Senate Bill S6515

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S6515

SPONSOR: RANZENHOFER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the real property law, in relation to manufactured home
park rental fee increases

 
PURPOSE OF THE BILL:

The purpose of this legislative proposal is to modernize the laws appli-
cable to manufactured home parks and manufactured homes, by: (i) allow-
ing proper and fair notice for fees, charges, assessments or rental
fees; (ii) providing opportunity for residential input; (iii) giving
recourse should new protocols not be followed.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Paragraph 3 of subdivision g of section 233 of the Real Prop-
erty Law, as amended by chapter 566 of the laws of 1996, is amended to
read as follows:
              

(i) No fees, charges, assessments or rental fees may be increased by
manufactured home park owner or operator without specifying the date of
implementation of said fees, charges, assessments or rental fees which
date shall be no less than:

A) ninety days after written notice to all manufactured home tenants in
the case of increases to fees, charges or assessments; and B) one year
notice by personal service or certified mail to all manufactured home
tenants in the case of increases to rental fees.

(ii) If a rental fee increase is greater than the percentage increase of
the consumer price index as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
of the United States Department of Labor, the manufactured home park
owner shall hold a meeting with all manufactured home tenants within
forty five days of the notice.

The meeting shall be held at the manufactured home park community
center, or if there is no community center or if such community center
cannot accommodate such meeting, the meeting shall be held in a hand-
icapped accessible facility that is no more than two miles from the
manufactured home park. The date, time and location of this meeting
shall be included with the notice to increase rental fees.

(iii) Failure on the part of the manufactured home park owner or opera-
tor to fully disclose all fees, charges or assessments shall prevent the
manufactured home park owner or operator from collecting said fees,
charges or assessments, and refusal by the manufactured home tenant to
pay any undisclosed charges shall not be used by the manufactured home
park owner or operator as a cause for eviction in any court of law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Manufactured housing is a significant form of unsubsidized affordable
housing in this country for low-income households. According to a 2015
estimate by the American Community Survey, approximately 2.5% of New
Yorkers, or approximately 195,000 people, live in manufactured homes in
New York State.
In New York, there are approximately 1,822 manufactured home parks with
3 or more manufactured homes, and 67,761 occupied sites within parks.
Existing laws governing manufactured homes have not been amended to
account for modern-day issues surrounding these homes.  With so many
people across the State relying on manufactured homes as a key source of
housing, sensible notification requirements that offer residential input
and notice are necessary for market stability and continued affordabili-
ty for the manufactured home residents.

Due to rising costs of operation, many locally owned manufactured home
parks are selling their properties to out of state investment firms that
arbitrarily raise rent and cause grave distress and panic among some of
our communities' most vulnerable citizens.

The proposed legislation creates guidelines for the manufactured home
park owners to allow for fair notice of any rent increases.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

There is no anticipated budget impact on this proposed legislation.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately