BILL REQ. #:  H-0685.1 

Read first time 01/19/09.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to dispute resolution and registration in manufactured and mobile home communities; creating a new section; and repealing RCW 59.30.010, 59.30.020, 59.30.030, 59.30.040, 59.30.050, 59.30.060, 59.30.070, and 59.30.080.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that:
     (1) The office of civil legal aid has a fiscal year 2008-2009 biennial budget total of twenty-two million four hundred seventy-six thousand dollars to provide state funded civil legal aid to low-income individuals and families throughout the state.
     (2) The attorney general manages the largest public law office in the state with more than one thousand two hundred employees and offices in twelve cities around the state, and the office of the attorney general's consumer protection act division already provides a forum for each resident to file a complaint.
     (3) The Northwest justice project has over ninety attorneys providing free legal aid to qualified low-income tenants in ten offices across the state.
     (4) Many more federal, state, and local agencies across the state provide aid and information for tenants seeking help.
     (5) Many residents have indicated a desire to not participate in the attorney general's dispute resolution program.
     (6) After advertising their services to every community and each tenant across the state, through September 2008, the attorney general's dispute resolution program has received six hundred forty-five thousand one hundred thirty-six dollars to process three hundred ninety-eight complaints, an extremely small number given the number of tenants in communities statewide. The vast majority of these complaints either had nothing to do with the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act, or were solved without formal investigation.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:
     (1) RCW 59.30.010 (Findings -- Purpose -- Intent) and 2007 c 431 s 1;
     (2) RCW 59.30.020 (Definitions) and 2007 c 431 s 2;
     (3) RCW 59.30.030 (Dispute resolution program -- Purpose -- Attorney general duties) and 2007 c 431 s 3;
     (4) RCW 59.30.040 (Dispute resolution program -- Complaint process) and 2007 c 431 s 4;
     (5) RCW 59.30.050 (Registration process, fees) and 2007 c 431 s 6;
     (6) RCW 59.30.060 (Database) and 2007 c 431 s 7;
     (7) RCW 59.30.070 (Manufactured/mobile home dispute resolution program account) and 2007 c 431 s 8; and
     (8) RCW 59.30.080 (Immunity from suit) and 2007 c 431 s 5.