Evictions would be easier under proposed changes to Florida’s mobile home laws, advocates warn

Decades-old protections for mobile-home owners could be upended under a series of industry-backed proposals introduced this legislative session and housing advocates warn they could result in more evictions for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.

The Florida Manufactured Housing Association, a trade group representing home builders and park owners that’s behind the proposals, says the purpose of the bills is to “make sure that manufactured housing is better positioned to be part of the affordable housing solution in Florida.” Sen. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, who introduced Senate Bill 818, said the changes are necessary to modernize the current statutes and will increase the availability of affordable and workforce housing. A separate bill mirroring 818’s language was filed by Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Palm Coast, which also includes changes to affordable housing zoning and accessory dwelling units.

“A lot of us have received a lot of correspondence alleging that this is just a way to evict homeowners from their property. That’s the furthest from the truth,” Hooper said during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Innovation, Industry, and Technology earlier this month. “If I own a mobile home park, I know exactly how much rent an empty lot pays: It’s zero.”

However, opposing groups, including the Federation of Manufactured Homeowners of Florida, which represents a portion of the 2 million Floridians living in mobile home parks, fear the changes would strip homeowners of some of their basic rights and hinder their access to affordable housing.

“They’re trying to chip away at renters’ rights and make it easier to evict them that’s pretty clear,” said Esther Sullivan, assistant professor at University of Colorado Denver.

Currently, manufactured housing is the country’s largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing, with about 1 in 10 Floridians living in manufactured housing communities, Sullivan said. The majority of homes in the United States priced below $125,000 are mobile homes, and for many, it’s the only way to be able to break into homeownership. It’s a housing option that’s particularly attractive for senior citizens who live off a fixed income, or those on disability and the working poor.

Margie Mathers, who lives in a manufactured home community in Fort Myers, traveled to Tallahassee on Wednesday with MHAction, a grassroots group of manufactured home residents. She said in the seven years she’s lived in Buccaneer Estates, she and her husband’s rent has gone from $625 to more than $800.

“If they would look at it through our eyes, it would open their eyes. It’s not just senior citizens, it’s people who rent, it’s veterans, it’s people on disability, it’s people on welfare,” Mathers said.

If passed, the bills would: Make it so park owners no longer have to send eviction notices through certified mail, saving them money but also removing the ability to confirm the notices were received. Notices could instead be sent through the regular mail and be posted to front doors.

• Lower the amount of sales tax that can be collected from the sales of mobile homes, a provision that will be weighed by the state’s revenue estimating conference. The bills would make it so sales tax can only be levied on 50% of a movable home’s sales price instead of the full price, and homes that are permanently affixed to the ground would be exempt entirely.

• Halt the yearslong practice in which a mobile-home buyer can take over the rental agreement from the seller, a move critics say could lead to higher rents and make it harder for low-income residents to sell their homes.

• Allow only a five-person committee of park residents to meet with management during rent negotiations. It’s unclear if an attorney would also be allowed to represent tenants.

• Allow mobile home parks damaged or destroyed by natural disasters to be rebuilt in the same location and at the same density levels, a move Sullivan said is important because local governments sought to roll up damaged parks after recent hurricanes.

• Require tenants facing eviction for violations unrelated to missing rent to pay the court within five days or face immediate removal. Currently, mobile-home owners are only required to pay into the court registry if they are being evicted for skipping rent. Park owners are allowed to dip into the registry if they are in danger of losing the property “or other personal hardship,” however this proposal would remove that condition and make it so park owners can still pursue the eviction or civil action.

Most troubling, mobilehome owners advocates said, are the provisions that would eliminate the practice of sending eviction notices through certified mail and shake up the current eviction process.

“People can be evicted without ever seeing a judge,” said Alana Greer, co-director of the Community Justice Project, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides legal services for lowincome communities.

In many cases in which mobile-home owners are evicted, they are forced to abandon their homes because they either can’t be moved or they can’t afford to transport them.

“Once these homes are placed on the lots, they’re taken off the wheels, they’re affixed to the land. If it’s like that for years, a lot of these homes cannot be lifted up and moved. They would be destroyed,” said Nejla Calvo, an attorney with Legal Services of Greater Miami, which provides free legal assistance to mobile-home owners in South Florida. “Let’s say you could even find a (park property) that can take your home and it won’t be destroyed in the move, it can cost $15,000 just to move your home.”

The proposals would radically change the state’s Mobile Home Act, a section of Florida law adopted in the 1980s that governs the state’s mobile home communities, including their eviction policies and rent negotiations. It was created to put in place protections for mobile-home owners, whose living situations differ greatly from those of traditional renters or homeowners.

“Living within a manufactured housing community, a mobile home park, is a completely distinct land tenure. You’re neither a traditional homeowner nor a renter. You own the home, but you rent the land. This puts manufactured housing community residents in a really unique position, so protections for traditional apartment renters actually might not be good for mobile home park residents,” said Sullivan.

“Really, what we need is laws that treat them separately and acknowledge the unique place of mobile home parks.”

Jim Ayotte, executive director of FMHA, argued the Mobile Home Act must be brought up to date.

After hearing concerns about the bill’s language, Ayotte said it will most likely be amended to give homeowners more time to pay into the court and maintain the requirement to send eviction notices through certified mail.

Provisions that would have allowed park owners to add additional lots without consent from homeowners will also be amended to clarify that shared facilities and amenities must also be expanded. And FMHA may also drop the proposed requirement that buyers must agree to repair mobile homes prior to purchasing, after hearing concerns that it could make selling homes more challenging.