Rental Agreements in Ohio: Lease Term Issue

I am negotiating the purchase of a park in Ohio, and I see that there are rules requiring the offer of a 1 year lease with similar terms to a month to month lease.  Does anyone have direct experience with this rule, and are there ways to convert tenants to a month to month lease term?  Thanks, Bob

After 1 year, most of such-written leases default to MTM.  You should ask the Ohio Manufactured Housing Association for their advice.-jl-

I also think Jefferson is correct.  By law, in Texas we have to offer at least a 6-month lease term unless otherwise agreed to by tenant and landlord. But after that initial lease term, the leases automatically roll over into month-to-month unless a new lease is signed.  I think this automatic rollover of residential leases is pretty standard in most states when the initial term is one year or less, but you should ask the MHA to be sure.We never bother asking tenants to sign a new lease, although some of them request it and we will honor that request.  Leases protect the tenants more than the landlord, we feel.  So we’re not eager to search out the tenant to get them to sign a document that we don’t want them to sign.  Month-to-month renewal (with changes automatically incorporated with 60 days notice) is fine with us.  If we change the rules or lease terms, we deliver a copy to the resident, a copy to the file with delivery date noted, and consider them effective in 60 days.  If we want to evict, we don’t have to have a reason because 60 days notice is sufficient to terminate the month-to-month lease for any reason or no reason at all.  (Of course we can evict sooner with cause).Brandon@Sandell

In some states, the rules must be posted to be enforceable. So watch that. Also- some states say you need to season a rule, like for 60 days prior to enforcement. One state we deal with says if a certain % of residents signs the rules, that are enforceable once that threshold is reached or the time period- which ever is sooner… Again- read the laws. We have parks in Texas as well, and you can kill 2 small trees with all the disclosures they require in Texas, add a tree or two if you sub-meter or allocate a utility, trash etc… 

I researched the Ohio laws and also called the state.  The new owner of the park is required to offer every mobile home owner an annual lease with the same terms as a month to month lease.  If the mobile home owner does not wish to sign the lease, only then can you keep him on a month to month and not offer an annual term in the future.  This is the case even when mobile home owners are on a month to month lease when the park is purchased.  Furthermore, any mobile home owner with an annual lease term will always have the option of staying on an annual term.  The park owner is also required to have the mobile home owner sign a statement that he was offered an annual lease but refused to sign it.  It looks like Ohio favors Tenants over Landlords!  Thanks for the input!!