Repairs and Living Conditions

Most manufactured (mobile) home park residents own their homes and only rent lot space from the park owner. These residents are responsible for maintaining their homes, while the park owner is responsible for maintaining the lot and common areas of the park.

However, some park residents rent both their homes and lot space from the park owner. In these situations, the park owner has the legal responsibilities of both a park owner and a landlord. Park owner-landlords are responsible for maintaining not just the lot and park, but the tenant-resident’s home as well. The tenant-resident also has both the rights and responsibilities of a park resident and a tenant.

This section covers owner responsibilities for lot and park maintenance, and resident rights to properly maintained lots and parks. All of this comes from Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4781.

Additional responsibilities of park owners who are also landlords, and the rights of their tenants to properly maintained homes, are stated in Ohio Revised Code Chapter 5321, and are covered in all of the sections of this website that deal with landlords and tenants.

Federal and state fair housing law applies to mobile home park residents regardless of whether they own or rent their homes.

State law (Ohio Revised Code 4781.38) lays out a park owner’s main responsibilities for maintaining the park and its lots. These include:

• Doing whatever repairs are necessary to keep the lot and park premises outside a resident’s home in a “fit and habitable,” “safe and sanitary” condition. (This includes maintaining the roadways within a park as long as they are privately owned by the park.)

• Following all applicable health and safety regulations (including local health and safety codes).
• Following the rules of the Division of Industrial Compliance, which is part of the Ohio Department of Commerce, the state agency responsible for regulating manufactured (mobile) home parks. For more information on the Division, click here.
• Maintain all electrical and plumbing fixtures and appliances, septic systems, sanitary and storm sewers, refuse receptacles, and water systems that are supplied or required to be supplied
• Not entering the resident’s home or lot unlawfully. Except in cases of emergency, owners and their authorized agents (e.g. maintenance workers, park managers) may only enter a resident’s home to inspect utility connections after giving reasonable advance notice, and may only enter at reasonable times. Park owners and their agents may only enter a resident’s lot space in order to “inspect the premises, make ordinary, necessary, or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, deliver parcels which are too large for the resident's mail facilities, or supply necessary or agreed services” after giving reasonable advance notice, and may only enter the lot at reasonable times. Park owners may also not make excessive demands for entry that have the effect of harassing the tenant. 24 hours is usually considered the minimum amount of reasonable advance notice. (Note: Park owners and their agents sometimes use unlawful entry as a way to commit additional illegal acts, such as sexual harassment of their residents. In these situations, owners can be held accountable for more than just the unlawful entry. Click here to learn more.)
• Protecting a resident’s right to “quiet enjoyment” or “peaceful enjoyment.” This includes a park owner getting a resident’s noisy neighbors to quiet down.

If a park owner isn’t following these rules, the law allows park residents to take certain actions against the owner, which we cover below. But keep in mind, an owner may not like those actions, and may try to retaliate against a resident who exercises their rights. So residents who want to address problems with their park owner should first learn how to protect themselves from landlord retaliation.

In some Ohio cities residents can report park owners to a local government agency that can help. We cover dealing with these agencies next. But first, here are the options that state law (Ohio Revised Code 4781.41) gives park residents everywhere in Ohio.

The first step is for the resident to notify their owner of the problem(s) in a letter sent by certified mail, with the resident also keeping their own copy. This letter must give the owner a reasonable amount of time to fix the problem. That’s usually 30 days, but can be less time in emergency situations, such as a broken furnace in the middle of winter.

If the owner fails to correct the problem within a reasonable amount of time after receiving the written notice, the resident may then do either of the following:

1. Escrow rent. The resident can apply to the local Clerk of Courts to begin paying their rent to the court, which will not give the landlord the rent money until the landlord has fixed the problem(s).

NOTE: Tenants CANNOT just stop paying rent to try to get their landlord to make necessary repairs. This makes tenants vulnerable to being evicted for nonpayment of rent. Tenants MUST go through the court’s formal escrow process to stay housed and get problems fixed. 

To start escrow, a tenant CANNOT owe any back rent to the landlord. During escrow, the tenant MUST continue to pay their rent on time – just to the court, rather than to their landlord.

For more information about escrowing lot rent, see Ohio Revised Code 4781.41, 4781.42, and 4781.43 and 4781.44 or contact COHHIO at 888-485-7999 or rentinfo@cohhio.org

2. Apply for a court order for the owner to fix the problem(s), to reduce rent until the problem(s) are fixed, and/or to use rent money to fix the problem(s).

If an owner is entering a resident’s home or lot unlawfully, Ohio Revised Code 4781.38 allows the resident to sue the owner for actual damages resulting from the entry or harassing demands, apply for a court order to stop the owner from continuing this behaviro, and a judgement for reasonable attorney’s fees, or terminate the rental agreement.

Reporting Owner to Local Government Agency

All big cities and even some small towns in Ohio have local housing codes that include more detailed landlord responsibilities. State law (R.C 4781.38) requires landlords to follow these local housing codes.

If your city has a local housing code, it probably also has a local code enforcement agency that can help get a park owner to make required repairs. To find out if your city has local code enforcement, use our Local Resource Finder or call your city hall or village office.

If you live in a rural area, you probably don’t have a local housing code or code enforcement agency. Sometimes a county health department can still help – but not always.

Residents should ALWAYS ASK an agency what it can do to help before residents share their address and ask the agency to come perform an inspection, especially if the resident is renting their home, not just the lot space. Sometimes local agencies can be very helpful getting landlords to make repairs. But other times agencies will just condemn a home with big problems and make the residents homeless. So residents must always find out first! Usually code enforcement agencies are more helpful than county health departments – but it all depends on how that specific local agency operates.

NOTE: Some cities have local “Relocation Assistance” ordinances that require owner- landlords to pay the costs of moving tenant-residents to safe housing when the original rental housing has been made unsafe by the landlord-owner’s negligence. To find out if a policy like this exists where you live, visit our Local Services Finder or call 888-485-7999 or email rentinfo@cohhio.org.

The most helpful agencies will notify the owner of any violations they find during an inspection and then give the owner a certain amount of time to fix those violations. Residents should ask the inspector for their contact information, and for a copy of any record of the owner’s code violation(s). If the owner doesn’t correct violations by a certain deadline, then the local government may fine the landlord, criminally prosecute them, and even revoke their business license.

Possible advantages of reporting a park owner to a code enforcement agency:

1. Takes some of the burden off the owner. Local government now has its own beef with the owner. The agency will work to get the owner to make necessary repairs and follow local rules.
2. Helps document problems. In addition to a resident’s own evidence –such as photos, videos and copies of communication with the landlord that show evidence– Code Enforcement will independently verify the existence of any housing code violations, and formally notify the owner.
3. Helps support an escrow case. Remember, state law (Ohio Revised Code 4781.38) requires landlords to comply with local housing codes affecting health and safety, and state law (R.C. 4781.41 through 4781.44 ) allows residents to escrow rent with the court when residents don’t follow those local codes. Therefore, Code Enforcement’s official determination that a landlord has violated the local housing code shows that the owner has also violated state law. That’s very powerful evidence of the resident’s right to escrow rent with the local court.
4. Code Enforcement works faster than escrow. Before a resident can escrow their rent, they must first give their owner written notice of the problem, and then wait a reasonable amount of time for the landlord to fix the problem.

A reasonable amount of time is usually 30 days. But a resident can’t start escrowing their rent until the next rent due date AFTER that 30 days has passed. So if a resident notifies their landlord of a problem on September 5, but rent is due on the first of each month, that resident can’t start escrowing rent until November 1, which is 56 days after notifying the owner of the problem.

Also, a resident cannot escrow their rent if they owe any late rent. So if the resident in the above example fails to escrow their rent by the November 1 due date, they can’t begin escrow on November 2. That resident must pay the November rent to their park owner, and then wait another whole month before they can start to escrow rent on December 1.

But Code Enforcement doesn’t have to wait to act, and it doesn’t matter to Code Enforcement whether the resident is current on rent (the resident just needs to stay current to protect themselves from eviction). Code Enforcement will usually inspect the tenant’s home as soon as the resident reports a problem, and then immediately issue the park owner a notice of violation to start pressuring the owner to fix the problem(s).