tenant has already sold the home to the buyer (without park approval/knowledge) buyer has been difficult to get in contact with and resistant to any of our standard procedures (application, deposit, etc). At this point this buyer is not approved for our park and she plans to move in 2 a week. How do I handle this? Call the sheriff for trespassing? She has no legal agreement to occupy the property the home is on.
I have the same situation in New Mexico. They have sqatters rights and we have to evict like resident with a lease.
1 Like
You will need to begin by researching your state or local regulations/landlord tenant regulations. Is she a squatter, a tenant, is she tesspassing etc. Any advice given on here may or may not be of any help depending on your local/state regulations.
I personally would begin with contacting the sheriff and investigating the tresspassing laws as well as contacting a local lawyer experienced with landlord tenant law. I would have a lawyer send a letter to the buyer stating they will be charged with tresspassing if they set foot on your property. That may get some results.
Assuming your regulations support community owners inforcing the “buyer must be approved” language you will have a case but you must initiate any action prior to them actually moving in. Once they are in the process becomes much more difficult.
Do not under any circumstances accept any rent payments from them. If you do they may be assumed to be approved as a tenant by the courts.
2 Likes
This is the one thing that perhaps frustrates me more than anything else in the mobile home park business. The laws vary by state, but generally the person who sold the home cannot be relieved of the terms of the lease, simply by selling the home and moving out. As long as that home, sits on your lot, they are still a tenant. It’s just like if you rent an apartment and you go away, but you leave all your furniture behind - you are still occupying the space.
If you can contact new tenant, your best bet is to take them through the qualification process and approve them if they meet your conditions. If they don’t, you will have to file an eviction. Generally, we file eviction on the seller, because they are the legal tenant. If we know the identity of the buyer, and they refuse to comply with us, we add them to the case as an additional defendant.
If the home is dilapidated, we tell the buyer that they are not allowed to move-in, because we are going to be repossessing the home and destroying it. Sometimes they ask for their money to be refunded, and we simply tell them that they need to talk to the seller of the home for that. That is obviously a lose-lose situation, but there are not many alternatives.
This situation usually occurs in lower cost properties where the homes might only sell for a few hundred dollars or a few thousand dollars. Higher quality homes that sell for tens of thousands do not have this situation in our experience.
2 Likes
To my knowledge your next step would be to start the eviction process.
3 Likes
This happened to me in Oklahoma where they have squatters rights. I immediately started the eviction process after the new owner tried to avoid me and would not answer the door. I eventually got them to leave after they decided not to fight it past 30 days but they made that 30 day process absolutely miserable with loud parties and cops having to be called for domestic disputes. Good luck!
1 Like
Find out the specific state law that gives you the authority to approve/disapprove of them as a tenant.
Call an attorney.
You may be able to get an injunction before they move in.
We just had this happen at one of my parks. Luckily, the lady qualifies.
1 Like
Thanks for the feedback! To everyone’s point, unfortunately we had to stat a normal eviction process but were able to do a cash for keys to get them out.
Depends on the Tenant Landlord Laws. In my State they are more pro-owner. If a tenant leaves and you can show it is abandoned, you can take possession of the unit. Many variables exist but there are no squatter rights here. If they are not on the lease and are living in a unit, they are trespassing. AN officer will show up and have the park owner, rep, manager etc., sign a complaint. The squatter either leaves or goes to jail for trespass.
1 Like