Lawmakers are seeking to change state law around renting mobile and manufactured homes, saying the effort would protect tenants amid the state’s housing shortage.
Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, and Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, yesterday sent a cosponsorship memo to other lawmakers on the legislation, LRB 2426/4483. They point to limited construction of new housing units, rising interest rates and growing populations in urban areas, noting housing affordability “has become a critical issue” for state residents.
“As rents and home prices continue to spike, the legislature should explore ways to make housing more accessible for Wisconsin families,” they wrote in the memo. “When traditional housing gets more expensive, people consider alternatives, including manufactured homes.”
They say their legislation would make “common-sense” changes to state statute, clarifying current law and providing “much-needed protections” for tenants currently living in communities of factory-built homes. Wisconsin has about 53,800 such sites, according to the memo.
Under the legislation, owners and operators of these communities would be required to provide at least 90 days written notice to all known residents and occupants before shutting down the community or a specific site within it, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau. Tenants currently can get five-day or 14-day notices before closures, depending on their lease, the memo notes.
The bill would also change state law definitions of “resident” and “occupant” for mobile and manufactured home communities to change how existing rental requirements apply.
Under the bill, a resident would be defined as someone renting a site in a mobile or manufactured home community and who owns the home on that site, regardless of whether that person lives there. And an occupant would be defined as someone other than a resident who lives in the community with the home’s owner — the resident — with the consent of the community’s operator.
The legislation would also provide that someone who isn’t a resident or occupant who rents a mobile or manufactured home from a resident or from the community’s operator is subject to current law governing landlords and tenants.
And the bill would change state law around terminating the tenancy of a resident or occupant, allowing a tenancy to be ended for failing to submit a signed lease to the community’s operator, for failing to meet “any nondiscriminatory application criteria,” or for violating a community rule barring residents from owning more than one home in the community.
The Wisconsin Housing Alliance, which represents the factory-built housing industry, supports the bill, according to the memo.
James and Krug yesterday also began circulating legislation that would expand a registration option for vehicles used to transport manufactured housing units.
The cosponsorship deadline for both is Sept. 3 at 5 p.m.
