Looking for some advice. I own a distressed mobile home park that I purchased as a turn around opportunity. The park has 110 sites in two separate and distinct sections. They are very different. One side is heavily wooded and the majority of the homes, most older, are located in this section. The other section has 36 sites, relatively clear of trees, has grass, has a separate entrance off the county road and is almost like a park within the park.
I would like to upgrade the caliber of homes and tenants in this section and re-name it. Ideally I would like to bring in newer single wide homes with vinyl siding, shingle roofs, require aluminum three season rooms if the tenant wants something like that, provide grounds maintenance, and raise the rents. Problem is that I have 9 tenants of 36 lots that would need to be relocated. They are all on month to month leases at this point in time. Two of the nine are park owned homes. Seven are tenant owned.
How do I go about getting these tenants to move? Can I do this legally with fair housing and all? Can I simply notify them that there lease is terminated and they must move their home?
The park by-laws read, “Leases are either month to month or annual and may be terminated by either the Resident or the Community after written notice, in which event the Lease will expire on the last day of the calendar month following notice.”
Do I just boot them out? Do I offer them an incentive like I will pay you $750 towards lot rent in a new park? I can’t justify moving their trailers to the other side because most of these are 70’s and 80’s vintage and it will cost me about $2500 each to move, re-set, hook up plumbing and electric, put back the decks, reskirt the unit, etc. I may have two homes opening up soon where I could offer to move two tenants over to the older side of the park.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.