Purpose

AB 869 responds to a long-term and widespread problem that some mobilehome park managers are ignorant of the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) and create a hostile environment in parks.  AB 869 would take the first step by establishing an incentive-based manager-training requirement for mobilehome park managers, modeled on a similar approach for condominium managers.  The bill would establish the designation of “certified mobilehome park manager,” and mandate that only those who have completed the specified course of study and training can use the designation.

Background

A 2004 hearing by the Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities helped shed light on the numerous complaints that the committee has received about park managers who do not correctly apply state law in carrying out their duties.  Among the complaints identified by the committee:

• Managers who do not have a working understanding of the MRL (the state law governing mobilehome tenancies) leading to disputes with residents over the application of the law;
• Threats of reprisal against residents who seek repairs, and other conflict between park managers and residents;
• Allegations that managers had interfered with the sale of mobilehomes in violation of the MRL;
• Inconsistent application of park rules; and
• Failure to adequately respond to complaints about maintenance issues in the park.

Often, problems such as these can be resolved when both parties are knowledgeable about their responsibilities.  In addition, professionally trained staff that understands how to resolve conflicts can often head off problems before they arise.  By encouraging managers to seek appropriate training, AB 869 hopes to foster better relationships between management and residents and ensure more consistent application of the MRL.

The Bill

·            Establishes a new designation of “Certified Mobilehome Park Manager” and prohibits the use of that term unless the person has completed the required training.

·            Requires park managers to undergo 10 hours of training every 2 years in order to use the designation “certified.”

·            Requires the training to include a minimum of 6 hours of instruction in the MRL and related laws, and an additional 4 hours of instruction on management duties and conflict resolution.

·            Allows the training to be provided by specified professional organizations, or by any accredited post secondary educational institution.

·            Requires notice to residents as to whether park management is certified.

·            Provides that any park that has been cited for code violations that have not been corrected for more than 120 days must employ a certified park manager within 60 days.

Contact

Office of Assemblymember Mendoza: Rene Bayardo – 319-2034

Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League (Sponsor):  Brian Augusta, Legislative Advocate -541-3395

AB 566 (Nava) – Conversion of Parks to Condominiums - SUPPORT .  The Subdivision Map Act provides that local governments are limited to imposing only certain state requirements upon converters of mobile home parks to condominium resident ownership.   This bill would expand the state requirement for a survey of resident support to provide that the survey must show the support of the majority of the residents in order for the converter to obtain a map from the local jurisdiction.  The bill would also provide that local agencies are not prohibited from enacting reasonable measures in addition to current state requirements to prevent “sham” conversions or to preserve affordable housing.

Status:  Introduced February 25, 2009, to print

SB 398 (Correa)

Mobilehome Park Fire Safety Code Enforcement & Reports

 Information Paper

Summary:  SB 398 addresses issues that arose from hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities concerning wildfire safety and code enforcement in mobilehome parks.  The bill enables local fire authorities to assume jurisdiction from the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for fire code enforcement in mobilehome parks without having to take on all park code enforcement issues, as current law provides.  SB 398 also requires HCD to place park code enforcement records on-line by July 1, 2012, to provide better public access.

Background:  The Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities held two hearings (December 2008 and February 2009) to explore issues related to fire safety in mobilehome parks as a result of the destruction of several mobilehome parks and hundreds of manufactured homes and mobilehomes in California wildfires in 2007 and 2008.  See the two Transcript and Reports from the “Mobilehome Park Wildfire Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Part 1” and “Part 2” – available in print or on-line at www.sen.ca.gov/mobilehome . 

HCD has pre-emptive authority under the Health and Safety Code in mobilehome parks, although local governments have authority over land-use, zoning, and enforcement of conditional use permits, as well as power to require or regulate park perimeter walls or enclosures on public street frontage, signs, access, and vehicle parking.  For just about everything else, HCD pre-empts the field for code enforcement of what is known as Title 25 building standards in mobilehome parks (H&S Sec. 18300).  74 local governments currently retain active park enforcement authority by agreement with HCD.  Three of these (counties) also provide enforcement for parks in seven cities within their respective jurisdictions.  These 74 local agencies also retain jurisdiction to enforce their own local fire code in mobilehome parks, as long as that standard meets or exceeds HCD’s requirements.   However, due to what most local governments consider the inadequate fee structure for the park code enforcement program, many have not been willing to take on the whole park inspection program in order to obtain greater fire code authority.   In 2000, to address this and issues involving fire hydrants in mobilehome parks, SB 1627 (Dunn) was introduced to, among other things, provide that local authorities could enforce local fire code in mobilehome parks without having to assume general park code enforcement authority for Title 25.  Eventually the bill was scoped down with amendments that allowed for local enforcement of more stringent fire code only for park fire hydrant systems, water supply, fire equipment access, posting of fire equipment access, parking, lot identification, weed, debris and combustible storage abatement, and burglar bars (Chapter 433 of the Statues of 2000). To date, eight fire agencies have been willing to assume this limited jurisdiction for fire safety in parks, including Los Angeles County Fire, Santa Barbara County Fire, the fire departments in the cities of Huntington Beach, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Torrance, the Burney Fire Protection District, and the Ebbetts Pass Fire District. 

SB 398 Information Paper                                                                                            Page 2

Over the years there has been little uniformity with regard to the maintenance of records

relating to code enforcement in and inspection of mobilehome parks.  Some agencies maintained records and others did not, or did not retain records after a citation was corrected.  With the advent of the Mobilehome Park Maintenance (MPM) inspection program in 1991, requiring that every mobilehome park in the state be inspected on a 5 year (later 7-year) cycle, this became an issue addressed by SB 900 (O’Connell) Chapter 520 of the Statutes of 1999.  Among other things, SB 900 required that records be maintained on file of every mobilehome park inspection conducted since 1991 (H&S Section 18400.2.  This section sunsets on January 1, 2012.

Issues:   Confusion sometimes develops because locals enter into agreements with HCD on a 90 day notice to assume general code enforcement in mobilehome parks, but must utilize and enforce the state code (Title 25) requirements, not their own local standards.  However, they can impose their own local fire code requirements that exceed the state standard.  Who has fire code authority, and to what extent, is also complicated by the fact that local governments may also take on fire jurisdiction in 10 specified areas only without assuming general code enforcement.  Some contend that this multi-jurisdictional or overlapping approach to the enforcement of fire code results in “passing the buck” in some cases.  When it comes to issues involving enforcement of fire code, there should be a more straightforward approach, such as allowing local fire authorities that are responsible for putting out the fires to enforce fire related code issues across the board in mobilehome parks as they do for other properties.

Another issue that has arisen involves accessibility to records on HCD park inspections and other reports, such as those involving the maintenance and operation of fire hydrants in mobilehome parks.  Park residents and the public can access public records on park inspections as a result of the Public Records Act, but unless a member of the public seeking a record goes to HCD headquarters where records are stored, or knows exactly what records he or she wants to order by mail without first looking through them, accessibility is not cut and dried.  In the era of the Internet, there should be a better and more cost-effective way this information can be posted and made available on websites for public perusal and downloading.

What SB 398 Does: 

1)  Streamlines the current process for assumption of fire code enforcement in mobilehome parks by authorizing local governments to assume jurisdiction for fire code from HCD on a 30-day notice without having to take on the totality of Title 25 park code enforcement or be limited only to enforcement in 10 fire code categories. 

2)  Requires HCD to place public records relating to park code enforcement inspections and reports on-line by July 1, 2012, in order to provide better public access.

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Sponsor:  Senate Select Committee on Mobile and Manufactured Homes            03/06/09