Question: Our community has been on well water forever. There is a new water system available to hook up to. Under that system each space would have its own meter and a flat rate would be charged for the first fixed number of gallons per space. After the fixed number of gallons/space is used, the homeowner would be charged a price per gallon. Can we charge exactly what the water system charges on top of the current rent? Effectively passing on what we are charged for their individual use?

Question: I am confused on the use of rules violation notices. Do I use a 20-day notice or 30-day notice? Does the "three strikes law" apply?

Question: A family moves into a manufactured housing community with a thirteen year old boy. Five years later the parents vacate the home but leave the boy who is now eighteen. Even though the eighteen year old was never subject to a background check, never signed a rental agreement etc., is he now a considered a resident?

Question. The City of Gresham is now charging a "Public Safety Fee" on every mobile home space in the city. It starts at $2.40/month/space and escalates to $7.19/month/space in June. Park owners have to pay the fee for all residents and then try to collect it back from them. If the residents have their own utility accounts with the City, they pay their fee directly, but most parks pay water and sewer utilities in bulk. What can you tell me about this Public Safety Fee, and whether I can treat it as a utility or service, and pass it through to park residents?

Question: We have several park-owned homes that we rent out. Can we continue to use the regular MHCO forms that we use for our park residents who own their own homes?

Question: We are currently dealing with an abandoned home where the tenant has passed away and he was in a "Senior Tax Deferral" program through the Oregon Dept. of Revenue ("DOR"). According to our county tax collector the deceased tenant's account is current, since the DOR has paid them ever since the tenant entered the program in 1999. A title search on the home has the DOR listed as a lien holder. My question is if and when the abandoned property is sold at a private auction and we (the Landlord) win with the highest sealed bid, are we liable for the taxes in the program? Are they considered already paid? Is the DOR simply a lien holder or are they considered a tax collector? Side note: According to the tax collector, this home is valued at approximately $20,000.

Question: While doing an inspection with my manager, she showed me a large tree branch that had fallen onto a resident's home in our park. The issue here is that the tree is located on neighboring land and not in our community. The resident whose home was damaged had an arborist out to view the tree and said that the tree was a hazard. What rights and responsibilities do we have in a situation like this?

Question. We had a situation come up recently that we would like your opinion on. With this particular lease, rent is due on the 1st and a late fee is assessed if not received by midnight of the 5th. We send 72-hour notices on the 8th of the month at the earliest. In this situation, a tenant has purposely over-paid rent on a number of payments in order to build up a credit balance with us. He has accrued several late fees that have been assessed due to late payments after the 5th of the month - but before a 72 hour notice is ever sent. We recently deducted the accrued late fees from the credit balance he had built up. Because there was still a credit balance showing on his account after deducting the late fees, we did not send him any further notices about the late fees being assessed or deducted. He is now claiming that it was illegal to deduct the late fees from the credit balance without our sending him a notice or invoice. Your thoughts? 

Question. A resident of our community has asked for a list of all the other residents' names and addresses, so that she can contact them to set up a homeowners association. While I don't have an objection to the formation of a tenant association, I am concerned that giving out residents' names and addresses might violate some tenant rights on our part. Can you help?

Question. Our community is relatively small and the spaces are oversized. Large trees are located on many of them. Occasionally, a resident asks us to thin or top some of the trees on their space, because of fear that during high winds they could break, damaging homes and injuring people. I have been under the impression that tree maintenance is a tenant responsibility under Oregon law. If so, what is our liability if tree limbs -- or entire trees - break during bad weather?