Fairness for manufactured homeowners

It’s become clear in recent years that Iowa law does an injustice to homeowners living in manufactured housing com-munities – also known as mo-bile home parks.

This week, members of the Iowa Manufactured Home Res-idents Network visited the State Capitol to fight for fair-ness and share their stories with lawmakers. They asked for checks and balances in a one-sided system that is at-tracting unscrupulous landlords who see an opportunity to profit from vulnerable, disabled and low-income Iowans.

As out-of-state corporations have purchased manufactured home parks in several Iowa communities, we’ve seen a spike in complaints concerning:

• Rent increases of up to 69 percent.

• Utility fees that exceed the landlords’ costs for service.

• Arbitrary fees and fines.

• Evictions for no reason that have resulted in residents losing homes they’ve bought.

A bipartisan group of legis-lators want to update Iowa Code Chapter 562B to make our laws fairer to manufactured homeowners and curb predato-ry practices. SF 2238/HF 2351 would make four changes to Iowa law:

1. Eviction: Require “good cause” for eviction.

2. Rent increases: Mandate 180-days’ notice of rent in-creases, limit increases to once per year and require an expla-nation if the increase is more than the rate of inflation.

3. Enforcement: Give the Iowa Attorney General authori-ty to enforce the mobile home park laws under the Consumer Fraud Act.

4. Equity: Provide mobile homeowners the same protec-tions afforded apartment renters.

Sen. Amanda Ragan (D-Mason City) serves Franklin, Butler and Cerro Gordo counties in Senate District 27. She can be reached at 515-281-3371 or 641-424-0874. Email her at aman-da.ragan@legis.iowa.gov.