North Dakota Code 47-10-28 – Mobile home park – Ownership – Transfer of ownership – Tenant rights – Penalty
1. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park shall:
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 47-10-28
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Individual: means a human being. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Property: includes property, real and personal. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Rule: includes regulation. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37
a. Obtain an annual license under section 23-10-03; b. Designate an official local office, except if the mobile home park contains fewer than twenty-six lots, which must be operational on the fifth business day after the change of ownership; c. The mobile home park shall:
(1) Have a designated telephone number manned on weekdays between the hours of eight a.m. and five p.m.; (2) Have an operational emergency contact number manned at all times; (3) Designate at least one individual for the property who has the authority to make decisions on behalf of and perform, or direct the performance of, duties imposed on the owner; and
(4) Provide a tenant with the contact information of the individual under paragraph 3; d. Provide written notice to a tenant of the mobile home park regarding the change of ownership within five business days after the change of ownership becomes effective. The written notice must include the information required under subdivision c; e. Acknowledge receipt of tenant inquiries or complaints regarding the park, pursuant to section 23-10-10.1, within two business days of receiving the inquiry or complaint; f. Provide to each tenant, upon a written request by the tenant or the tenant’s agent, a copy of the existing lease terms along with any modifications or amendments, within ten business days of receipt of a written request; g. Provide each tenant with the name, address, and telephone number of the legal entity that owns the mobile home park; and
h. Provide the telephone number of any existing property manager or designated site agent.
2. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park may not require a tenant who owns a mobile home located on the property to sell or transfer ownership of the home to the owner of the mobile home park, except as otherwise provided by law.
3. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park shall provide a tenant advance written notice of any modifications to park rules or regulations at least thirty days before the date the modifications take effect. Except for the rules and regulations under subsections 4 and 5, upon the effective date of modifications to park rules and regulations, an owner shall provide a tenant who owns a dwelling unit that fails to comply with the park rules and regulations written notice of the failure to comply and provide the tenant three months to remedy the failure or vacate the premises before initiating an action for eviction against the tenant. During the three-month period the tenant shall comply with the park rules and regulations that were in effect before the modifications became effective, including the payment of rent and any other financial obligations under the terms of the lease. During the three-month period, if the tenant provides the owner a signed document from a person in the business of relocating mobile homes declaring it is not possible to relocate the tenant’s dwelling unit within the three-month period, the three-month period must be extended to a date when the dwelling unit can be relocated or the date that is two months after the end of the three-month period, whichever date occurs first.
4. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park shall provide a tenant advance written notice of any modifications to park rules and regulations addressing sanitation and safety concerns at least thirty days before the date the modifications take effect.
5. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park shall provide a tenant advance written notice at least thirty days before implementing a rule or regulation regarding the removal of a tongue hitch, or any other modification to the dwelling unit to comply with state or federal housing or financing requirements.
6. Mobile home park rules in effect on the date advance written notice regarding modifications is provided to a tenant remain in effect until the date the modified rules or regulations take effect.
7. A person that purchases an existing mobile home park may not increase the monthly tenant rental obligation for six months if the rental amount was increased within the sixty-day period before the date the new owner acquired ownership of the park. Any month-to-month tenancy agreement must provide a minimum of ninety days’ notice to the tenant before any rent increase is effective.
8. A person that owns or purchases an existing mobile home park may purchase utility services, including water and sewer services on behalf of a tenant, and include the amount in the monthly rental obligation or bill the tenant as a separate charge based on actual usage. An owner may not charge a tenant more than the actual cost per unit amount paid by the landlord to the utility service provider, except for a reasonable administrative fee that may not exceed three dollars. An owner may not charge or back charge for the utility services of a tenant paying for the services as a portion of the tenant’s monthly rental obligation, unless the cost of providing the services increases. If the cost of providing utility services increases, an owner of a mobile home park may charge a tenant a reasonable amount to cover the increased cost of providing the service. The owner shall provide the tenant access to the records of meter readings taken at the mobile home lot of the tenant.
9. A person that violates a provision of this section is subject to a civil penalty not less than two thousand five hundred dollars but not exceeding the greater of ten thousand dollars or actual damages, plus actual attorney’s fees and costs.
10. A mobile home park license, issued under chapter 23-10, may be suspended by the district court of the county where the mobile home park is situated for a violation of this section. The holder of the mobile home park license must be assessed a civil penalty for each day the holder’s license remains suspended. The amount of the daily penalty is equal to half of the total rent listed on the rent roll for the mobile home park divided by the number of days in that month. The license holder must prove each violation has been remedied and has satisfied all civil penalties assessed before the license holder’s license may be reinstated. The district court has discretion over the terms to be satisfied before a license is reinstated. If a license holder fails to comply with the terms of the district court’s order, the district court may revoke the holder’s license. All park tenants must be allowed to continue to reside in the mobile home park through the duration of the license suspension, unless the department of health and human services takes further disciplinary action against the license under chapter 23-10. During the period of suspension, the license holder or the license holder’s agent may not modify the park rules or regulations, modify any tenant’s rental arrangement, increase any tenant’s rental rate, or terminate any tenant’s lease without cause.
11. In a dispute between a landlord and a tenant under this section, the district court of the county in which the dispute arose has original jurisdiction over the dispute relating to the suspension of a license. For the recovery of civil damages under subsection 9, the tenant may elect to commence the action in small claims court or district court. If an action between a landlord and tenant is commenced, the tenant shall continue paying rent and comply with all park rules and regulations in effect at the time the action was commenced. During a pending action under this section, the license holder or the license holder’s agent may not modify the park rules or regulations, modify the tenant’s rental arrangement, increase a tenant’s monthly rental rate, or terminate a tenant’s lease without cause.