MHCO Legal Counsel

Question: We have a resident in the park who recently got into a verbal shouting match with another neighbor. The resident was extremely intoxicated at the time and made threats and gestures that were very inappropriate and provocative. There are some residents who want us to immediately issue a 24-hour notice. However, until this incident, the resident has been a good tenant and never caused a problem. How should we handle this? This incident seems entirely out of character for this individual.

Question -- Three abandonment questions: (a) Can a landlord acquire a home that is in abandonment? (b) Can he bid during the sealed bid process? (c) If no one bids on the house can the landlord purchase the house and at what price?

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 have a resident who has expressed displeasure over finding tracts, Bibles, etc., left in the clubhouse. Not wanting to cater to the complaining resident, but also not wanting to offend others or place the park in a bad position, what is the safest legal way to deal with this issue?

Question: The law and MHCO ocupancy agreement both state that a landlord can screen an occupant for conduct or criminal history but not for credit history or income level. If after screening a temporary occupant, the findings reveal that they have civil case(s) and/or eviction matters relating to previous rental history where the derogatory rental reference is financial (not necessarily bad personal conduct). Can this be grounds for denial?

Question: A few years ago, a married couple originally applied together for residency in our community. Based on their combined credit scores, they were both approved for residency. They have since divorced and one of them has moved out. How do we deal with this?

We have several questions listed below.

Question*: If a community owner sells one or more homes (e.g. those received via abandonment or pre-abandonment) with the help of a Mortgage Loan Originator ("MLO") working for a third party mortgage banker or mortgage broker, after the buyer's installment contract is completed and signed, can the community owner then collect the payments himself? In other words, now that MLO has complied with the SAFE Act, can this receivable be returned to the community owner to collect the monthly payments? My concern is that someone might say that since the owner is now receiving the payments, he is engaged in the business of "loan servicing" - even though it's his own home; he's not in the lending or servicing business; and not receiving or expecting compensation for the act of servicing). It could pose a real financial hardship on community owners if they had to pay a third party for servicing that they can do themselves. The primary reason park owners do this is to fill vacant homes, not to make big money on the sale itself.

Question: A community owner entered into a Storage Agreement on a home in early January 2011. The agreement provides that the home must be removed by November 30th if it does not sell. We are now approaching the end of November, and the community owner does not believe the home will be sold by the end of this month. What's next? Does the community owner take the homeowner to court? Doesn't the landlord have to give one year to the home owner?