H-4401              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1705

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives P. King, Bristow, Nutley and Leonard

Read first time 1/22/88 and referred to Committee on Housing. Rereferred to Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance 1/25/88.

AN ACT Relating to fire insurance for mobile homes; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     (1) All fire insurance policies issued on mobile homes located in mobile home parks within this state shall provide additional coverage of not less than one thousand five hundred dollars for the cost of removal from the mobile home park of any mobile home which is destroyed by fire and is a total loss.  Any mobile home fire insurer shall be liable, to the extent of the policy limits for debris removal, to a person performing the service of removing the mobile home from the mobile home park.  The insurer may discharge its obligation by making payment directly to the person performing the removal service.

          (2) The insurer shall not release any debris removal funds to the insured in the case of total loss of the mobile home until the insured has provided proof that all of the burned debris has been removed from the mobile home park to the satisfaction of the mobile home park owner or landlord.  The approval of the mobile home park owner or landlord shall not be unreasonably withheld.

          (3) The terms "landlord" and "mobile home park" shall have the same meaning as in RCW 59.20.030.

          (4) A violation of any provision of this section shall constitute an unfair business practice as defined in RCW 48.30.010.

          (5) The requirements of this section shall cover any mobile home fire insurance policies offered for purchase or renewed after January 1, 1989.

          (6) This section shall not prevent any person or entity removing a damaged or destroyed mobile home from collecting an amount in excess of the debris removal insurance policy limits from the mobile home owner.