LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate approved Sen. Roger Hauck’s legislation on Tuesday as part of a bipartisan six-bill package to update the state’s mobile home laws.
“We’ve been working on this issue for a long time, and it’s great to finally see a sensible solution passed for mobile home parks and their residents,” said Hauck, R-Mount Pleasant. “These much-needed reforms would improve oversight of more than 1,200 mobile home communities throughout Michigan and expand protections for nearly 475,000 mobile home park residents.
“My bill would offer an incentive for mobile home park owners to consider enabling their park residents to take control of their communities.”
Hauck’s measure, Senate Bill 938, would create an income tax credit for mobile home park owners who sell their park to the park’s residents. The bill would create a nonrefundable tax credit of up to 15% of the purchase price of a mobile home park if the owner sold the park to residents.
SBs 934-937 and 939 would:
- Require annual mobile home park inspections and create new rules regarding installers.
- Create a mobile home park owner database.
- Enable the state to enact rules regarding water and wastewater systems within parks.
- Create a more comprehensive licensing application process.
- Update requirements for lease and rental agreements and the list of practices by mobile home park owners that are unfair or deceptive.
- Create several funds designed to assist park owners and residents.
- Provide more options for mobile home residents who are being evicted from their park.
- Establish penalties for unlicensed park ownership.
- Outline the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s role in administering a new Resident Ownership Revolving Fund.
Manufactured homes, often called mobile homes, differ from traditional homes in that they are constructed and assembled in a factory and then transported to a home site. This allows them to be built for significantly less money than a traditional home. While the average cost of a new house in Michigan is more than $350,000, the average price of a new manufactured home is less than $150,000.
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