Unfortunately, Melissa Steele’s story, “New law gives manufactured home owners some recourse,” dated July 15, would indicate that heaven has descended on the financially abused leased-land tenant homeowners in Delaware. As a once-upon-a-time newsman, I am jarred by the factual errors in the story. Whether or not a landlord maintains the community, compounded annual rents are 3.5% plus one-half of the CPI-U up to 7%. You may be hearing more when homeowners get their next rent increase.
Common-sense language has been added to lot rent assistance, but before and after the change, the rent of other homeowners can be raised to pay for the discounts. The community owner loses nothing.
The best thing about Senate Bill 317 deals with the health and safety issues caused by the failure of state and court agencies to enforce maintenance issues. The worst thing is the failure to remove having market rent rest on what a new home buyer is willing to pay in lot rent. This forces everyone to pay the same. The definition of comparable communities is more of a fairy tale determined by what the landlord wants the appraiser to say is comparable. One of the big out-of-state landlords is beating the system by jumping rents $100 or more a month.
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