State law expands right of owners of mobile homes to make counter-offers to buy land

A new state law expands the rights of owners of manufactured homes to remain at their property if their mobile home parks are put up for sale.

The new law stipulates that when the owner of a mobile home park decides to sell their land, the individual homeowners or homeowners association must first have a chance to make a counter-offer to match a prospective buyer's sale price. The homeowner would then have 60 days to notify the park owner that they plan to make an offer and 140 days to deliver that offer, the bill states.

Previously, the "first right of refusal" clause could only be invoked when the new owner certified an intent to change the use of the park's land after purchasing the property.

“By expanding when homeowners in manufactured home parks have a right of first refusal … we are helping to strengthen New York communities and continuing to provide New Yorkers with safe, stable, affordable homes," said Gov. Kathy Hochul, who signed the legislation for the law Thursday.

Assemb. Fred Thiele, a Sag Harbor Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said owners of mobile homes are at a "distinct disadvantage" in that they own their homes but don't own the land, which is leased from the park owner.

"Mobile home parks used to be a local and largely family-owned business," Thiele said. "And now they're being purchased by big real estate firms and the quality of services has really declined because of that. They're really absentee landlords."

Currently, 21.2 million Americans live in manufactured homes, representing 6.3% of the nation’s housing stock, according to federal statistics.

Mobile homes — technically manufactured homes secured to the ground — account for about 1% of all homes in Suffolk County, Newsday reported in 2020. There are 3,624 occupied mobile home units in 40 manufactured home communities in Suffolk, including in Amityville, Bohemia, Bay Shore, Riverhead, Calverton, Flanders, East Hampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays, Quogue and Northampton, records show.

In 2015, more than 300 mobile homes in the Frontier Mobile Home Park in Amityville were replaced with 500 apartments when the land was sold.

Syosset Mobile Home Park, the last mobile home community in Nassau, closed in 2016.

There are 192,890 manufactured housing units in New York State, making up 2.4% of the state’s total housing stock, according to the Rural Housing Coalition of New York.

Yvonne Maldonado, co-director of MHAction, an upstate advocacy group for mobile homeowners, said the new legislation "empowers manufactured homeowners to collectively purchase the property their homes sit on if it goes up for sale. This is a significant step forward in supporting homeowners in manufactured home parks, a crucial source of affordable housing in New York State."

In Suffolk, mobile homes are regulated by individual townships while zoning restrictions in Nassau towns and villages prohibit building any mobile home developments.

"This legislation is crucial because purchasing mobile home parks has become a very lucrative financial investment," said Gale Baldwin, secretary of the Manufactured Homeowners Association of Suffolk County. "Predatory buyers scoop up parks and raise the rents because there's limited or no legislation to stop them and then they basically give only the barest amenities. Over the last several years it has caused many people to lose their homes because they couldn't pay the exorbitant rents."

Additional legislation signed by Hochul on Wednesday authorized the State of New York Mortgage Agency to purchase mortgages and offer mortgage pool insurance for manufactured housing.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.