Defining Lot Space

I bought a 56-lot park in March. It was bank-owned and in poor condition. We’ve done some evictions and are working to turn the place around. We’re at the point of moving in new homes and an issue has come up regarding the lot space allocated to each resident. The spaces are fairly small: 56 lots on 7.23 acres.

Most of the residents have been there for quite a while and have worked it out themselves. For the most part, they use the space from their front door up to the back side of the next trailer. Some have steps off the back door that go into the front yard of the next home, but this hasn’t been a problem, since everyone appears to use their front door. This seems to be working, but I have some concerns with making it the “formal” policy. My biggest concern is lawn maintenance. If the person next to you has use of the space up to the back of your home, he is also responsible for maintaining the yard and I’m afriad that weedeating could damage his neighbor’s skirting. For this reason, I thought maybe I should make the lots end midway betweeen the homes, but this really cuts the “useable” part of the yard down, since it’s divided on each side of the trailer. So I was thinking of making it within 4’ of the back of the home on the adjoining lot. Any ideas?

There’s one exception already in place, where the person is using the yard on the back side of her home. So the person on the next yard is using the back side of his home. The next lot is empty. We’re planning to move a home onto the empty lot, so we need to address the issue and I’m curious how others parks define each resident’s lot.

I think you are overthinking this. We just let tenants figure it out themselves. If somebody new came in and started demanding use of the neighbor’s yard, we’d probably boot out that new resident. But honestly, in 7+ years, it’s never been a problem. We do make residents mow ‘their’ yard, and without setting out markers delineating each lot, it just works out that everything gets mowed.

As regards weed eating, we set out a row of shingles beneath the skirting. This holds back the grass 4" from the skirting, making it easier to trim without damaging the skirting. I think most people just mow and with the setback, there is no need to trim at all.

Best,

-jl-

Our park is operated the same as Jefferson has posted. Neighbours work it out. Any time we have had an issue it has always been with new residents. If they push the situation we tell them they have 4’ along the back side of their homes.