Hello All,
The last two tenants in my park to paint their homes have chosen a medium to lighter purple, and a Frenches mustard yellow. I love that people are taking the initiative to re-paint but wish the color selection was better. What would you/do you do in these situations? Do you stay out of it as long as it is not neon orange or zebra striped or some other extreme color?
Ahhh finally a topic I can weigh in on…We were living in Tucson , Az and bought a mobile home in a park. We told the manager that we had plans to paint it as it was needed, badly! We bought an antique white color and color called dulled coral sand for trim. The day I was out painting the owner of the park come by and told me had picked the color HE wanted us to paint it. I told him the colors we picked are in line with HIS “rules” but he told me," fine I will evict you, paint it my color or face eviction". I went and talked to an attorney and found out that, unless you live in a governed HOA, a park owners can NOT dictate to you what color you can paint, unless it is done in a spiteful way to bring down prices. I showed his this and never heard another word from him about the color. Best advice, know the law before you get into trouble…Have a great day.
What do your Rules say regarding aesthetic appearance? Do you have those standards in place and did they sign a lease that integrated those rules?
1st) The rules I have are when exterior modifications need to be done, they need to be approved by management. This includes a wide variety of standard color choices from a supplied color chart (you could look through one for exterior homes from home depot for instance). From this they can choose whatever color they want.
2nd) The law in Maine does not allow me to force a color change on a tenant if it will cause undue financial hardship. However, if the home needs to be painted anyway because its peeling, mismatched siding, or repairs to siding make repainting necessary, then the tenant, according to the rules, is supposed to get management approval. If they fail to do so and then go ahead and paint it without management approval in the paint it neon orange, then yes you can notice them for a violation and require them to fix it or potentially be evicted.
All that said, If they did a good job (workman like quality), and the colors are not extreme, you might not make to big a deal of it. However, the next time they need to paint their home as part of keeping up with maintenance standards, they should ask for approval before painting, if they do not they are violating the rules where they are not getting management approval for exterior changes.
You could also offer to repaint their home on your dime if is that horrible.
If yes to 2, why? And is your water/sewer metered?
My rules state that as owner of the community I have final approval on all exterior work/colours etc. I allow my residents colour choices within the range of exterior colours found already within our community. White, pale blue, grey etc. Regrettably I have in the past had to force residents to repaint when they proceeded without my approval and had chosen a unacceptable colour.
Nothing outside of the norm for exterior colours.
In my jurisdiction I have full control of all exterior work on and around all homes. Residents must have my written approval before proceeding with any work.
I do not think you can control the color they paint their own home unless you have an HOA with guidelines. It is their personal property. You cannot tell them what color to paint the car they park in the driveway.
Besides a little color is always a good thing.
What you can and can not control is covered in your state landlord tennat regulations. Most states have limited regulations for MHCs beyond normal rental properties and allow owners to control the community with their rules. Control by the owner is essential to maintain the quality of a community.
Community owners can most definatly control colour choices provided the regulations do not state otherwise. It is a mistake for community owners to not control something as major as colour choice on homes. The wrong choices can not only devalue a home it can also devalue neighbouring homes and the community in general.
Residents can not be trusted to make wise decisions.