After almost 3 decades as a landlord, my landlady is jerking me around and playing some games. Something karmic about all this but that’s a story for another time. I sat down with the local magistrate to find out what my rights are (oh, how I miss CA) and we got to talking about the MH business. He is the person who hears the cases against both mhp residents and owners. What he told me is something I have slowly been coming to realize and this is just one more supporting piece of evidence. He told me the parks that have the fewest problems and from which he gets the fewest complaints are those that are run like absolute dictatorships. The ones with the most rules and where the rules are enforced. Conversely, it is the parks that are the least managed that have the most hearings in front of him. He said the residents that gravitate to the parks with all the rules are those people who want to come home and not have to worry about anything. They mind their own business and like the fact that the park is being run by Hitler’s clone. They know what to do and what to expect in return. He said the residents actually LIKE having rules.
I have been going around to various parks in the area that are clean, nice and full and asking the manager how he or she does it. The answer is pretty much always the same in that they have specific rules and they enforce them without exception. I believe that, in time, this would mean less management work and not more.
So from what parks does he get the most cases? This is going to surprise you. He specifically said the parks that are on septics/wells and do not have a lot of management involvement are the ones that always seem to have the most problems for him to adjudicate. There are major water supply and sewage disposal problems in this area and I guess people get upset when they cannot get potable water or are unable to flush their toilets:-) Good people know they have value to a landlord and will go somewhere else where they will get what they want. That leaves the lesser quality tenants for the poorer parks.
Just thought you all might find this interesting.
Rolf
Wheat Hill