January 2025 Newsletter ↗
November 2024 Newsletter ↗
May 2024 Newsletter ↗
More archived ↗
Article in french regarding a few redevelopment projects in MH parks in Québec. Notice that the mayors intervene to save values and even relocates by creating a new home park for the displaced.
Menaces sur les parcs de maisons mobiles ↗
«Une des dernières formes d'habitation abordable est dans la ligne de mire des promoteurs immobiliers.»
For residents of Nanaimo. Resident Feedback Session Learn about heat pumps and energy efficiency, provide your feedback on heating needs, and win prizes. Open to all manufactured (mobile) home residents. Please join one of the two sessions in early January:
Agenda -> Revised Agenda
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held November 18, 2023
Minutes of General Meeting held June 15, 2024
Minutes of General Meeting held September 14, 2024
Financial Report for the Period October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024
Active Manufactured Home Owners Society Bylaws September 2024
If you wish to attend this meeting contact us at bcmhoinfo@gmail.com before noon PDT on November 28, 2024 and we will send you a zoom link before the meeting.
Update: 16 members attended the meeting and the resolution passed. The new BCMHO Society Official Bylaws (updated 2024) ↗ are now effective.
A GENERAL MEETING OF THE ACTIVE MANUFACURED HOME OWNERS SOCIETY (BCMHO) WILL BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2024 AT 10:00 a.m. PDT via ZOOM.
The purpose of the meeting is to consider amendments to the Bylaws of the Society as outlined in the Special Resolution.
SPECIAL RESOLUTION
That the Bylaws of the Active Manufactured Home Owners Society be amended as follows
2024 Sept SGM Amended bylaws draft ↗
If you wish to attend this meeting contact us at bcmhoinfo@gmail.com before noon PDT on September 12, 2024 and we will send you a zoom link before the meeting.
Donna Fuller is a realtor in BC. She talked to another realtor who is totally frustrated by the lack of regulations in the province towards MHP owners. She started a petition. Please sign it and or pass it onto someone you might know who is affected by this. Changes are needed! If enough signatures are collected it will be taken to the legislature and the Premiere.
Main issue: LACK OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK. There is an urgent need for a clear legal framework that outlines the responsibilities of park managers and owners, ensuring they cannot exploit or mislead residents.
At BCMHO, we received numerous complaints from MHO that MH park owners and managers abuses. Recurring issues are lack of services, lack of respect for private information, park rules abuses (RTB recently, see 2024-04-30 news below, changed the park rules law in our favour), illegal rent increases, too easy evictions and bad faith evictions, interfererring with sales that reduce MH values and sometimes force sales to them park owners for cheap, etc.
NOTE from Donna: The petition is a free service so, once you sign it you may get a few emails from Change.org, but simply "unsubscribe" if you dont want them. You dont need to send money either. Simply sign if desired.
Follow this link to the petition ↗
Good news. RTB advised us of changes that have been made to Policy Guideline 37A – Annual Rent Increase related to the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act. RTB is also aware of other concerns and suggestions that the manufactured home park stakeholders have brought to their attention related the proportional rent increase. They are continuing to take these suggestions into consideration.
How to calculate the proportional amount in mixed-use parks:
Policy Guideline 37A has been updated to clarify that uses of the park that are not renting sites under the MHPTA should not be counted as "manufactured home sites". The update also clarifies that a landlord can only claim changes to "local government levies" and "utility fees" in an amount that is proportional to the use by tenants, and not levies and fees for the entire mixed-use park. This guidance is on page 4 of the Policy Guideline.
Late charges/penalties as they relate to "municipal fees" when calculating the proportional amount:
Policy Guideline 37A clarifies that penalties cannot be included when calculating the proportional amount because they are not "municipal fees" under the Community Charter. This guidance is on page 3 of the Policy Guideline.
The revised Policy Guideline 37A is available on the RTB website ↗
Manufactured home owners are property owners who pay property taxes on their homes but not on the land. Many of us invest considerable sums to maintain, upgrade and improve our homes. While we lease land and services from the park owner, we are not tenants in the true sense because we have a financial interest in our homes and the environment in which our homes are located. For this reason, we refer to park owners, not landlords and home owners, not tenants.
It has been common for us to hear from our members about park owners changing park rules multiple times in the year, making rules that seem directed at particular home owners, or placing unreasonable requirements on home owners for upgrades.
On April 30, 2024, the Provincial Government passed new regulations about park rules... Read more ↗
Changes to the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Regulation, which establishes park rules, will make life easier for manufactured home residents.
Currently, some owners of manufactured homes have difficulty knowing what rules are in effect, because there is no limit to how often owners of manufactured home parks can change park rules. Changes to the regulation will mean that park rules can only be changed once a year and with three months notice. This will help improve clarity for tenants regarding what rules are in effect, when they will be in effect, and ensure tenants have adequate time to comply with a park rule change or dispute it with the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB). Read more ↗
Note that the new regulation was into effect the same date of this announcement.
April 2024 Park rules news ↗
It is a common occurence that MH park owners make rules and demands as they see fit for their own advantages. A few MHO found it abusive and launched a dispute through RTB. This lead to a very good outcome that is very helpful and informative for MHO like us. The ruling read, "These rules appear to be an attempt by the landlord to improve the esthetics of the park by requiring that tenants make cosmetic and other improvements of the landlord's choosing to their own manufactured homes, which are not the landlord's property..."
Read the Chek News article ↗. Or read the text of the article here below ↓
Nanaimo mobile home park tenants want others to know about illegal rules
By Kendall Hanson Posted: Feb. 28, 2024 7:33AM (Decision AnonDec-104855)
https://www.cheknews.ca/nanaimo-mobile-home-park-tenants-want-others-to-know-about-illegal-rules-1192856/
People in a Nanaimo mobile home park are warning other mobile home owners to know their rights in light of a recent battle with management.
They say those running Woodgrove Estates overstepped their boundaries in setting rules and it could have cost people tens of thousands of dollars.
Last spring, Savannah Douglas went to sell her mother’s mobile home in north Nanaimo after she passed away.
She notified the park’s manager and the response caught her by surprise.
"They said OK you can sell it. Here’s a list of all the things you have to do as a condition of sale to sell. They sent a contractor who gave me a quote for about $50,000," said Douglas.
The park issued new rules as of May 1, 2023. Among the demands Douglas was told to put on a new roof, install new windows, replace her shed and paint the entire exterior.
"I was a little floored. I did call the tenancy branch and they said there’s nothing in the act that says this can be enforced. You’re free to file a dispute, so we did," she said.
At Woodgrove Estates, people own their mobile homes but they’re tenants of the park as they pay a lease for the space to keep them on.
It turned out Douglas wasn’t alone in disliking the new rules.
"I was definitely shocked and definitely disagreed with what they were and wanted to do something about them," said Al Dale, a mobile home owner in the park.
Dale had already filed a similar dispute with the residential tenancy board and had his hearing first.
In its decision rendered five months ago, the board sided with the tenants. The ruling read, "These rules appear to be an attempt by the landlord to improve the esthetics of the park by requiring that tenants make cosmetic and other improvements of the landlord’s choosing to their own manufactured homes, which are not the landlord’s property…"
Dale said he was happy with the ruling.
"They ruled those rules unenforceable, so I was pleased with those parts of it," he said.
The manager of Woodgrove Estates declined to comment only saying the park has changed its rules since the decision and is now in compliance.
Douglas says she wants her story to get attention because she’s worried other mobile home owner may be falling victim to similar rules.
"These are seniors and they just accept it. No one disputes it so it was really important for me to let seniors especially know their renters rights," said Douglas.
She says unfortunately one senior in the park did spend tens of thousands to improve her home before selling and those costs she likely didn’t fully recoup in the sale.
Get the RTB decision AnonDec-104855 ↗ (copy the decision number AnonDec). Or download this copy from our website: RTB decision AnonDec-104855 ↗.
On Sept 2nd, the Active Manufactured Home Owners Society (BCMHO) shared with its members the Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS) update survey on administrative fairness in the RTB. By the September 8th deadline, nine members had responded. The response rate was low, some people did not respond to all questions, and the survey was framed around open questions, so answers vary widely, but ideas expressed were consistent; eight of the responses pointed out areas for improvement, while only one registered complete support for all RTB practices.
We heard from individuals across the province that:
CLAS survey responses compiled by Susan Belford, BCMHO
The Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) Operational Stakeholders Group meets quarterly throughout the year and is comprised of Ministry of Housing staff and representatives from residential landlord organizations, tenants, manufactured home owners and manufactured home park owners.
Our last stakeholder's group meeting was on May 4, 2023. We continue to ask for updates regarding the frequency of changes to Park Rules and issues around Assignment of Manufactured Home Site Tenancy Agreements. We have reported the answers we received from the RTB to our members in the BCMHO.ca Spring 2022, Winter 2023 and Spring 2023 Newsletters.
Due to RTB staff changes no updates to these 2 issues has been provided to date. RTB staff has indicated that these issues are not a priority for the next 2 to 3 months.
Our Stakeholder's group meeting take place regularly and we hope to provide updates for BCMHO.ca members in our Newsletters.
Our Directors continue to meet with the Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of BC (MHPOA) in an effort to find common ground between home owners and park owners.
Our discussions have been very positive and we will continue to meet and participate in sub-committee meetings with government and the MHPOA of BC, to focus on issues for manufactured home park communities throughout BC.
The Directors at BCMHO.ca will update our members on the results of those discussions after any decisions made are vetted through each organization's Board of Directors. Watch for more information in our Newsletters.
With the installation of BC's new Premier, the Honourable David Eby, and his public commitment to take on the housing crisis in this province, a number of changes in how the government manages housing have been made.
What was formerly the Ministry of Housing and Construction Standards has now become the Ministry of Housing. The Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) of the Ministry of Housing who manage tenant and landlord disputes and information services for both renters and manufactured home owners, will receive $15.6 million in funding from the province over the next three years. The funds will be used to increase staff and revitalize RTB processes to improve wait times for landlord/tenant disputes, strengthen compliance and enforcement efforts and improve their online information.
The new Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon recently noted that dispute "...applications have increased by 21% since 2018 with the influx of people moving to BC…Renters and landlords have been clear that the current residential tenancy dispute resolution process isn't working fast enough to address their needs. We hear you and we are taking action to speed up service and strengthen enforcement to address things like repeat or serious offences like illegal evictions, so renters and landlords can get the fair treatment and timely support they deserve."
So, what does this mean for manufactured home owners? Don't be confused, the RTB is responsible for the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (MHPTA), as well as the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), since manufactured home owners in parks 'rent' the land their home sits on. The RTB is the organization manufactured home owners should contact when you have concerns about your tenancy or if you are in a situation that contravenes the MHPTA.
BCMHO.ca mailing address: 133 - 6325 Metral Dr, Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6P9
Manufactured Home Parks are a source of affordable housing in BC. On this website we provide timely and accurate information for our members in order to educate them about their rights and responsibilities. The material on this website does not constitute legal or professional advice and is presented as information only. Neither the Active Manufactured Home Owners Society (BCMHO.ca) or its directors, assume liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on this material. Appropriate legal advice or expert assistance should be sought from a competent professional.