traps to remember when using the MHCO Rental Agreement form.

Question: A park we manage has a tree on one of the lots whose roots are damaging the home owner's driveway, and the neighbor's driveway. In addition, it is also damaging the skirt of the home owner's residence. Our park rules say that all plants, including trees on a lot, are the responsibility of the home owner who is leasing the lot. The home owners are also responsible for installing and maintaining their driveways and carports. We had an arborist come out and assess the tree and it is not currently a
"hazard tree". The arborist advised against cutting the roots that are damaging the driveways as the tree would then lack adequate support and become a hazard tree. The question is, what responsibility, if any, does the Park owner have for the tree and or driveway damage? I am particularly wondering if ORS 90.730 (3)(g) has any relevance.

Question: We have a 91 year old tenant who is bedridden, and his daughter who is 66 years old, is his caretaker. He is not coherent. Meanwhile, she continually lets people stay at the residence past the 14 day limit in our rules. The space is not maintained. We sent a 30 day notice in August for unauthorized residents. Unfortunately, the caretaker continues to let in more unauthorized residents, some of whom are suspected of burglaries in the park and the residents are very concerned about their safety and are demanding we evict. The caretaker's guests routinely break the rules. I have contacted the county "Adult and Senior Services". They have not been helpful. The residents want something to be done. I hate the thought of evicting a 91-year old man, just to get rid of his daughter.

Question. What do you do when you discover a resident has filed for bankruptcy after you have given them a 72 hour notice for nonpayment of rent? Is the process different if you give them a 30-day notice for cleaning up their space and you discover that they have filed bankruptcy?

Question One: If a community is a legal 55+ park, is it still subject to the federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination against children?

Question Two: If the current rules in a family community appear to be discriminatory towards children -- e.g. they place restrictions that have a discriminatory impact on children or persons with children (e.g. curfew on children, even if it's intended to be for their own safety) can the landlord unilaterally amend the rules, or does he/she need to go through the formal rule change process outlined in the ORS 90.610?

Questions. We want to add street lighting to a section of our community that has none. The light poles will need to be placed on several of the spaces. Can we install these on the space without resident permission? Is a 24 hour notice sufficient notice? What do you suggest? Secondly, we also want to repair broken street lights that are on a number of resident spaces. Can we go on the space with a 24 hour notice? What if the resident objects?

Question No. 1. We are currently in the process of submetering our community and we have been asked a question by the residents that we run into frequently. This scenario refers to the first month of billing, i.e. January 2017: Tenants ask "If we are being billed for utility usage from November 15 -- December 15 and then we pay for usage on our January rent invoice, haven't we already paid for these services in our December rent, i.e. before the effective date of the submetering? If so, it appears that we are paying for it twice.