I’m hoping someone can give me an idea of how to get rid of a condemned mobile home in NY State.
We have a MH that is owned by a tenant that is no longer paying rent. Unfortunately, the owner is in a mental institution. In addition, he does not have anyone to handle his concerns.
The home is pre-1976 and is not movable without major work. With its broken windows, the unit has become an eye-sore and a deterent to bringing in new clients.
My manager said he spent $16K in legal fees to dispose of 3 MH that were worth $1K each last year and didn’t want to go through the same thing again. He suggested tearing it down and fighting the legal battle later with the understanding that we would have to counter sue for backrent. Given its age, we can’t move it to another lot since it is not road worthy and nobody is going to take a 30+ yr MH.
If we go the legal route, we don’t expect to get the unit out until Dec/Jan. Since anyone visiting the park would be turned off by seeing MH with broken windows, we would also decrease the potential to get new tenants in before the onset of winter.
Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of removing MH from mentally-incompetent tenants, in particular, in NY state?
Thanks,
Robert,
We usually try to get rid of mobile homes in really bad condition by either giving them away for free as deer cabins. I would advertise in your local pennysaver, thrifty nickel, greensheet.
I hope this helps!
Corey
Corey,
Only problem is we don’t own the home. The person who does is in a mental institution.
Legally, a person has to be mentally competent to make an agreement. Therefore, we can’t buy it from him since the claim can be made that the person did not know what they were doing at the time of sale and we took advantage of him.
Thanks for the idea, though.
If it were me, I’d pursue the legal route to obtain title- whatever that is in your locale. Having to justify “stealing” a home from a mentally unstable person is too unsavory, and the damage to your reputation could be more costly than having no lot rent for 6-10 months or however long it would take to get title and get rid of it.
If it’s an eyesore because of broken windows or debris, I’d spend the money to fix the windows and clean up the yard so that it didn’t turn people away from the park. Spend $500 if you need to, but don’t let it sit in a prominent spot in your park and drive people away. You can always remove the windows later and sell them to someone else.
good luck,
Anne