Mark L. Busch

Question:  Our county has entered Phase 2 of the reopening procedures for COVID-19.  While we have kept the park restrooms, showers and laundry room open during the state-wide shutdown, we have kept other park facilities closed.  We are still reluctant to open our swimming pool, small indoor rec center, and playground.  What are we required to open and how do we safely do it?

Question:  We have residents in our RV park who seem to be blatantly violating the governor’s COVID-19 emergency stay-at-home order.  Some residents have outside family members or guests come by regularly, while a few other residents get together on their spaces to just “hang out” in the evenings. This has caused some concern in the park, so what can or should we do?

Question:  We had a month-to-month RV tenant vacate shortly after she paid her monthly rent, and she is now demanding a refund of “unused” rent from the vacate date forward. Do we have to refund that rent?

Question:  We want to raise rent for our RV tenants because we have not raised the rent in over two years.  We know there are new rules, but what are they?

The 2019 Oregon Legislature made sweeping changes to the state’s landlord-tenant laws. None will have more impact than Senate Bill 608 (SB 608), which went into effect on February 28, 2019. SB 608 made two significant alterations to Oregon law: (1) After the first year of occupancy in a month-to-month or fixed-term tenancy, landlords are severely limited in their ability to evict tenants, and (2) landlords with month-to-month or fixed-term tenancies are now limited by rent control in their ability to increase rent for an existing tenancy. (NOTE: The cities of Portland, Milwaukie, and Bend have additional restrictions on landlords, and different laws apply to manufactured home and floating home tenants.)