If you are one of the 7% of Americans who own and live in a manufactured home, i.e., mobile home, you likely rent the land on which your home rests from the company that owns the land of your mobile home park community. This puts you in the odd position of being a simultaneous homeowner and renter.
As FindLaw explains, this situation also raises potential problems for you. As a renter of land only, you do not have the same legal protections as apartment renters. In addition, even though you own your home, it is not, despite its name, truly mobile. Instead, it has no wheels and is securely attached to the land on which it sits.
The problem
Unfortunately, if the company that owns the land decides to evict you, you generally have only the following three options:
- Move your home to another location at a likely cost of between $5,000 and $10,000
- Sell it and hope you can recover the money you put into it, a dicey proposition at best
- Abandon it and lose your entire investment
Florida case
A Miami TV station reported that Paradise Park Mobile Home Park residents received a 6-month eviction notice last November after River Rapids Partners, LLC, bought the property and declared its intention to close the park and “change the use of the land.” The homeowner’s association immediately filed suit on behalf of all its members, alleging that the actions of River Rapids Partners, LLC, are unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory because the affected residents cannot take their most valuable asset, i.e., their home, with them when they move. The suit is still in litigation.