Law To Help Iowa Mobile Home Residents Is Gaining Traction

Over the last few years, lawmakers have been working on legislation to protect mobile home residents from being priced off properties. The bill comes as many mobile home residents across the state raised concerns about the mistreatment from mobile home park owners.

Republican Representative Brian Lohse hoped to do more with the bill, but in a report by Radio Iowa, he said its latest version to support mobile home park owners will likely pass in the house.

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“I believe it’s a meaningful bill,” Lohse said. “I believe it has some very good provisions for the tenants and, you know, in the long run maybe we can do other things as issues pop up.”

Mobile home park residents have been victims of unfair practices by park owners for years.

According to the bill, notice of rent and utility increases sooner would need to be given sooner. It would also offer protection against retaliation by park owners.

Senate Democrat Leader Zach Wahls began working on fixing this issue back in 2012 after learning a

“There have been a host of people involved in this conversation. I would say that there are several good things in this piece of legislation that I’m happy to see. There are also a lot of good things that are not in this legislation,” Wahls said during a taping of “Iowa Press. “Of course, that is the nature of compromise…and I do expect that I will likely wind up voting for it.” bout large rent increases in mobile home parks.

In an article by KWWL, Impact Communities bought Table Mound Mobile Home Park in Dubuque back in 2017, and since then, residents have complained their rent has increased as much as 60 percent.

Democratic Representative Lindsey James is from Dubuque and said this could help with the situation why saw at Table Mound.

“The challenge of these out-of-state corporations exploiting our residents here in Iowa is significant,” James said. “This bill is not going to be the end-all solution for this. I think it’s one step forward in making sure that these residents have protections.”

Currently, park owners are only required to give a 60-day notice of rent and utility hikes. The bill would change that time to 90 days.

The bill cleared a House subcommittee this week.