One of the tenants in my park wants to sell his mobile but can't because he didn't get permits to do the major fix-up on it when he bought it. Apparently, it's not up to code. He has told my manager he will abandon it. It's a 1965 home and I would like to get it out of the park to put an upgrade in its place.
Should I (as the park owner) get him to title it over to me to avoid the court issue? If so, what's the most efficient way to get this out of my park? Do I have to pay to get the thing demolished, or are there salvagers out there who would do it for the salvage?

From your address you appear to be in Florida. Every county in Florida has local regulation of manufactured home renovation. If the home has been "red tagged", declared in-violation by your local county, as the land owner you could find yourself ordered to remove the home or pay a fine every day it remains in place.

If you don’t have the title you could find yourself in a legal stalemate with a cleanup order from the county and no legal ownership, possible leading to lengthy legal red tape while the fines are accumulating daily.

Hauling an old MH to the dump here in Marion County cost about $2000 for the freight, road permits and dump fees.

Salvagers most of the time only want what they can turn into fast cash and have little or no interest in cleaning up the rest of your problem. There was a time when we used to let the salvagers take what ever they wanted. This generally left us with a skeleton... The wood framing and the steel foundation frame

This was a great solution for us 20 years ago, when our county was primarily very rural and we could donate the remains to the local volunteer fire department. The would come in and fire up what ever was left and do practice drills putting out the fire. This left us with a messy pile of ash and a steel frame. We would rent a backhoe, dig a hole, dump the ashes in.

We would put wheels and axles under the steel frame, drag it up to the road, chain it to a utility pole with a for sale sign on it. State law permitted do-it-yourself types to build home made trailers. Sooner or later someone would come by and give us back the money we spent for the backhoe and take the frame off into the sun set.

Unfortunately the fire departments here are not permitted to do that any more and we are prohibited now from digging holes to bury discarded structural components... Even if they are reduced (some how) to ash.

The best option at this time for us is to pay a licensed demolition contractor to demolish and remove it all. The generally strip out the stuff they can cash in and bring a huge dumpster and an bulldozer to deal with what ever is left.

Even taking down a mobile home in-place requires permits today. The licensed contractor takes care of it all including capping off the utilities plus dozing and compacting the site back to level. It is then all ready for us to bring in the replacement home.

This option cost me about $800 last time for a 12 x 56. Price varies depending on the market for the scrapable stuff and the cost of emptying the dumpster.

If this home was in my park I would put as much legal pressure as I could on the owner to either satisfy the county's permit and code demands or foot the cost of removal.

Dont let this get away from you. Contact the Florida Manufactured Housing Association (850-907-9111) for info on how they have handled this situation in your county previously and a detailed understanding of the often unusual state laws that regulate park owner - tenant relations.

David Oxhandler
webmaster@mobilehome.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2009 11:20PM by David Oxhandler.

David, thank you so very much for this answer. I continue to learn from you and appreciate your time and expertise on my questions.

My park is in Colorado, and come Monday I will contact the CO Manufactured Housing Assoc. as you suggest and start from there. My park manager will be getting the title from this owner today... I feel lucky to get it as no one now lives in the trailer and apart from his lot rent, the owner has been missing in action.

Thanks again.
- Robin
(you're right, I do live in Florida -- I am blessed with a park manager who makes it easy to run a Colorado business from my home in Florida!)

Contact the Rocky Mountain Home Association

RMHA is a trade association made up of retailers, developers, manufacturers, communities and lenders. They represent the modular and manufactured housing industry in your state.

Meghan Pfanstiel, AICP
Executive Director
Rocky Mountain Home Association
formerly Colorado Manufactured Housing Association
ph: 303-832-2022 or 800-354-9972
[www.coloradohome.org]