Your Guide To Renting or Owning a Mobile Home in Alaska Provided as a Service by Alaska Legal Services Corporation
Introduction Congratulations on your decision to rent or buy a mobile home! Having a place of your own is a very important step in your life, and a very important decision to make. It s a decision you should not take lightly - make sure you have all the facts! This booklet will give you important information you need before you sign anything or make any agreements. 2
Renting A Mobile Home If you ve decided to rent a mobile home, there are several important things you need to do. 1. Check the place out. Don t just take the landlord s word for it. Really look around at everything. Do all the appliances work, like the stove, the sink, the shower, the doors, the heater, and the lights? Look in the cabinets and on the ceilings are there any water leaks or mold or broken pipes? Make sure you really check. It s the landlord s responsibility to have everything working before you move in. If it s not working when you move in, you could get blamed for it. It s better to make sure they work first. 2. Report anything that doesn t seem right. If you find anything that doesn t seem to work or just doesn t seem right, tell the landlord before you make any deals or sign anything! If they won t fix it, you might be better off looking somewhere else. 3
3. Get it in writing. It s always a good idea to get the lease in writing. That way both you and the landlord know all the terms you ve agreed to. Then, if the landlord decides to change something, you can prove that you didn t agree to it. Make sure you AND the landlord sign it and make sure you get a copy for yourself! Also, if you re living in a mobile home park, the landlord must tell you in writing if you will be responsible for things like skirting or utility hook-ups before you make any agreements. 4. You have rights even after you move in! 5. But...the landlord has rights too! You have duties that you have to do in order to keep your rights. Check out the list in the next few pages. 4
6. Help! I got an eviction notice what do I do now? If the eviction notice is from the landlord (the owner of the mobile home), it must follow the law. Usually, the landlord has to give your 30 days to leave is he decides to evict you. If the eviction notice is from the mobile home park, there are only a few reasons that you can be evicted. First, if you don t pay your rent, you can be evicted. Second, if you do something to endanger the safety or health of other people in the mobile home park, you can be evicted. Third, if you don t follow the rules of the park lease, you can be evicted. An example of this is if you have a lease that says you can t have pets and the landlord catches you with a dog in your home, he can evict you. 6. Umm...I didn t pay my rent and now I have an eviction notice is there anything I can do? First, make sure your eviction notice is legal. It has to say how much rent is due, and give you 10 days to pay up before you can be evicted. If you pay the entire 5
amount of back rent due within 7 days, you can stay. It is up to the landlord whether he will accept partial payment and let you stay. BUT if you already missed paying your rent once in the last 6 months, the landlord doesn t have to let you pay up and he only has to give you 5 days to leave. So, make sure you pay your rent on time! 7. What happens if someone gets mad and punches a hole in the wall or breaks down the door? Even if it doesn t say it in your lease, you can NOT tear the place up. If you or your kids or someone you know does more than $400 worth of damage, you can be evicted with only 24 hours of notice. Also, you will have to pay to make any repairs. 8. My landlord hates me and he keeps turning off my power to try and get me to move out what do I do? This is illegal! Your landlord can NOT turn your water, power, gas, or sewer off on purpose. If you don t pay your bills, the water or electric company can turn your services off, but your landlord cannot. 9. My toilet has been broken for weeks and the landlord refuses to come fix it! Your landlord is required by law to make all repairs and to keep your home livable. Unless you agree to 6
something else, he s supposed to fix things like the electrical wiring, the plumbing, the heating, and the smoke detectors. If something that came with the mobile home breaks, he s supposed to fix it unless you agreed to fix it yourself as part of your agreement. If you never agreed to fix those things in your lease, then you re not responsible. If you decide to fix it yourself, even if you haven t agreed to be responsible for it, you should give your landlord notice in writing that you intend to make the repair and withhold the cost from your rent. You can only do this if you give the landlord prior written notice. 7
Do s and Don ts of Renting a Mobile Home 1. DO pay your rent on time to the right person at the right place. 2. DO keep your place clean and safe. 3. DO be respectful of your neighbors keep the noise down. 4. DO make sure your smoke detectors work it s for your safety! 5. DO let your landlord know if anything is broken or needs to be worked on always remember it s better to have things in writing in case the landlord tries to say that you didn t tell him that he was supposed to fix something! 6. DON T leave trash around make sure it gets taken away. 7. DON T abuse the appliances in your home. 8. DON T do any damage to your home. 9. DON T change the locks without asking the landlord. 10.DON T paint your home without asking the landlord first. 11.DON T allow anything illegal to go on at your home (drugs, gambling, or anything like that). 8
Buying A Mobile Home Owning your very own home is a huge event in your life. For most people, it will be one of the most important decisions they make. But remember, homeownership comes with some big responsibilities! If you ve decided to buy a mobile home, there are several important things you need to do. 1. Check the place out. Don t just take the owner s word for it! Really look around at everything. Do all the appliances work, like the sink, the shower, the doors, the plugs and the lights? Look in the cabinets and on the ceilings are there any water leaks or mold or broken pipes? Make sure you really check once you buy it, you ll be the one who will have to fix anything that you missed. If you catch it first, you will probably get the owner to fix it instead of having to do it yourself. 2. Report anything that doesn t seem right. If you find anything that doesn t seem to work or just doesn t seem right, tell the owner before you make any agreements or sign anything! If they won t fix it or take some money off the price, you might be better off looking somewhere else. 9
3. Get it in writing. Contracts for the sale of land or property worth more than $500 must be in writing, so don t buy your mobile home based on a promise and a handshake. That way, if something goes wrong after you ve moved into your new home, you have a contract to rely on. Don t forget to make sure you AND the owner sign it and make sure you get a copy for yourself! 4. You have rights even after you move in! One of the most important rights is something called an implied warranty. This means that even if you buy a home that looks okay now, but later find something horribly wrong with it that you didn t notice at first or that the seller forgot to tell you about, you might be able to get the seller to fix it (or give you money to fix it) even after you have lived there a while especially if the owner knew about the problem before you moved in. 5. Umm...I didn t pay my bank loan and now the bank says they re going to foreclose on me. What does that mean? A foreclosure is kind of like an eviction. It means you didn t pay the bank back on time like you promised you would, and now they re taking your mobile home to satisfy the loan. The easiest way to never let this happen is to make sure you pay your bank loan on time! 10
But sometimes things happen and if the bank tells you they re going to foreclose on you, here s what happens. In the letter that says they re going to foreclose, they will give you a certain amount of time to pay up. If you do not pay, or make arrangements to get caught up, the bank can go to court and ask for possession of the mobile home. 6. What happens if someone gets mad and punches a hole in the wall or breaks down the door? You own it, you or your friends break it, you fix it. That s it. Remember it s your house. Anything you do to it is your responsibility. But that also means you can paint it or decorate it or change it around any way you like, as long as you keep it clean and healthy! 7. I ve been here for over a year now but I noticed that the floor is starting to sag down and the roof is rotting is there anything I can do? Maybe. Even if you ve been there a while, there is still that implied warranty that says that if your home was broken before you moved in even if you didn t notice it at first the seller may still have to fix it. 11
Conclusion So that s it! Congratulations again on your new home! Whether you re renting or buying, having a place of your own is a very important and very rewarding experience in your life. Make sure you know what you re getting into so that you get the most out of your new home! 12