BILL REQ. #:  H-0758.1 

Read first time 01/24/2007.   Referred to Committee on Housing.

     AN ACT Relating to minimum terms for manufactured/mobile home lot rental agreements; amending RCW 59.20.050; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that:
     (a) Manufactured/mobile home communities provide a significant source of homeownership opportunities for Washington residents. However, the increasing number of closures and conversions of manufactured/mobile home communities to other uses, combined with increasing manufactured/mobile home lot rents, low vacancy rates in existing manufactured/mobile home communities, and the extremely high cost of moving homes when manufactured/mobile home communities close, make manufactured/mobile home community living increasingly insecure for manufactured/mobile home tenants.
     (b) Many tenants who reside in manufactured/mobile home communities are low-income households and senior citizens and are, therefore, those residents most in need of reasonable security in the siting of their manufactured/mobile homes because of the adverse impacts on the health, safety, and welfare of tenants forced to move due to closure, change of use, or discontinuance of manufactured/mobile home communities.
     (2) Given the effort and expense involved in moving a manufactured/mobile home, it is the intent of the legislature to provide an opportunity for manufactured/mobile tenants to remain in manufactured/mobile home communities for at least five years.

Sec. 2   RCW 59.20.050 and 1999 c 359 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1)(a) No landlord may offer a mobile home lot for rent to anyone without offering the option of a written rental agreement for a term of ((one)) five years or more. ((No landlord may offer to anyone any)) The landlord's offer of a rental agreement for a term of ((one)) five years or more ((for)) may not include terms under which the monthly ((rental)) rent is greater, or the terms of payment or other material conditions more burdensome to the tenant, than any ((month-to-month)) other rental agreement for a term of less than five years also offered to ((such)) the tenant or prospective tenant, except that at the end of each year during a rental agreement for a term of five years or more, the rent may be increased by not more than ten percent of the rent amount in the immediately preceding year.
     (b) Anyone who desires to occupy a mobile home lot for other than a term of ((one)) five years or more ((may)) must have the option ((to be on)) for an agreement that is a month-to-month ((basis)), year-to-year, or multiyear term of less than five years, but must waive, in writing, the right to ((such one)) a five-year or more term((: PROVIDED, That)). However, at the end of the rental agreement term, or for a month-to-month tenancy annually((,)) at any anniversary date of the tenancy, the tenant may require that the landlord ((provide)) offer a written rental agreement for a term of one year or more, up to five years, at the tenant's option.
     (c) No landlord shall allow a mobile home, manufactured home, or park model to be moved into a mobile home park in this state until a written rental agreement has been signed by and is in the possession of the parties((: PROVIDED, That)).
     However, if the landlord allows the tenant to move a mobile home, manufactured home, or park model into a mobile home park without obtaining a written rental agreement for a term of ((one)) five years or more, or a written waiver of the right to a ((one)) five-year term or more, the term of the tenancy shall be deemed to be for ((one)) five years from the date of occupancy of the mobile home lot;
     (2) The requirements of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply if:
     (a) The mobile home park or part thereof has been acquired or is under imminent threat of condemnation for a public works project((,)); or
     (b) An employer-employee relationship exists between a landlord and tenant((;)).
     (3) The provisions of this section shall apply to any tenancy upon expiration of the term of any oral or written rental agreement governing such tenancy.