Although Tel-Law information is periodically reviewed, it is important for you to realize that changes may occur in this area of law. This information is not intended to be legal advice regarding your particular problem, and it is not intended to replace the work of an attorney.

If you do not have an attorney, the Oregon State Bar Lawyer Referral Service can help you. Online Lawyer Referral Service information and a fill-in form is available. Or you may contact the service by phone: The number to call from the Portland area is 503-684-3763 or toll-free from anywhere else in Oregon, 1-800-452-7636.

The following information regarding rules in mobile home parks and floating home facilities is brought to you as a public service by the lawyers of the State of Oregon. The material presented is general legal information intended to alert you to possible legal problems and solutions.

A landlord of a mobile home park (also called a manufactured dwelling facility) or floating home facility must have rules and regulations about how tenants use the rented space and park facilities. These rules and regulations do not need to be the same for all tenants at all times, so long as the rules are applied fairly. Your landlord may enforce a rule or regulation only if it promotes the convenience, safety, or welfare of the tenants; protects the landlord's property from abusive use; or helps all tenants have fair use of shared services and facilities. The rule or regulation must also meet all of the following criteria:

- The rule must be reasonably related to the purpose for which it is adopted, and it must be reasonably applied.

- The rule must be clear enough to inform the tenant fairly of what he or she must do or not do.

- The landlord may not impose the rule in order to avoid the landlord's obligations under the law.

These criteria allow your landlord some leeway in making and enforcing rules differently for different tenants. For example, your landlord might allow you to keep a woodpile on your carport because you have always kept the woodpile in an orderly manner. However, the same landlord might forbid your neighbor to have any woodpile, because this tenant has had a history of messy, unsightly woodpiles in his or her yard.

Manufactured dwelling and floating home facility landlords may also issue reasonable occupancy guidelines. If your landlord chooses to have such a rule, the rule must be based on reasonable factors. Such factors may include the size of the dwelling and that of the rented space. Other reasonable factors to consider would be any discriminatory impact on groups legally protected against discrimination based on race, color, sex, marital status, familial status, religion, and national origin, and limitations placed on utility services governed by a water or sewage permit.

If your facility landlord changes the rules to no longer allow pets, you may keep a pet already legally living with you at the time your landlord provides notice of the rule change. Furthermore, you can replace the pet with a pet similar to the one living with you at the time the landlord provided notice of the proposed change. However, new rules about the activities of pets apply to all pets in the facility, including those living in the facility before the new rule. If you entered into a rental agreement after October 31, 1997, your facility landlord may not charge you extra for having a pet. However, tenants who own pets and start renting facility space after that date must sign a pet agreement and carry insurance for the pet. A violation of the pet rules can result in a fine of up to $50 if the pet agreement allows a fine.

A manufactured dwelling or floating home facility landlord may propose rule changes, including those that greatly change the original agreement with a tenant. The landlord must simply give notice of the rule or regulation change to all tenants in the facility not already subject to the proposed rule. Unless a majority of tenants not already subject to the rule object in writing within 30 days of the date the notice was served, the change becomes effective for all tenants no less than 60 days after the date the notice was served by the landlord. One tenant per rented space may object to the proposed rule change, either by an individual written objection to the landlord or by signing a petition with other tenants. Sometimes a tenant may sign more than one petition or sign a petition and file a separate objection. In such cases, the tenant's most recent vote will count and the earlier ones will not.

This information is from the Oregon State Bar's Tel-law service, a collection of recorded legal information messages prepared by the lawyers of Oregon. In addition to being online, the Tel-law service is accessible by telephone at 503-620-3000 or toll-free in Oregon only, 1-800-452-4776. A touch tone phone allows direct access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To receive a free Tel-law brochure listing the subjects available call 503-620-0222, ext. 0.