First, I would like to offer our very special thanks and appreciation to two MOTA members Florence Quast & Bill Rivers both have recently stepped down from their State Board positions.

Florence Quast has served on the State Board of Manufactured Housing as the MOTA representative since its inception in 1995.  Florence has just finished her 12th year of dedicated service to all those who have come before this board.  It is with deep appreciation that the MOTA Board of Directors wants to thank her for her many years of dedicated service.  She has served us well, thank you Florence.

Bill Rivers has served on the Manufactured Housing Installation Standards Board as one of MOTA’s representatives.  Bill has been a great asset to the MOTA Board of Directors as well as the Installations Standards Board, Bill’s strong beliefs of right and wrong, came through in his service.  It is our hope that Bill will keep up his great ability to further the understanding of the importance of proper and lawful installation of manufactured homes, thank you Bill.

Announcement – We would like to congratulate two of our members who have volunteered to step up and represent MOTA on two different State of New Hampshire Boards.  Both have received their official appointments from the Governor & Executive Counsel and the Commissioner of Safety.

• Our new representative as of June 2007 on the State Board of Manufactured Housing is Robert D. Hunt, Esq. of Robert D. Hunt P.A. in Gilford.
• Our new representative as of July 2007 on the Manufactured Installations Standards Board is Dave Stack of NHCLF in Concord.

Legislation – MOTA and the NHCLF have worked together on two bills this past session.  The first was SB218 which would have strengthened RSA 205-A22, was tabled, and we will try to bring it back in the next session.  The second bill was HB232 passed on the House Side and was sent to the Senate Commerce, Labor and Consumer protection committee.  On May 15, 2007 it was referred to committee.  Again, we hope to be able to work with the committee to bring this back in the next session.

We realize that there continue to be problems out there with unjustified rent increases.

There is one thing we need to impress upon all of you out there in “park land”.  Please, Please, Please, if you find your rent goes up $15.00 or more, we ask that you use the MCAP program. The MCAP program information can be printed from our website www.mota-nh.org or send us a written request with a stamped self addressed envelope enclosed which we will use to send you the MCAP program paperwork.

The Park Owners Association claim there have been only, six or so parks that have used the program and as far as they know, the process works.  I can only say that I know of only two parks that have used the program and not much has come out of it in favor if the tenants.

One solution that a park owner came up with was to lower the rent increase by $15.00 but they would loose curbside trash pick up.  They now have to go to dumpsters – this community is a 55 and older park?  The other park that we know used the program came away from the negotiations with nothing.

We know of a couple of parks that had large increases.  One in Meredith, NH could not get enough of the residents to sign onto the process of the MCAP program because they are TERRIFIED of retaliation.  The other park on the seacoast, a 259 unit senior citizens’ park, had a $39.00 a month increase.  The MCAP program states you need 51% of the tenants to sign onto the process, that means 130 households in this park need to sign up to go forward with the MCAP program; that is a tall order for a group of senior citizens.  The “retaliation” threat is very real in this case as well.

Tenants feel and realize that park owners have more money than “GOD” and, as a rule, can legally try and avoid any “complications” that RSA-205-A might create for them; thus creating the attitude that “why bother” we won’t win anyway.
We need our legislators to look at what is happening in our parks and know that they need to take their blinders off and help MOTA make 205-A count for something more.  Laws that in the end mean nothing if they do not feel safe to use them without loosing their homes, their peace of mind, and their dignity.

Reminder – The Manufactured Home Owners Association of America which is the national organization that MOTA-NH is a member of, is holding their annual meeting September 14 – 16, 2007 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.  If you will recall New Hampshire hosted the meeting last year and everybody that attended was very pleased with the experience.   We have placed more information about this year’s MHOAA annual meeting in this newsletter.

Best Regards
Lois Parris