BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 951
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: correa
VERSION: 2/4/10
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: March 23, 2010
SUBJECT:
Mobilehomes: park inspections and fees
DESCRIPTION:
This bill extends the Department of Housing and Community
Development's Mobilehome Park Maintenance Inspection Program
until January 1, 2017.
ANALYSIS:
The Mobilehome Parks Act requires the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD) to regulate the construction,
installation, use, maintenance, and occupancy of mobilehomes and
mobilehome parks.
Under the Mobilehome Park Maintenance (MPM) Inspection Program,
existing law requires HCD or a local enforcement agency, until
January 1, 2012, to inspect mobilehome parks proactively with a
goal of inspecting at least five percent of the parks per year
and a focus on those parks for which the enforcement agency has
received complaints about serious health and safety violations.
Existing law provides for HCD or a local enforcement agency,
until January 1, 2012, to collect annually a per space fee of $4
to fund the MPM inspection program, $2 of which the mobilehome
park owner may charge to individual homeowners.
Existing law requires HCD to convene a task force every six
months to provide input to HCD on the conduct and operation of
the MPM inspection program. The task force includes mobilehome
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park owners, mobilehome owners, local enforcement agencies, and
legislative representatives. HCD must report to the task force
information on the number of parks and spaces that were
inspected, the fees collected, the most common violations
discovered, and the number of violations identified plus
progress on correcting those violations.
This bill :
1)Extends the sunset date on the MPM inspection program and
related fees until 2017.
2)Requires that HCD report in writing to the MPM Task Force and
that HCD include additional information in its report on:
i) The number of violations issued to mobilehome owners,
including the number that have been corrected, the number
that are uncorrected, and progress in correcting the
uncorrected violations.
ii) The number of violations issued to mobilehome park
owners, including the number that have been corrected, the
number that are uncorrected, and progress in correcting the
uncorrected violations.
iii) Recommendations for statutory or administrative
changes to the MPM program.
BACKGROUND:
AB 925 (O'Connell), Chapter 1125, Statutes of 1990 first created
the Mobilehome Park Maintenance (MPM) Inspection Program, and it
required HCD or a local enforcement agency to inspect every
mobilehome and every mobilehome park in the state once every
five years.
Because of delays created by the Northridge Earthquake and other
factors, HCD was not able to complete the inspection of all
mobilehome parks in the first five years. Therefore, the
Legislature twice extended the program to require that all
inspections be completed in eight-years, or by 1999. By 1999,
HCD and local agencies had completed the inspection of all
mobilehome parks.
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In 1999, SB 700 (O'Connell), Chapter 520 extended the MPM
inspection program until January 1, 2007, and made some changes
to the inspection program. In particular, SB 700 limited the
inspection program to mobilehome parks that have a history of
serious health and safety code violations and required
inspections at least once every seven years. SB 700 limited the
inspections in part because of the limited funding provided by
the $4-fee that supports the MPM program.
SB 106 (Dunn) of 2005 would have deleted the 2007 sunset date on
the MPM inspection program and increased the existing $4-fee to
$6 that pays for the inspections. The Governor vetoed SB 106
because of the fee increase, so in 2006, SB 1231 (Dunn), Chapter
644, and a companion bill, AB 2250 (Coto), Chapter 858, extended
the sunset date from 2007 to 2012 but did not increase the
inspection fee.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author, who chairs the Senate Select Committee
on Manufactured Homes and Communities, believes it is
important to extend the MPM inspection program for another
five years. He notes that California's nearly 4,000 mobilehome
parks house approximately 550,000 residents and that the MPM
program provides a complete scheduled inspection of those
mobilehome parks, as contrasted with the complaint-driven
inspections that otherwise occur. The author asserts that the
MPM inspection program came about in1990 because of concerns
that the complaint inspection process by itself did not
adequately address deteriorating health and safety conditions
in some parks. As a result of the MPM program, HCD and local
enforcement agencies since 1991 have cited both park owners
and homeowners for tens of thousands of health and safety
violations, which as a result have been remedied. The author
argues that some of these would not otherwise have been
addressed. With the impending January 1, 2012 sunset date, the
author reports interest from homeowners, HCD, and the park
industry in extending the program another five years.
2.Amendment request . The Western Manufactured Housing
Communities Association (WMA) supports this bill if it is
amended to allow mobilehome park owners to pass through to
residents fees they pay to operate. This bill does not
currently relate to permit-to-operate (PTO) fees. Last year a
budget trailer bill (SB 73 [Budget and Fiscal Review], Chapter
341) increased the annual PTO fee for each park from $25 plus
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$2 per lot to $140 plus $7 per lot. No policy committee heard
SB 73, so no discussion of the fee increase or whether it
could be passed on to mobilehome park residents occurred. WMA
would like that discussion to occur during consideration of
this bill.
WMA argues that because PTO fees fund the administrative and
complaint investigation costs of the Codes and Standards
Division of HCD, they benefit both park owners and homeowners.
WMA asserts that the state last raised the PTO fees in 1975
prior to mobilehome park rent control being adopted in any
California communities. Since then, over 100 jurisdictions
have established rent control on their mobilehome parks with
different standards and conditions for park owners to pass
through additional costs to mobilehome owners. For this
reason, WMA seeks authorization to pass through last year's
increase in the PTO fee.
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1964 (Torres) extends the Mobilehome Park Maintenance
Inspection Program until January 1, 2019. Set for hearing in the
Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April
14th.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
March 17, 2010)
SUPPORT: California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Golden State Mobilehome Owners League
Western Center on Law & Poverty
OPPOSED: None received.