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By: Jeffrey S. Bennett, Attorney at Law Warren Allen, LLP   A Historical Perspective   For many years, landlords and tenants alike have been asking for Leases that provide long term stability and predictable expectations. When compared to month-to-month tenancies or commonly used fixed term Leases (e.g., one or two year Leases), long term…

This month at Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon (MHCO), we look at how to avoid fair housing trouble while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. For months now, the nation has been confronting the public health emergency caused by the new coronavirus. By April, all 50 states had reported cases of COVID-19 to the U.S. Centers for Disease…

Question.I have a question about the Pet form. The term “assistance”  animal is used throughout. We are  in a disagreement with HUD over a comfort animal versus a “service” animal.  (one state document does use the term assistance and classes that as service in a footnote)     Our defense is that the terms are very specific in the laws, or…

    Question:  We have residents in our RV park who seem to be blatantly violating the governor’s COVID-19 emergency stay-at-home order.  Some residents have outside family members or guests come by regularly, while a few other residents get together on their spaces to just “hang out” in the evenings. This has caused some concern in the park, so…

Last week we uploaded “10 rules on how to avoid fair housing claims based on familial status”.   This week, let’s look at how the rules might apply in the real world. Here are  4 questions - with answers posted on MHCO.ORG.     INSTRUCTIONS: Each of the following questions has only one correct answer.   

Unauthorized Pet and Use of Correct Form   Question.What form would someone use for unauthorized pet. Form 43 (continuing violations) says “not to use for pet”. But Form 43A is for distinct violations, i.e. one-time incidents. Is bringing an unauthorized pet into the community considered distinct rather than on-going?    

Complaints can arise from the way you advertise, show units, apply occupancy standards, and enforce community rules.   This week MHCO looks at fair housing problems that can arise when dealing with families with children. Fair housing law bans discrimination against families with children, but there’s more to it than that. You could get into…

  COVID-2019 is a new strain of coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of 2019 and continues to spread around the globe. The COVID-2019 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is already having a major effect on international commerce. As the outbreak expands in the United States, commercial…

Question:  We need clarification on 30- day notices.  Assuming courts are closed for longer than 2 weeks - this could become 2 months. What should a landlord do who has a tenant  problem that warrants issuance of a 30-day notice?  If the landlord gives a 30-day notice now, he/she has two possible choices: (a) Accept no rent for the second month…

Detecting Elder Abuse in Your Park   By Terry R. Dowdall, Esq. ■UPSHOT:      –For every reported case of elder abuse, there are more than 24 undetected cases never reported (according to an East Coast study).         – Almost all victims are in a private residence behind closed doors.       – The number of 65+ people increases by 10,000…