Right of FIrst Refusal UPDATE

After more than 20 years of it's original draft date, the Right of First Refusal has passed both the New York State Assembly and Senate and has been signed into law!.  This bill, 233-a, gives homeowners the right to match an offer to purchase their community if it were ever to go up for sale. 

Rolled in with this bill is the requirement for the park purchaser to wait at least 60 months (5 years) before the use of the land can be changed.  In other words, someone can not buy a park, change the use, and evict all the homeowners.  This has happened many times in the past.  PRHO has worked very closely with our state legislators to insure that your rights are being protected!

Please join us today and help us protect YOUR rights!

THANK YOU to all of our state lawmakers for their concerns regarding our issues and for the long awaited passage!

Rent Control UPDATE

Our organization is working with state lawmakers for a rent control bill (law) that protects your interests as homeowners. Four bills were introduced for the work session ending June 2007 and all of the bills are dead in the water. The problem with the bills are that they were drafted to give the court system the oversight of rent control. The bills also stated that it would be under Real Property Law 233, which is Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), and this is the where the problem is. Anything that is under RPL 233 is the jurisdiction of DHCR and not the courts. We also had problems with the bills as they were to vague and left homeowners with no protections such as capital improvement costs and how that would effect an increase, the ability to look at other regional rents from other parks to justify and increase ( what if another park in the area is $50 more?), and the fact that the park owner would be afforded the increase based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for housing for each individual area, such as 3%, when the park owner does not pay our housing costs. Now that would effect the homeowner as they not only pay the housing costs for the home in which they own, but would also pay, in a rent increase, the park owner for the same. A bit unfair, don't you think?! And we agree! There is a lot of work to get it right and we are up to the challenge.

Please take a moment to review the other bills in the State Assembly and Senate the effect you as a Park Resident Homeowner;

What is the Park Resident Homeowners Association? (PRHO)

Coming together and united under the Statewide Organization called the Park Resident Homeowners Association (PRHO), we are here to represent the more than 450,000 mobile / manufactured homeowners living in park communities throughout New York State have protection under the "Tenants Bill of Rights" and "Real Property Law Section 233".

PRHO works to create changes at the local and state level to benefit all residents of manufactured home community parks. PRHO interacts with the New York State Legislature and works hand-in-hand with the Attorney General and with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR).

PRHO sets up workshops to promote and organize Resident Homeowner Associations, which are protected by the State of New York. PRHO assists in promoting economic equity and community stability by helping homeowners create a cooperative to purchase their park. Across the country, park residents have been successful in taking action to organize and unite to form tenant owned and tenant controlled manufactured home communities.  By investing in their neighborhoods and establishing co-operative communities, homeowners have taken control of their lives.

PRHO helps to resolve problems with owners and managers through active communication.  PRHO also assists in getting help through local and state agencies, and has been instrumental in protecting homeowner's rights under the STAR Program.

The Park Resident Homeowners Association encourages you to discuss this information with your friends and neighbors. The problems you face are similar to those faced by manufactured park homeowners across the state and nation. PRHO has joined with other states as a member of the National Foundation of Manufactured Homeowners. PRHO is also a life time member of Federation of Mobile Home Owners of Florida, Inc. You can benefit from PRHO's experience. We hope that you will join PRHO  to show a strong, united front of manufactured park homeowners to park owners and law makers.