S-3741               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6209

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senators Lee, Bailey and Murray

Prefiled with Secretary of the Senate 1/5/90.  Read first time 1/8/90 and referred to Committee on  Economic Development & Labor.

AN ACT Relating to mobile home relocation fund assessments; and amending RCW 59.21.060.

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 6, chapter 201, Laws of 1989 and RCW 59.21.060 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) There is hereby placed on all mobile homes located in mobile home parks an annual assessment of eleven dollars per mobile home beginning on January 1, 1990.  The assessment shall be collected by the county treasurer or treasurers within the county or counties where the mobile home or the mobile home park is located.  Notice of the assessment created under this section may be included on the notice of property taxes due, or may be sent separately from the notice of property taxes due.  The assessment created under this section shall be due at the same time property taxes are due and shall constitute a lien on the mobile home upon which the assessment is imposed.  Delinquent assessments created under this section shall be foreclosed in the same manner, and subject to the same time schedules, interest, and penalties as delinquent property taxes.  County treasurers may impose a fee for collecting the assessment created in this section not to exceed five percent of the dollar value of the collection of assessments created under this section.  The county treasurer may collect the assessment for 1990 at the same time the county treasurer collects the assessment for 1991 if the county treasurer would experience undue hardship in collecting the 1990 assessment in that year.

          (2) Upon the request of the treasurer of the county or counties where the mobile home park is located, each park-owner shall provide the county treasurer with a list of all tenants residing in the park on January 1, 1989.  This list shall be mailed by August 1, 1989, to the treasurer or treasurers of the county or counties where the mobile home park is located.  The list shall include the name and address of each tenant, and the mobile home tax number of each tenant if available.  Upon the request of the treasurer of the county or counties where the mobile home park is located, the park-owners shall update the list of tenants residing in the park.

          (3) County assessors may compile the list of persons subject to the assessment created under this section in any manner they determine to be the most efficient and reliable including the following method:  The assessment notice may be sent to all mobile home owners within the county with instructions that the assessment applies to them unless they execute the enclosed statement that they do not live in a mobile home park.  The instructions shall also indicate that the statement shall be executed under oath under penalty of perjury and before a notary public.

A mobile home resident who returns the statement duly notarized shall be exempt from the assessment until the assessor determines through investigation or other reasonable means that the statement is untrue.

County treasurers are authorized to use this method annually, or at greater intervals, until they, in their sole discretion, determine they have compiled an accurate list, or to use this method as a means of updating, or cross-checking other sources of information.

(4) County treasurers who use the method described in subsection (3) of this section are authorized to make the assessment created by this section applicable to all mobile homes in the county except those for which the owners return notarized statements that they do not live in mobile home parks.

(5) The assessments collected under subsection (1) of this section shall be forwarded to the state treasurer, less any administration fee collected by the county treasurer under this section.  The state treasurer shall deposit one dollar of the assessment collected per mobile home in the mobile home affairs account created by RCW 59.22.070; the remainder of the assessment forwarded to the state treasurer under this subsection shall be deposited in the mobile home park relocation fund created under RCW 59.21.050.

          (((4))) (6) The department of revenue, the state treasurer, and the county treasurers may enact any rules necessary to carry out this section.