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For Immediate Release
June 14, 2012
Contact: Nick Troutman
(717) 787-3280

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Senate Committee Approves Bill Protecting Manufactured Home Residents, Owners

Legislation Sets Guidelines for Community Sales and Closures

HARRISBURG – Legislation requiring manufactured housing community owners to provide adequate notification and offer protections to their residents and tenants when a community is sold or potentially closed has passed the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee, according to its Chairman, State Senator Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming).

House Bill 1767, sponsored by Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Northampton), strengthens and clarifies the process for determining when a home is abandoned and what a community owner may do with the abandoned home.  Additionally, the legislation requires manufactured housing community owners, when closing a community to:

• inform residents within 60 days of any decision to close the community;
• inform the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and the home municipality also within 60 days;
• give residents at least six months to leave the community when the closure notice is made -- under current law they only have 30 days;
• consider any offer to purchase the community by a resident association representing at least 25 percent of the manufactured home spaces;
• pay relocation expenses of up to $4,000 for single and $6,000 for multi-section manufactured homes;
• pay at least $2,500 or the home's appraised value, whichever is greater, when the homeowner is unable or unwilling to relocate the home; and
• allow tenants to terminate any leases without penalty after receiving the community's closure notice.

"Currently, the state has no statutory guidelines to address the responsibilities of owners or residents when confronted with a park sale or closure," said Yaw.  This legislation spells out the obligations and requirements associated with such a decision."

House Bill 1767 now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.