December 2017 Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition Meeting

The December Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition Meeting will have a change in venue.  We will be meeting in TIGARD at the offices of Multifamily NW at 16083 SW Upper Boones Ferry Road #105, Tigard, OR  97224, from 9AM to 12 noon.

We will be continuing the topic of enforcement.  There is always the opportunity to share information.

It is important for home owners to have a voice at the coalition.  It is through this process that bills get introduced to the legislature and our rights can be protected.  We invite and urge you to attend.

Questions?  Contact osta.blog.editor1@gmail.com

The Winter OSTA Quarterly Review

The Winter OSTA Quarterly Review has been published and is on the website.  The photos in the paper edition are extremely dark and the editor will be discussing that problem with the Press.  Those who read the email copy get clear photos and color.  There is an error.  Deanna Vaughn, who is listed in the page 2 directory maintains the membership list and can be reached at this corrected email address:  Ordiva123@gmail,com.  This correct email address will be listed in the Spring issue.  Your district directors are the best people to contact if you have questions.  You can also call our 800 number.

Next Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition Meeting

The next Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition meeting will be held on WEDNESDAY, October 25th from 10am to 1pm at the Valley River Inn in Eugene, the site of the HMCO annual conference.

The agenda has not yet been sent out, but we do know that the discussion about enforcement will continue and Nancy Inglehart will give a presentation on the Washington State Manufactured/Mobile Home Dispute Resolution Program model.

The coalition meetings can be attended by any interested stakeholders, and welcomes input for discussion.

OSTA 2017 Annual Meeting

Stepping UP

OSTA's  2017 Annual Meeting held in Salem was both informative and fun.  The theme this year was Stepping Up, encouraging members to step up the the challenge to become more active, share their talents and built membership.  Senator Sara Gelser, chair of the Senate Human Services Committee, gave a keynote addressing topics of rent stabilization and the SB 277 which passed recently.  She offered advise on how to get our legislators involved in hearing our concerns.  John VanLandingham spoke on the Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition's history and moving forward to addressing the issue of enforcement, a main concern of home owners, in this year's meetings.  Breakout sessions covered Understanding Your Contracts, Option to Purchase, How to Conduct a Meeting and Membership Building. We also had a junior reporter in attendance who interviewed Senator Gelser.  Our silent auction had many wonderful items including paintings, gift baskets, and handmade quilts.  A soup and salad lunch was served and Jane and Rita entertained us with another one of their humorous takes on being on the OSTA board.  We also conducted our annual meeting which included election of board directors. The members also voted in a Bylaw amendment replacing an annual audit with a two member review of the financial books.

John VanLandingham talking about the Coalition

Sam Inglehart interviewing Senator Gelser

Rita and Jane entertaining us with a song.

STEP UP TO THE ANNUAL MEETING

Reservations are coming in for the 2017 annual meeting in Salem on September 23. With September upon us, don't wait much longer to mail your form and check to our P.O. box. After September 15 there's a $5 late fee. We have to let the chef know how many lunches to prepare by then, and of course we have to pay for that number. So, Step Right Up and reserve your spot now! 

More Good News!

SB 277 was signed by Governor Brown on June 14 as an amendment to Ch. 90.500. It became law immediately, so those of you who have been receiving notices to make cosmetic changes to your manufactured homes need to realize you now have the law on your side. You won't find the statute in Chapter 90 until next year when the 2017 edition is published. See details defining deterioration and disrepair in the upcoming OSTA Quarterly Review, due in your mailboxes about August 10 and on our website after that. When our blog administrator has recuperated from shoulder surgery, you'll also find the latest Review on this blog.

In this next issue you'll also find information about the September 23rd annual meeting in Salem. We hope to see many of you there. Get your reservations in early! Last minute reservations cost more.

GOOD DAY IN SALEM1

SB 277, defining the terms "deterioration" and "disrepair" as regards manufactured homes, passed the House unanimously on June 6. It now goes to the Governor, who is expected to sign the bill into law. Rep. Ken Helm carried the bill to the House floor and according to John VanLandingham, "did a great job." Also speaking at this time about the work of the Landlord/Tenant Coalition were Rep. Bill Kennemer  and Rep. Carl Wilson, who both have strongly encouraged and supported the coalition's work, now and in the past.

And in more good news, HB 2008, carried by Rep. Julie Fahey, was signed by the Governor on the same day, June 6. This new law raises the amount paid to residents in MH parks if the park closes to $6,000 for a single-wide, $8,000 for a double-wide, and $10,000 for a triple-wide home. The law now also includes a yearly recalculation adjustment to reflect inflation.

Thank you to all who wrote in support of these two bills, D-Day became another historically good day with these battles won!

Senate Bill 277

SB 880 is no longer being offered. It is still okay to contact your legislators in favor of SB 277.

OSTA Reviews available on web site.

Until we're able to publish the OSTA Quarterly Review on this blog, remember that you can access it on our web site, MH/OSTA.org. Reviews are added twice a year and are currently up-to-date. Other updates will be added after our April board meeting.

Contact Your Legislators!

MH/OSTA encourages our members and supporters to contact their state legislators and ask them to support SB 277, the bill that will define "disrepair" and "deterioration," and to oppose SB 880, a bill that will do away with waiver.

SB 277, if passed into law, will prevent landlords from making cosmetic demands for your home and site. There will have to be something that is defined as disrepair or deterioration. For instance, the landlord would no longer be able to insist that all homes in a park be painted a shade of beige. We've heard too many stories of landlords making this type of demand.

Waiver is the statute that allows you to avoid making some changes to your home site if the landlord knows about the problem and has accepted your rent for three months. Landlords would like to do away with the waiver statute and be able to evict residents even if they have been accepting rent for three months or longer.

Remember: Yes on SB 277. No on SB 880.

DROP BOX IS CLOSING PUBLIC FOLDER

As of March 15th, we will no longer be able to link the OSTA Reviews to the Blog as we have been doing.  Those links will be removed.  Until I can discover a new method of doing this, please send me your email if you want access to the shared folder that contains these archives!  I think you can save them to your computer and share them with others from there.  This is a work in progress. Please bear with me while we discover together the rules of this new game.

If you have information on other free sites, we can use for this purpose, please let me know.

There are no security concerns for this new method.

Thanks.

Your Administrative Administrator

Oregon's Winter storms have been impressive, to put it nicely. Medford got a foot or more of snow, Eugene's ice storm cost the county over $9M., and in Bend, storm after storm has piled dangerous amounts of snow on roofs that can't sustain the weight. The latest photos (Jan.10) come from Nancy Inglehart at Bellacres MHP in Gresham. The man in the orange cap is the park manager out tackling problems. The girl with the snow "duck" is Nancy's granddaughter. The kids may be enjoying the school snow days, but many of us older folks would rather see rain return. Of course, that means more flooding. Sun, anyone?