Scott Hess
5200 SW Meadows Rd, Suite 150
Lake Oswego, OR 97035

Phone: 503-726-5980
Fax: 360-546-3341
Email: scott@sterlingproperties.com

Website: www.sterlingproperties.com

Question: A former tenant who signed over his mobile but left the Park with almost $4,000 in back rent, unpaid property taxes and attorney fees is now applying to be a Temporary Occupant in a neighbor's home. Is there any way I can prevent him from living in the Park? If I deny him temporary occupancy, I'm afraid he will say he will be serving as a care giver for the current tenant. What can I do?

Take a look at the signage in your community. Are there signs clearly posted to indicate that your community is private property, has a no soliciting policy, a speed limit, pets must be on a leash or that unregistered/unauthorized vehicles may be towed? These are just some examples, but they are quite common in many manufactured home communities. In order to effectively enforce a policy or rule, the signs indicating those policies or rules must be clearly visible and properly maintained. A sun-bleached sign that used to say No Soliciting or a No Parking sign obscured by a tree or bush, most likely, will not convey the important information that you want people in your community to know.

A comment made frequently by lenders at a recent national banker's conference was, "It is a good time to be a borrower." Correction, it is a great time to be a borrower! Treasury yields have been hovering at or near all time lows, loan spreads are at favorable levels, and lender underwriting guidelines have moderated -- some believe too quickly -- as a result of an expanding supply of active lenders in the market.

Question: We have a parking problem in our RV park. Some of the long-term residents often have guests who park in places that they shouldn't. In addition, some tenants own more than one vehicle, which adds to the parking congestion. Can we tow unlawfully parked vehicles? What else can we do to cut down on parking problems?

Question:  I am still unclear on the issue of whether we may insist that all applicants for tenancy produce a valid social security number. Is it legal that we do so?

Question. My manager said he heard somewhere that by law a conviction older than three or four years cannot be used as a part of the decision to deny a prospective tenant's rental application. I don't know if that pertains to screening in a rental situation or if it was related to something else, such as employment or the like. Can you shed some light on this?

Customer service can be defined as a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction. It's the feeling that a product or service has met the customer's expectation.

The following is a summary of my conversation with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon on the issue of whether landlords can put caregivers on Temporary Occupancy Agreements, rather than putting them on a Rental Agreement, or not putting them on any written agreement (which leaves in doubt their legal status if the Landlord wants them removed from the Community).