Move It Or Lose It: Booted From Mobile Home Park For Inability To Pay Space Rent, Lot-Leasing Homeowner Faces Loss Of Her 2-Bedroom Single Wide; Unable To Relocate It, Can't Find Buyer

In Corvallis, Oregon, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reports:

• After 22 years in the Summerset Village Mobile Home Park in south Corvallis, Shelly Moothart got evicted this summer when she was no longer able to pay her space rent.
  
  She owns her mobile home, a 1990 two-bedroom Fleetwood single-wide, but if she can’t find a buyer in a hurry, she stands to lose that as well. She paid $21,000 for it originally and sunk another $10,000 into improvements a few years ago, but now she may have to walk away without getting a penny of her investment back.
  
  “I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Moothart, 58. “I have no money, no nothing.”
  
  Moothart was financially stable until about four years ago, when health issues forced her to take time off from her job as a legal secretary at a local law firm to have heart surgery. By the time she was ready to come back to work, she said, she was told her services were no longer needed.
  
  “I haven’t been able to find a full-time job since,” she said. “I started working at 15, worked all my life, and now nobody wants to hire old people.”
  
  ***
  But the eviction, it seems, was only the beginning of Moothart’s troubles.
  
  No place to go
  
  For most renters, getting evicted means having to find a new apartment. But when a mobile home owner gets the boot, it means having to find a new park to move their manufactured dwelling to.
  
  That can be a daunting prospect. For one thing, moving a mobile home can cost thousands of dollars — money Moothart simply doesn’t have.
  
  But in her case, there’s another hurdle as well — the structure’s age.
  
  “A lot of parks won’t take an older home like this one,” she said.
  
  When she knew she was being evicted, Moothart put her mobile home up for sale at an asking price of $15,000. She thought she had a buyer at one point, but the sale fell through.
  
  Then, after she vacated the premises, the park managers changed the locks, so she can no longer show the place. [Landlord attorney Joel] Kalberer said the park wants to help Moothart sell the property to a paying tenant, but the management is not going to simply give her a key.
  
  “We would allow her to show it to prospective buyers,” he said, “but we can’t just let her take possession of the mobile home again.”
  
  Running out of time
  
  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on Moothart’s chances to sell her home.
  
  In early August she received a letter from another attorney, Charles M. Greeff of Lake Oswego, informing her that Summerset Village intended to begin abandonment proceedings on her mobile home. The letter gave her 45 days — until 9 a.m. on Sept. 22 — to arrange for the mobile home’s removal. If the Fleetwood was still there 30 days after that, the letter said, the park managers would have the right to sell or dispose of the unit themselves.
  
  Can they do that? Under Oregon law, they probably can, according to Ken Pryor of Oregon Housing and Community Services.
  
  “The statutes aren’t particularly forgiving,” Pryor said. “It’s really unfortunate … but it certainly appears to be legal.”
  
  According to the Benton County Assessor’s Office, the mobile home’s current market value is about $15,500. Of course, there’s no guarantee the unit would fetch that much at auction.
  
  If Summerset Village does sell the mobile home through the abandonment process, Moothart won’t get all the proceeds. There will be deductions for back rent and storage fees on the home as well as the cost of the abandonment process and the sale itself. Unpaid property taxes will also be taken out, along with any lienholders’ interest in the property.
  
  And if no one buys the mobile home at auction, the park will have the option of demolishing the unit to free up the space for another mobile home. In that case, Moothart could wind up with nothing at all.
  
  Awaiting her fate
  
  Moothart said she tried to get help from Legal Aid, but an attorney with the nonprofit organization told her there was probably nothing he could do to prevent the park from selling her mobile home.
  
  Now all she can do is wait.
  
  She’s been living with a friend since her eviction, but she doesn’t want to be a burden any longer than necessary. At this point, she’s just hoping there will be enough money left after the sale of her home to get a fresh start.
  
  “I can’t do a whole lot until I sell the place, get a little money and hopefully get into some low-income housing,” she said. “It’s just sad.”
  
  Moothart is still more than a little shocked by the turn her life has taken.
  
  She can’t believe the law doesn’t provide more protection for mobile home owners who find themselves facing eviction, and she’s asking her elected officials to do something about it. She recently wrote a letter to state Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, and is hoping he’ll be able to get a measure passed in the next legislative session.
  
  “I don’t want anybody else to have to go through this,” she said. “It’s not fun at all.”

For more, see Move it or lose it.