Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa House has approved legislation to require that mobile home park owners notify residents 90 days before increases in rent or utilities go into effect.
Under current law, there’s a 60-day notice period. Advocates for the renters and owners of manufactured housing say large corporations are buying mobile home parks around the country and raising the rents on lots to impossible heights. Representative Lindsay James, a Democrat from Dubuque, voted for the bill, but James says it should have limited rent increases.
Representative Amy Nielsen, a Democrat from North Liberty, says the bill offers crumbs to mobile home residents and she voted against it.
Representative Kenan Judge, a Democrat from Waukee, voted for the bill, but he says it only makes incremental changes and mobile home park residents deserve better.
Representative Brian Lohse, a Republican from Bondurant, led the development of the bill.
Lohse says the bill does include some new protections, like new rules that let tenants arrange to get running water to their home if the supply is cut off through no fault of their own and it specifies when mobile home park owners can access a home after the resident dies. A property tax break for the people who own or rent the homes in mobile home parks was removed from the bill.
This is the second time the House has passed a bill extending some new protections to mobile home park residents, but a bill on the topic has not passed the Senate.
