The Aberdeen City Council Wednesday evening passed an ordinance increasing the period of time required for landlords to notify tenants of rent increases for mobile home parks, requiring landlords to give notice at least 120 days in advance of any increase greater than 3%.
The new rule comes after months of pushing from tenants of the Leisure Manor Mobile Home park in South Aberdeen, who have called for checks on dramatic rent increases since their rent rose by 37% last year.
“It was hard work, it just took persistence,” said Deb Wilson, president of the Leisure Manor Tenants Association, in an interview with The Daily World.
Residents at Leisure Manor formed a tenant’s association last summer after they learned their rent had been bumped from $485 to $635 per month. The increase came after a company called Hurst and Son LLC, which owns dozens of other mobile home parks across the Northwest, bought the park the previous fall.
With 191 spaces, Leisure Manor is the largest mobile home park in Grays Harbor County, according to the County Assessor’s Office. Tenants own their mobile homes, but lease the land they sit on.
With little option to move their homes, Wilson said rent increases have caused some in the park — home to residents 55 and older — to cut back on medications and meals.
Although less extensive than the tenants’ original proposal, the new city ordinance, Wilson said, will give residents more time to prepare and make other living arrangements if park rents get too high.
“However small this change may be, it’s valuable to every senior on fixed income, so it will make a big difference,” Wilson said.
The ordinance does not cap or stabilize rent in any way. Two bills of that nature were introduced to the state House of Representatives earlier this year, which would’ve limited rent increases to 3%, or the rate of inflation, whichever was greater, with a maximum increase of 7%. Leisure Manor tenants advocated for the bills in Olympia, but the bills ultimately died before reaching the House floor for a vote.
But the tenants continued to work with AMHO — the Washington Association of Manufactured Homeowners — a group of legal experts that represent the rights of people in mobile home parks.
The tenants first came to the council with a petition in March, which included more than 100 signatures of support from people at the park. They then organized a meeting at the park’s community “clubhouse,” with Ward 1 City Councilors Kacey Ann Morrison and Melvin Taylor in attendance, as well as AMHO President Anne Sadler and representatives from Hurst and Son.
In a June letter to the council, the tenant’s association presented an ordinance that also included a six month — or 180 day — notice for increases of 10% or greater. During council discussion, the city’s legal counsel cautioned against a measure of that extent, saying the ordinance delved into areas already regulated by state law, potentially inciting a lawsuit.
The Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act already stipulates a 90-day notification period for rent increases in mobile home parks.
Morrison said Aberdeen City Administrator Ruth Clemens worked to ensure the ordinance was legally sound.
“This ordinance simply buys residents a little more time to make these decisions, and I feel it is the bare minimum that we as a city can do to try to help mitigate this impossible situation for our seniors,” Morrison said. “These folks are our parents and grandparents — and will be us one day. They worked hard all of their lives. Today, with inflation and other soaring costs, it has become harder and harder for seniors with modest incomes to get by without making unfairly difficult choices between medicine, food, and necessary bills.”
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.
