If you or someone you know is having trouble with a mobile home management company, there may be help

CHAMBERSBURG – There have been stories floating around the area of people living in mobile home parks who are finding out rules are being applied unequally.

While a lot of people purchase the mobile home in which they live, they still need to rent the space on which to put it. That’s where the mobile home park comes into play.

The mobile home park often has a list of rules for staying there.

A few years ago, local ownership of one mobile home park changed to non-local ownership. It’s more of a management company.

And that’s where the rules, apparently, are getting wonky.

Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM explained people are saying “we’re not getting some straight answers on why suddenly the rules are being applied unequally. There they only seem to be in a spot fashion, making some follow the rules and some not. We’re suddenly getting a lot more costs dropped on us. Yeah, we might get a letter giving us, because I think there’s a certain amount of notice you have to give if you’re going to start asking for more utility costs or whatnot. But they said this is ridiculous. Lot rent’s been going up $35, $50 a year. Then now we’re suddenly being old sewers no longer included. We think we may be getting charged more per month. Oh, here’s something else. We don’t take it to the township anymore, the municipality. We give it straight to the owner, or straight to the management company. So just some odd things, and they don’t know what to do, because some people are on fixed incomes, they’re suddenly being asked to pay $600 more a year for sewer. That’s a lot of money for folks who are on a fixed income for a place that’s supposed to be less expensive.”

Pennsylvania Representative Rob Kauffman said, “My first recommendation, obviously, there should be leases involved. So I would encourage folks to reach out to Franklin County Legal Services, Mid-Penn Legal Services to try to understand what their leases say, what kind of legal agreement they’re in, if they don’t have an active lease. Obviously, not seeing it, I have no idea, also what their rights and responsibilities are under Pennsylvania law in those kind of communities. That would be a start. Also, if they run into a situation where it appears there are things that are going on that are kind of fishy, contacting the Attorney General’s consumer complaint hotline because they deal with these kind of situations around the Commonwealth. If there’s something going on, they can dig in. If you have a company, an out of state LLC, or somebody just gobbling up these homes, they’re kind of nameless, makes you wonder, scratch your head, could there be some kind of, I don’t know, monopoly antitrust situation going. I have no idea, just hearing about this. I did get specific contact about a community in Southampton Township Franklin, which was formerly in my district, not any longer. I’m hearing from you about Schaff’s and maybe a situation in St Thomas Township, and maybe over in Washington Township. So definitely a concern. But I would start out with legal services.”

To contact Franklin County Legal Services, call 717-262-2326.

Kauffman explained, “Franklin County Legal Services is income based, free, legal. They get funding from the Commonwealth.”

Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “I’d imagine if it’s happening, if we’re getting a handful of calls here, then this is going to start becoming something of an attention-getter for Harrisburg lawmakers.”

Kauffman added, “That’s also why I think it would be important to contact the attorney general’s office, because this could be something that’s a statewide issue and something that we’re not necessarily immediately plugged into, but they have been and while we have a brand new attorney general, the folks on the you know on the beat, so to speak, in the Attorney General’s office, they go from administration to administration. So it’s not like, oh, this is the first time they would have heard of it. It’s something they’ve probably been hearing about across the Commonwealth.”