Mobile Home Tenancy

Tenancy means a tenant’s right to possession of a manufactured home site under a tenancy agreement. If a person rents a mobile home instead of buying a mobile home for rent, his tenancy rights will be based on the law and the agreement he has with his landlord. This agreement can be either written or a verbal agreement. In case the tenant doesn’t have a written agreement, he still has rights. A tenancy agreement must comply with any requirements prescribed in the regulations and must set out all of the following:

• The standard terms
• The correct legal names of the landlord and tenant
• The address of the manufactured home site
• The date the tenancy agreement is entered into
• The address for service and telephone number of the landlord or the landlord’s agent
• Starting and ending date of tenancy and the tenancy amount payable by tenant
• Within 21 days after a landlord and tenant enter into a tenancy agreement, the landlord must give the tenant a copy of the agreement.

Tenancy rights determine the rights to live in the rented single wide or double wide mobile home itself, not on the pitch it’s stationed on. The rights to live on the site are regulated by different laws, and depend on whether a tenant lives on a protected site or an unprotected one.

Types of tenancy

A tenant may be able to show that he has an assured, assured short hold or regulated tenancy if he rents a mobile home, which can be classified as a dwelling house. This may be the case if tenant’s mobile home:

• used as a permanent residence
• has mains supplies of electricity, water and telephone
• garbage facilities and related services
• parking and storage areas
• recreation facilities
• static and unmovable
• large enough that it cannot be moved in one piece

Regulated tenancies

A tenant has regulated tenancy if mobile home can be classified as a dwelling house and tenancy agreement began before 2 January 1989. Being a regulated tenant, you have advantage to apply to the rent officer to have a fair rent determined and you will have more defense against been evicted.

Assured or assured short hold tenancies

A person may be an assured or assured short old tenant if mobile home can be classify as a dwelling house and tenancy began after 15 January 1989.Assured tenants in particular have stronger tenancy rights.

Tenancy status Problems

There is possibility that landlord of the tenant will refuse to accept that tenant is an assured, assured short hold, or regulated tenant, and that he has legal rights. If tenant wants to assert these rights for example, if a tenant wants his landlord to make repairs to his home or his is defending an eviction, he may take court action. It’s best to get advice from a well reputed advice center or Citizens Advice before taking any action.

Having license

If mobile home for rent can’t be assured, assured short hold or regulated tenancy, he may still have some rights as a licensee. However, these rights will be limited, particularly if landlord of the tenant wants to evict tenant. Get in touch with a local advice center as soon as possible if you are having problems.