Ohio Code 4781.16 – Display, sale, purchase, or brokerage of manufactured or mobile homes
(A) Except as provided in division (E) of this section, no person shall do any of the following:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 4781.16
- Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
- Business: includes any activities engaged in by any person for the object of gain, benefit, or advantage either direct or indirect. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- 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
- Manufactured home park: means any tract of land upon which three or more manufactured or mobile homes used for habitation are parked, either free of charge or for revenue purposes, and includes any roadway, building, structure, vehicle, or enclosure used or intended for use as a part of the facilities of the park. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Manufactured housing: means manufactured homes and mobile homes. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Manufactured housing broker: means any person acting as a selling agent on behalf of an owner of a manufactured home or mobile home that is subject to taxation under section 4503. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Manufactured housing dealer: means any person engaged in the business of selling at retail, displaying, offering for sale, or dealing in manufactured homes or mobile homes. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Manufacturer: means a person who manufacturers, assembles, or imports manufactured homes or mobile homes. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Salesperson: means any individual employed by a manufactured housing dealer or manufactured housing broker to sell, display, and offer for sale, or deal in manufactured homes or mobile homes for a commission, compensation, or other valuable consideration, but does not mean any public officer performing official duties. See Ohio Code 4781.01
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(1) Engage in the business of displaying or selling at retail manufactured homes or mobile homes or assume to engage in that business, unless the person is licensed as a manufactured housing dealer under this chapter, or is a salesperson licensed under this chapter and employed by a licensed manufactured housing dealer;
(2) Make more than five casual sales of manufactured homes or mobile homes in a twelve-month period without obtaining a license as a manufactured housing dealer under this chapter;
(3) Purchase a manufactured home directly from the manufacturer without obtaining a license as a manufactured housing dealer under this chapter;
(4) Engage in the business of brokering manufactured homes unless that person is licensed as a manufactured housing broker under this chapter or licensed as a real estate broker or salesperson pursuant to Chapter 4735 of the Revised Code.
(B)(1) Except as provided in this division, no manufactured housing dealer shall sell, display, offer for sale, or deal in manufactured homes or mobile homes at any place except an established place of business that is used exclusively for the purpose of selling, displaying, offering for sale, or dealing in manufactured homes or mobile homes.
(2) No manufactured housing broker shall engage in the business of brokering manufactured or mobile homes at any place except an established place of business that is used exclusively for the purpose of brokering manufactured and mobile homes.
(3) A place of business used for the brokering or sale of manufactured homes or mobile homes is considered to be used exclusively for brokering, selling, displaying, offering for sale, or dealing in manufactured or mobile homes even though industrialized units, as defined by section 3781.06 of the Revised Code, are brokered, sold, displayed, offered for sale, or dealt at the same place of business.
(4) If the licensed manufactured housing dealer is a manufactured home park operator, then all of the following apply:
(a) An established place of business that is located in the operator’s manufactured home park and that is used for selling, leasing, and renting manufactured homes and mobile homes in that manufactured home park is considered to be used exclusively for that purpose even though rent and other activities related to the operation of the manufactured home park take place at the same location or office.
(b) The dealer’s established place of business in the manufactured home park shall be staffed by someone licensed and regulated under this chapter who could reasonably assist any retail customer with or without an appointment, but such established place of business need not satisfy office size, display lot size, and physical barrier requirements applicable to other used motor vehicle dealers.
(c) The manufactured and mobile homes being offered for sale, lease, or rental by the dealer may be located on individual rental lots inside the operator’s manufactured home park.
(C) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting the sale of a new or used manufactured or mobile home located in a manufactured home park by a licensed manufactured housing dealer.
(D) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit persons licensed under this chapter from making sales calls.
(E)(1) This chapter does not apply to mortgagees selling at retail only those manufactured homes or mobile homes that have come into their possession by a default in the terms of a mortgage contract.
(2) When a partnership licensed under this chapter is dissolved by death, the surviving partners may operate under the manufactured housing dealer license for a period of sixty days, and the heirs or representatives of deceased persons and receivers or trustees in bankruptcy appointed by any competent authority may operate under the license of the person succeeded in possession by that heir, representative, receiver, or trustee in bankruptcy.