Question. As a follow-up to your prior Q&A about assistance animals, I'm confused as to the distinction between them, "service animals" and "companion animals." Are we, as landlords, required to make a "reasonable accommodation," by allowing all of them? My understanding is that such animals cannot be counted as "pets" in regard to number, size, breed, or anything else as it relates to park Rules and Regulations. The exception being for animals that cause disturbance, injury, or is threating. Please clarify.

If you are reading this, chances are you are one of the millions of baby boomers at or near retirement. Although you might not care for the moniker, the government has officially designated you as an "older person." If you own property designated as housing for "seniors," you should periodically refresh yourself on the state of the law protecting "older persons" and to avoid the mistakes of other property owners.

Last week the Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Coalition held it's final meeting.  Some changes were made to the In Park Sales Conflict" issue but the other three issues remained substantially unchanged from our meeting in January. 

The MHCO Board of Directors has reviewed the proposed coalition bill and voted unanimously to support the proposed legislation.  Phil Querin is working on some last minute adjustments to the "In Park Sales" section of the proposal.  The coalition proposal will go to Legislative Counsel early this week to be drafted into a House Bill. 

MHCO has been working on bi-partisan support for the proposal.  There will be Democratic and Republican sponsors.   All this should make it easier to pass the proposal this spring.  In all likelihood the public hearing for this bill will be in March.

Here is a brief summary of the proposed legislation:

1. Unpaid Taxes on Abandoned Homes

This issue was MHCO's top legislative priority for the 2015 Legislative Session.  We are very happy with the agreement that we were able to reach which nearly eliminates all unpaid taxes on an abandoned home.

In general

Question: A landlord recently purchased a manufactured home in his community. He wants to fix the home up and then resell it. Does the landlord have to be a licensed plumber or electrician to do the respective work on the home?

Question: It has recently come to our attention that a tenant is in violation of our two-pet policy, as she has admitted that she has 4 small dogs living in her home. When we speak with her through her door, the smell of dog urine is overwhelming. We have mailed her a letter explaining that this is rules violation and asked that she remove two of the pets by a certain date. Our letter warned that if she failed to comply, she would be sent a 30-Day Notice to Vacate.

She stated she would keep the two extra dogs and claim them as service animal. This week she gave us a letter from her nurse practitioner stating she needed the pets for a medical condition. What are our options? We would like to serve her a 30 Day Notice to Vacate for Cause (violating our 2 pet policy). However, she has been speaking with advocacy groups that tell her we have no right to make her get rid of the two "service animals."

We feel that it is our responsibility as landlords to consistently enforce our community rules, but also don't want to get dragged into costly litigation just to lose in the end due to federal regulations of some kind.