BILL REQ. #:  S-0600.1 

Read first time 01/24/11.   Referred to Committee on Financial Institutions, Housing & Insurance.

     AN ACT Relating to clarifying the manufactured housing and mobile home program functions and account; amending RCW 59.22.050, 59.22.070, 46.17.150, 59.20.300, and 59.22.020; adding a new section to chapter 43.22A RCW; and recodifying RCW 59.22.070.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 59.22.050 and 2008 c 116 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) In order to provide general assistance to ((manufactured/mobile home)) resident organizations, qualified tenant organizations, ((manufactured/mobile home community or park owners, and landlords)) and tenants, the department shall establish an office of ((manufactured housing)) mobile/manufactured home relocation assistance.
     (2) This office will provide, either directly or through contracted services, technical assistance to qualified tenant organizations as defined in RCW 59.20.030 and resident organizations or persons in the process of forming a resident organization pursuant to this chapter ((59.22 RCW)). The office will keep records of its activities in this area.
     (((2))) (3) The office shall administer the mobile home relocation assistance program established in chapter 59.21 RCW, including verifying the eligibility of tenants for relocation assistance.

Sec. 2   RCW 59.22.070 and 2007 c 432 s 10 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((There)) (1) The manufactured housing account is created in the custody of the state treasurer ((a special account known as the manufactured housing account)).
     ((Disbursements from this special account shall be as follows:
     (1) For the two-year period beginning July 1, 1988, forty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary for costs incurred in registering landlords and collecting fees, and thereafter five thousand dollars per year for that purpose.
     (2) All remaining amounts shall be remitted to the department for the purpose of implementing RCW 59.22.050, except those funds needed to implement)) (2) All receipts from fees imposed under RCW 46.17.150 must be deposited into the account.
     (3) Expenditures from the account may be made only as follows:
     (a) The director of the department of commerce or the director's designee may authorize expenditures of up to five thousand dollars per year for the purpose of implementing RCW 59.22.050.
     (b) The director of the department of labor and industries or the director's designee may authorize expenditures of all remaining amounts for the state administrative agency function and manufactured home installation training and certification program under this chapter ((43.22A RCW, as well as all appropriated and nonappropriated funds related to department of labor and industries functions)).
     (4) The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.

Sec. 3   RCW 46.17.150 and 2010 c 161 s 510 are each amended to read as follows:
     Before accepting an application for a transfer of certificate of title for a new or used manufactured home as required in this title and chapter 65.20 RCW, the department, county auditor or other agent, or subagent appointed by the director shall require the applicant to pay a fifteen dollar fee in addition to any other fees and taxes required by law. The fifteen dollar fee must be forwarded to the state treasurer, who shall deposit the fee in the manufactured housing account created in RCW 59.22.070 (as recodified by this act).

Sec. 4   RCW 59.20.300 and 2008 c 116 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A landlord must provide a written notice of sale of a manufactured/mobile home community by certified mail or personal delivery to:
     (a) Each tenant of the manufactured/mobile home community;
     (b) The officers of any known qualified tenant organization;
     (c) The office of ((manufactured housing)) mobile/manufactured home relocation assistance;
     (d) The local government within whose jurisdiction all or part of the manufactured/mobile home community exists;
     (e) The housing authority within whose jurisdiction all or part of the manufactured/mobile home community exists; and
     (f) The Washington state housing finance commission.
     (2) A notice of sale must include:
     (a) A statement that the landlord intends to sell the manufactured/mobile home community; and
     (b) The contact information of the landlord or landlord's agent who is responsible for communicating with the qualified tenant organization or eligible organization regarding the sale of the property.

Sec. 5   RCW 59.22.020 and 2010 c 161 s 1150 are each amended to read as follows:
     The following definitions shall apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
     (1) (("Account" means the manufactured housing account created under RCW 59.22.070.
     (2))) "Affordable" means that, where feasible, low-income residents should not pay more than thirty percent of their monthly income for housing costs.
     (((3))) (2) "Conversion costs" includes the cost of acquiring the mobile home park, the costs of planning and processing the conversion, the costs of any needed repairs or rehabilitation, and any expenditures required by a government agency or lender for the project.
     (((4))) (3) "Department" means the department of commerce.
     (((5))) (4) "Fee" means the mobile home title transfer fee imposed under RCW 46.17.150.
     (((6))) (5) "Fund" or "park purchase account" means the mobile home park purchase account created pursuant to RCW 59.22.030.
     (((7))) (6) "Housing costs" means the total cost of owning, occupying, and maintaining a mobile home and a lot or space in a mobile home park.
     (((8))) (7) "Individual interest in a mobile home park" means any interest which is fee ownership or a lesser interest which entitles the holder to occupy a lot or space in a mobile home park for a period of not less than either fifteen years or the life of the holder. Individual interests in a mobile home park include, but are not limited to, the following:
     (a) Ownership of a lot or space in a mobile home park or subdivision;
     (b) A membership or shares in a stock cooperative, or a limited equity housing cooperative; or
     (c) Membership in a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation which owns, operates, or owns and operates the mobile home park.
     (((9))) (8) "Landlord" shall have the same meaning as it does in RCW 59.20.030.
     (((10))) (9) "Low-income resident" means an individual or household who resided in the mobile home park prior to application for a loan pursuant to this chapter and with an annual income at or below eighty percent of the median income for the county of standard metropolitan statistical area of residence. Net worth shall be considered in the calculation of income with the exception of the resident's mobile/manufactured home which is used as their primary residence.
     (((11))) (10) "Low-income spaces" means those spaces in a mobile home park operated by a resident organization which are occupied by low-income residents.
     (((12))) (11) "Manufactured housing" means residences constructed on one or more chassis for transportation, and which bear an insignia issued by a state or federal regulatory agency indication compliance with all applicable construction standards of the United States department of housing and urban development.
     (((13))) (12) "Mobile home" shall have the same meaning as it does in RCW ((46.04.302)) 43.22.335.
     (((14))) (13) "Mobile home lot" shall have the same meaning as it does in RCW 59.20.030.
     (((15))) (14) "Mobile home park" means a mobile home park, as defined in RCW 59.20.030(10), or a manufactured home park subdivision as defined by RCW 59.20.030(12) created by the conversion to resident ownership of a mobile home park.
     (((16))) (15) "Resident organization" means a group of mobile home park residents who have formed a nonprofit corporation, cooperative corporation, or other entity or organization for the purpose of acquiring the mobile home park in which they reside and converting the mobile home park to resident ownership. The membership of a resident organization shall include at least two-thirds of the households residing in the mobile home park at the time of application for assistance from the department.
     (((17))) (16) "Resident ownership" means, depending on the context, either the ownership, by a resident organization, as defined in this section, of an interest in a mobile home park which entitles the resident organization to control the operations of the mobile home park for a term of no less than fifteen years, or the ownership of individual interests in a mobile home park, or both.
     (((18))) (17) "Tenant" means a person who rents a mobile home lot for a term of one month or longer and owns the mobile home on the lot.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   RCW 59.22.070 is recodified as a section in chapter 43.22A RCW.